This will be a  2-day report.

Yesterday

After a great night in Dushanbe we headed out for the quick drive to the border with Uzbekistan.

The Tajikistan exit was extremely painless and all over in about 15 minutes. The great thing was we had expected it to be a busy border with lots of queuing and waiting. This was the quietest border except mountain pass borders I have been too.

The Uzbekistan border was going well with everything proceeding although slowly with it looking like a great experience. How quickly things can turn to crap around your ears. We had finished all the paper work and it was then time for the customs people to start, and did they start in a big way. I was the first car in the line so it was no time when the entire back of my car was spread out on the ground behind the car with three or four people going through everything in the first aid kit asking what each sheet of tablets was for and not just once for each sheet, but for every time a sheet was picked up the same question again and again. This whole process for me went on for meat least an hour and a half.

The main focus of the search seemed to be drugs, weapons and porn with people going through everything I owned including going through my Ipad and all the photos more then once.

The end came eventually when the boss bloke called off the search and I was free to go. The big problem was we think that as the border was quite they had nothing to do.

We eventually all got away from the border at 1.30pm for the drive to Qarshi for our overnight stop. With a couple of small geographical errors and a couple police checks requiring all the Passport data to be hand written in books that will most likely be never looked at again and crosschecked we arrived in town about ½ hour after dark.

For the last 3 days we have had no Alternator for battery charging and no time to fit the new belt from Dushanbe so our battery was getting low to run the lights well. Thanks to Garry who drove in front of me and Peter behind I didn’t switch on my light till a couple of block from the hotel.           On arrival at the hotel Maurie and I decided to fit the belt in the morning, as it was a short day to Samarkand.

I woke at 5.30 then woke up Maurie ready for the job. I had everything set up ready to start when he and Mitchel arrived at 6.00am. we reckoned we shoule be finished ready to leave soon after 8.00am so as not to hold up the rest of the group too long.

You are thinking why so long to fit an Alternator belt? Well on Penny the Alternator is driven from the back of the clutch so fitting the belt requires the removal of the gearbox and all the peddles then refitting them again. That is why the job had been delayed due time shortages and fatigue.

As we had removed the gearbox only 2 weeks ago in Hotan the process went like a F1 pit crew job. We all knew what each other had to do and the job was finished and packed up ready to for us to sit down at breakfast with the others at 7.15am.

It was so great leaving town this morning with all our electric running and not have stuff switched of because we need to save battery for the ignition.

The run up to Samarkand was a short 150ks with a quick stop for a cuppa to arrive at our Hotel for 10.30am.

We had a pre-booked city tour that we started at 11.30 to the main sites, which we broke up with a lunch stop.

After lunch I returned to the hotel for a rather large Poppy nap to catch up from some sleep after busy days at the steering wheel in all the mountains. I have woken from that rest felling like a new person and I’m catching upon the blog stuff.

For the last 2 day we have driven past thousands of acres of cotton with the harvest in full swing. In some fields there are 100’s of people all hand picking cotton

Till next time with Internet this is it. If we don’t have internet tomorrow night you wont get a report till we reach Atyrau in Kazakhstan on the 28^th September.

Today Reg. Mitchel, Maurie and I started at 5.30 just as it was getting light. The early start was caused by yesterday we had come across a guide on his return to Dushanbe and he had agreed to help us find the belt we need to get the Alternator working on Penny. He had told us that due to it being Sunday the shops closed at 4.00pm.

Since Khorugh we had been charging the battery each night from the Landcrusier then driving all day with minimal starts and no electronics running like the GPS.

From our overnight stop there was a choice of 2 routes to take to Dushanbe 285k’s away, so we chose the shortest way on the map. We had been told that is was a 5 to 6 hour trip. About 2 hours in we realized we may have chosen the wrong way as we had only cover 55ks making the drive at least a 10 hour drive, and hadn’t seen any Chinese truck like the day before.

Like most very bad roads the road quality was directly and inversely proportional to the scenery.

It was looking like we would even miss the shops in Dushanbe. After 170k of bed road with more great scenery we came to a nice paved road that look like it would last till the end. At this point we stoped for a break, only to find we had a small weep from our radiator that was fixed with some quick metal and 100mph tape. At the same time Reg and Mitchell discovered that their front tyre was going flat.

After the repairs it was of towards town only to find the pavement didn’t go the whole way to town. It was interspersed with sections of good gravel. All in all the road was to get good enough for us to arrive in Dushanbe just after 2.00pm

The guide Huseyn that we had meet the day before and I had been texting was at the hotel to meet us and take Reg and I to the market.

Huseyn was an absolute fantastic help because he took us to the car and machinery parts market and in 10 mins and 2 shops I had the belts that were exactly what I wanted and didn’t need to make something wrong fit then ten minutes later we had a new tyre for Reg the same brand that was fitted to his Landcruiser so all was good.

On the way back to the Hotel I decided that everyone was too tired after some long rough days and being a bit sick with not a lot of eating to fit the belt tonight. It’s a 3-hour job requiring the gearbox being unbolted to slide back so the belt can go over the clutch housing. Old car are not as simple as modern cars in that department.

