iLB's ride to India ...progress report...

[ianrauk]

Day 113 Nukus Karakalpakistan

There need to be some perks to these 04.45 alarms to beat the heat. (Andy has been heading out at 5am to get 100km's by miday so then to get out of the sun)

At the end of my first full day riding in Uzbekistan, I have never been so happy to join a queue of guys washing with a hosepipe. It was a straight 140km ride between towns without a single building or feature on the landscape to distract from the intense desert heat and head wind.

After a morale boosting chat with an Italian hitchiker I set off again only to find I had sheared a bolt supporting my rear rack under the load of the additional water I have been carrying. Attempts to repair it road side were futile and the as the road had again deteriorated I didn't want to risk further damage. After some waving down a car and some negotiating I had a ride to the nearest town and managed to drill out the offending bolt the next morning.

A ship in a very dry dock at the town of Moynaq, Karakalpakistan. Unbelievably this town was on the coast of the Aral Sea only 50 years ago and once had a thriving fishing industry. The Aral has no retreated over 150km and shrunk dramatically leaving only a graveyard of former fishing boats on the outskirts of town.

 

[Hill Wimp]

Superb.
Brilliant thread, keep going and be safe.

 

[iLB]

Wow, this really is a beautiful online community. Thank you to all.

Tomorrow I will head south towards Khiva and then back across the desert to Bukhara and beyond.

Some further storm clouds on the horizon in that the already difficult Chinese visa process may have become impossible. Waiting for confirmation from a couple of visa agencies at the moment. Forcing considerations of plan B to hitchhike back to blighty, or plan C to fly to Australia. Or plan D...

 

[hatler]

Kyrgyzstan, then fly to India, then carry on pedalling ?

 

[ianrauk]

Day 115

Ascending the switchbacks to Signagi in eastern Georgia of course I had to jump off and scramble through the undergrowth to snap this

 

[iLB]

https://andrewcater.wordpress.com/2016/07/14/not-all-plain-sailing/

 

[ianrauk]

Day 118 Khiva, Uzbekistan.

A morning stroll in the old city of Khiva before the sun hits full strength.

 

[ianrauk]

Day 122 Still in Bukhara, Azerbaijan

Pulled through another stint in the Kyzylkum desert, three days at 115km, 140km and 170km and all the while enduring heat of 40°C and above. Hopefully a good sign that the legs will have some form when I hit the mountains of Tajikistan late next week.

 

[ianrauk]

Day 123 Still in Bukhara

Dawn in the Kyzylkum desert, the only time the heat is vaguely tolerable.
The stiffness and lack of sleep meant I didn't think I would make the 180km to Bukhara in one day as hoped- but after a siesta in the middle of the day I felt refreshed enough to give it a crack.
The sunset over my right shoulder with about 30km to go. Lights flicked on and the road condition continued to decline and for the third time in two weeks I sheared a rear rack bolt. 10km from my goal I managed to flag down a truck to carry me over the line.
Fingers crossed the new rack will arrive from the UK today, and I can find a drill to drill out the snapped bolt again.

 

[ianrauk]

Current bodge job

 

[Flying Dodo]

Hope he ordered a cable crimp as well!

 

[ianrauk]

Hope he ordered a cable crimp as well!

It was noticed....

 

[Tim Hall]

Never mind that, have ilb and Romain Bardet been seen in the same room together? He says he's riding to India. I reckon he's sprinting his way up an Alp.

Spoiler

And getting onto the podium

 

[iLB]

Hope he ordered a cable crimp as well!

 

[hatler]

Day 122 Still in Bukhara, Azerbaijan

Pulled through another stint in the Kyzylkum desert, three days at 115km, 140km and 170km and all the while enduring heat of 40°C and above. Hopefully a good sign that the legs will have some form when I hit the mountains of Tajikistan late next week.
View attachment 135667

Uzbekistan, surely.