Sun, sand & steppes

Its been a while and we have been up to a lot - Now in Tashkent, Uzbekistan after a long hot drive across the steppe deserts of Turkmenistan and Uzbek itself. Iran was a real culture shock at first, having to wear the hejab, the heat, everyone so damn friendly and naturally the conspicuous lack of booze. However we settled in nicely and had two great weeks touring central and southern Iran. Our path blocked to the desert by the authorities (sadly - although perhaps not as it was scorching 50+) the area we had chosen being a resticted zone), this gave us plenty of opportunity to explore Iran's undoubtedly fantastic sites in Kashan, Esfahan and Shiraz, getting quite used to comfy hotels out of the searing heat. In Esfahan we were taken out to dinner by Mohammed Reza and friends to the roof of Esafhan to look out over the city and gorge on kebab (what a surprise) and pepsi. The highlight of those two weeks a great two days through the Zagros mountains, on a rocky mountain track in the B'akhtiari nomad tribal region. An edgy bush camp first night tho, distbured at 3am by 3 men and a gun. Unfortunately the pretend your asleep tactic didnt work, and after we spotted a rifle concealed behind our questioners back through the roof tents window, realised we would have to go out and confront them - queue a confused conversation, me in English, them in Farsi, until my repeated 'tourist, tourist' and 'is it ok to camp here' in my best Farsi (with help from the phrasebook) seemed to placate them and they left us alone. Perhaps it was our proximity to the Iraq border (under 100k's away) or just the fact that they see little tourists in the region the reason for their suspicions. Anyway no harm done and next day we continued our way through impressive dry mountain scenery and friendly nomad villages, with most of the locals we met trying to tell us to turn around protesting that the road ahead was too bad (one pair even following us several km's up a pass on their motor bike to tell us so). After we convinced them that the cruiser was strong enough for the job, we were provided with a useful hand drawn map and even more useful farsi names to show to locals further on, and enjoyed a very long day until springing our first puncture just a few miles from the black top. After that little interlude we headed to Shiraz, luckily a tour guide found us wandering aimlessly and showed us a lot of the city not in the guide book, also sampling the famous dizzi (stew) that we were starting to think was yet another Lonely Planet myth. The Ancient ruins of Persepolis next day very impressive, glad we got there at the crack of dawn as it was flag cracking hot!!!! Then on to the lovely town of Yazd, home to the 400 BC fire, on the edge of the desert. With the temperature at around 40C in Yazd didnt do too much but laze around our very comfortable hotel and chat with some backpackers and bikers. Two days later were back in Tehran to pick up Turkmen visas. Spent a night camping in the woods in the cool and quite tropical looking Caspian coast region, then at the border with Turkmenistan having failed to make it through before the ridiculous border closing time of 3.30pm. Next day an easy in to Turkmenistan, and onto to very hot Ashgabat - 45C - our first act, predictably, getting the beers in. Ashgabat a weird anondyne town, one half of which seems to be built entirely in the honour of the country's despot ruler Turkmenbashi, full of naff gold statues (one that rotates with the sun) and pictures of the great man on each street corner. After a night enjoying the beer and watching the footie (and the flesh as after Iran it was mad to see half naked ladies parading around), made it out into the desert on our transit route across the country. A good bash through the dunes (low vegetated dunes - Azuri is the Saharan term) before a very hot bush camp first night - temp maybe as high as 50C that day - at night we resorted to pouring (hot) water on us in a vain attempt to keep cool, even the breeze, like a hair dyer, not helping much. You can buy a bottle of water wait three hours put a tea bag in it and call it a cuppa! Still the sunset over the flat steppe truly stunning, much like being at sea. Next day crossed the bulk of the Karakam desert taking the odd detour off the road (a thin tarmac strip with dunes encroaching) for some fun in the dunes. Mercifully a fair bit of cloud cover that day which kept the heat down, and a great bush camp in Northern Turkmen where we discovered our roof tent provides an excellent game viewing platform after camping with a family of ground squirrels.

An easy in to Uzbek after seeing the ruins at Konyeurgench, and after much debate decided not to take the 500km cul de sac to the Aral sea, camping instead in a strip of Tugai forest in the delta of the Amu Dayra. A night in the once much feared town of Khiva, the rulers of not that long ago liking especailly cruel forms of capital punishment, like impalement. Met some nice Germans on motor bikes and we planned on camping with them in the desert...then they fell mysteriously ill after a long night on the beers...Khiva was okay - a bit manicured and touristy for us so onto Bukhara, after a night camping by the banks of the Amu Dayra (better known in the west as the Oxus). Bukhara much the same as Khiva (boring), met a brit which we think we poisoned with the bacon sarnie we served up...hmm a recurring them so far in Uzbek - we poison the tourists, bunch of lightweights. Moving on to another Silk Road city - Samarkand next day. Actually were thinking of camping and missing Samarkand but with the serious lack of diesel on the way we were concerend if we didn't stop in Samarkand to fuel up we might run out on the way. The Registan is nice, although the numerous souvenier shops dull the experience. The bazzar was where the action was, eating snack foods (similar to the famous cornish pasty)and supping cool piva's watching the wheels and deals. Then there was the game.....eek.

Next up speeding off to Tashkent, actually made it crawling as we had to stop at every gas station in the HOPE they had that rare nectar disel. When we arrived in Tashkent we had a dribble left and our very friendly host (nice groping hands) Ali reassured us over many shots of vodka we would have no problem getting some in the morning, he was clearly VERY pissed as we had no luck the next day finding even a drop. Next day more promises of diesel (unfound), so we were sceptical especially when our driver headed off for a walk in the park to look at the flowers..mate that is not where diesel comes from...however we were too quick to judge as it is in Tashkent, back he trotted with a garden lorry in tow - fuel siphoned out of the tank and we were back in business...very black market and a mouthfull of diesel to boot, him not us.

Moved Hotels as the endless shots of vodka and beer, yes even for us old soaks, became too much. Holed up in a lovely spot with a pool chilling to the max, not, as we are having to rush around getting photos taken, visas, dhl packages etc in the searing heat. Ha not that bad though all part of the fun..aye maties... Uzbek not a country we would reccomend, bit russified, bit crap really...we are glad we got into Iran but wish we had picked up a magic carpet there to fly us over this section. Next up the mountains, at last, and what promises to be the highlight of this first section of the trip, the Pamir highway in Tajikistan and the Wakhan corridor on the Tajik / Afghan border - a truely remote mountain region full of bad tracks, beatiful scenery, hopefully not too many bad people and hopefully some real adventure - the main reason we have come this way. Then onto China briefly - our time limited by permit constraints - more mountain passes, then into Pakistan by middle of August. We will update again from high in the mountains, internet connections permitting.

Photos are of the bazaar at Samarkand, a hot Tom in the desert, us in brighton beach pose in Samarkand, nomads in the Zagros mountains and the ruins at Persepolis.

Hope all well at home - Tom & Cadie.