That turned into a very wise choice as Dushanbe is a very modern city full ov very modern people and the boys had discovered an Irish bar selling Guinness and really nice food so it was the first good beer since departing Bangkok. Hence we will charge the car from Garry in the morning and do the change another day.

While the beer drinking was caught up on by the others I took the chance to catch up on the to days Blog missed and sorting some photos to include.

Dushanbe is a town that I would spend more time in should I ever return to Tajikistan as it is also a country I would like to look around at more especially more of the mountain areas.

Tomorrow we are off too Uzbekistan, and today was the end of the large rugged mountain scenery for the trip. The scenery will take on a different form of rugged from here.

We started the day from Khorugh with expectation with more of the day before with the mountains slightly lower and the valley a bit wider in the bottom.

Well that was it for the first 50K of the 230k drive to Khala-i-Khumb our overnight stay. The river had got wider and was flowing with less vigour. This was all only to lull us in a calm easy day of mildly rough roads.

Then “OMG”, the best way too describe it is the rock changed form soft rock to hard Rock and the walls of the valley just started to stand up to almost vertical at times on both sides with the tops nearly 1000 metres above us. The farming vanished totally from the Tajik side with only small pocket on the Afghan side. At the same time as all this was happening with the sides the river stated to head seriously down hill and for the next 180 kilometres the river was an endless set of wild rapids. This tight canyon continued on for the best part of 80 k of this with it just opening and closing on and off over the rest of the trip. The canyon was that tight and deep at time we were losing satellite reception for our GPS’s.

The 230k drive took a full 8.5 hour of driving time due to the condition of the road and the truck that use the road as a route from the capital to China.

At one stage of the day Frank and a truck had a little scrap together as the truck wanted all the road and frank couldn’t get any closer to the cliff. The truck was totally in the wrong as when we arrived we drove around the outside of him as he was well on franks side. The driver however gave Frank 150 Somoni for the damage, which is about $25AUD so a bit short, but all he was going to get.

The amazing thing with the farms on the Afghan side of the river was that most had no road access just a donkey track along the river and cut in to the cliff face to trave from community to community. Some of this cliff side track you need a good head for heights and skinny ledges.

The drive down this gorge made the trip into Tiger Leaping Gorge pale into distant memories and sort if overpowers all the great gorge drives I’ve been lucky enough to do in the past.

I’ve driven longer rough roads in the past but not with the sort of backdrop of this one.

The day ended at this absolutely glorious home stay. We where served the best homestay spread dinner at an outside eating area. Everyone was disappointed for the hosts as we could not do the meal justice and finish it due to the amount and variety we were served.

The sleeping arrangements consisted of mattress’s on the floor in three rooms a bit like a school camp including Frank starting a pillow fight at bed time.

I have included many photos but I’m sorry that I can’t convey in Photos what is in my heart from yesterday.

Today is a rest day in Khorugh, and just as well for a few people in the group.

We arrived in town after yesterday’s fantastic drive down the river, expecting to arrive in a town with a large police and military presence and very traditional dress codes for the resident in this part of the world. Considering the events that had almost stoped our visit at the time of Visa applications.

What a surprise to find a town with the young people dressed in a lot of very modern western clothes and not at all the traditional cover of arms, legs and hair

The manager of the company that did all our booking for accommodation meet us too check our satisfaction with all the arrangements so far and showed us one of the best restaurants in town for Dinner last night. That however has turned out to be a bit of a disaster for a three of our group getting very sick in the middle of the night and 2 more going down today. So all in all the rest day was most handy for the sick and infirm.

It gave me a chance to get a local data card for my Ipad too get all the previous blog posts out as you know.

First thing this morning Maurie and I filled with fuel, and got oil before making arrangements for grease, oil and filter change along with and check over from the rough roads of the last few days on Penny.

After the service the morning was spent getting the blog up to date intermingled with emails about getting my gearbox cleared into Uzbekistan. The long shot of that looks like we wont be able to clear our gearbox till the 4^th of Oct, which is a week and a half after we leave Uzbekistan. I have advised my agent in Uzbekistan to get the box returned to the sender. We have done 2000 tough Kilometres on the box since our fix in Hotan. We have checked it twice as well as today and we feel that the fix will get us to Helsinki. The truth of the mater is that if we cant get our box in Uzbekistan by next Tuesday it has to get us to Helsinki. Lets keep our fingers crossed.

The healthy amongst us ate at a nice place overlooking the river so it will be the Go for tonight for the people ready to put the nosebag on.

Late in the afternoon Frank and I went for a drive to get everyone bottled water for tomorrow and Penny decided to present me with a minor challenge. The alternator light came on so upon investigation I found that the Alternator drive belt had broken so for the next couple of days we wont get a charge and swap batteries with Frank’s Landcruiser till we can get a belt in Dushanbe

An update early in the morning before posting and departure!

The health of the groups is that dreaded whatever has got a couple more of us including me. I’m up  early so I’ll get  this out before we head off for the day.

Till next time with some more photos thank you all t  are enjoying the blog.