Existing in the middle of the desert for over 5,000 years, the ancient city of Yazd still retains its original city core, with a twisting maze of mud-brick buildings and passages that feel like a time warp. We checked in…
Into the deserts of Iran
Crossing the frontier between Turkmenistan and Iran was a lot less fraught than entering Turkmenistan. A few hours of standard checks and processes, and we entered into country number 17. There’s a low range of mountains that form the natural…
Turkmenistan, the “North Korea of Central Asia”
Approaching the border between Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, I was more nervous than I had been at any other point in the trip. Not only does Uzbekistan have long and fairly arduous border processes, but we were arriving into Turkmenistan (known…
Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan’s desolate northwest
Away from the ‘big three’ tourist cities of Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva, Uzbekistan has a different side. We headed north from Khiva towards the Kyzyl Kum desert, to explore the ancient khanate of Khorezm. Around 50 kilometres north, surrounded by…
Khiva, a city locked in time
Hitting the road again, ever westward, we moved into the empty stretches of the Kyzyl Kum desert. It’s 450 kilometres from Bukhara to Khiva, along a bumpy road lined with back-breaking potholes – although there’s brand new tarmac under construction…
Bukhara, once the ‘Pillar of Islam’
A flat, featureless but fast road takes you between Samarkand and Bukhara, second of the ‘big three’ tourist cities in Uzbekistan. Here, much more of the old town (some dating back to Samanid dynasty of the 9th and 10th centuries)…
Into Uzbekistan, to Samarkand
We entered Uzbekistan, taking a few hours at the border for a detailed (but not over-the-top like China) search on the Uzbek side. Once free, we made our way through the rolling hills. Cotton is the staple crop here, although…
Finishing the Pamir Highway, to Dushanbe
After a well-earned rest day in Khorogh, we continued north and west along the Pamir Highway, shadowing the Pyanj River, which forms the border with Afghanistan. In some places there were stretches of sand that resembled beaches – if the…
The Wakhan Valley
At the eastern edge of the Wakhan Valley, we awoke in the charming village of Langar, and took a walk around before getting back on the motorbikes. On the cliff faces above the village, a sweat-inducing hour hike, are…
The Pamir Highway
Technically the Pamir Highway runs from Osh, in Kyrgyzstan, all the way through the eastern half of Tajikistan and ends in Mazar-e-Sharif in Afghanistan – but the most famous part for overlanders is the stretch between Osh and Khorogh in…