Daniel Moser

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Daniel Moser has contributed 155 entries to our website, so far.

Day 42: Visit to Iskanderkul

May 4, 2017

Iskanderkul is a very beautiful mountain lake that is located at an altitude of 2200 m. It is only a short 24 km detour from the main road linking the Zarafshan Valley with Dushanbe, so we decided to cycle up to this lake today and enjoy the afternoon there.

Steep climb

Last night we spent in a small village on 1650 m, so we expected a climb of only 550 m today. After a few kilometers on the main road we entered a remote valley and found ourselves on only partially paved roads. There were several small villages along the route through that valley up to Iskanderkul, mainly in the first half of the track. There, we did not gain a lot of altitude as the valley floor was still quite wide. But after the last village, the road started climbing like crazy. I could very well use the low gears of my Pinion transmission, mainly I was in the 1st gear. Even like that, it was at times very hard to climb with my heavy bike through unpaved roads with loose rocks. In addition, we realized that the climb actually is 750 m instead of 550 m because there was a small pass in between the main road and the lake. So instead of an easy 24 km ride today, we were quite tired when we arrived at the lake and we were happy that we did not have to cycle any more today. But on the other hand, we are all very happy we took the detour up to this lake, because the scenery on the way up was simply breathtaking.

Relaxing afternoon

After a small lunch, we mainly spent the afternoon at the campground. There was plenty of time for enjoying the scenery, setting up our tents, doing laundry, doing bike maintenance, and even for a short 30 s swim in the very cold lake. Tomorrow we hope that the weather will still be nice so we can explore a bit the area that consists of several small lakes and mountain peaks of up to 5490 m.

Detailed Track

Total distance: 26.92 km
Max elevation: 2380 m
Min elevation: 1657 m
Total climbing: 873 m
Total descent: -340 m
Total time: 03:48:54

Day 41: Through the Alps of Tajikistan

May 3, 2017

Today was one of the days I was looking forward most when planning my bicycle tour. We crossed the Turkestan Range of the Fann Mountains via the Shahriston Pass and then climbing again the Zarafshon Range towards Dushanbe. In perfect weather, we were rewarded with fantastic views in deep valleys and up the rock walls of deep gorges.

Cold Morning

Last night on the “container”-farm on 1900 m was not as relaxing as I hoped. First, the farmer’s dog had the need to defend his territory the whole night by barking at whatever moved outside, and second, it got quite cold inside the metal container so it was not too comfortable for sleeping. Therefore we only got up shortly before 8:00. We had a quick breakfast in the morning sun and then left at around 9:00 to climb the remaining 1000 m to the pass – or that’s what we thought at the time.

Chinese Tunnel through the Mountain

Lucie and I were very motivated to actually use the old road that leads over the pass at more than 3300 m instead of the newly built tunnel. But when approaching the junction where we had to choose between going for the tunnel and over the pass, we saw that there is simply still too much snow in the mountains and the road is most likely covered with snow. Not the best preconditions for my heavy trekking bike. In addition, we saw that the road actually was officially closed.

As a logical consequence, we decided to use the 4.2 km long tunnel. And actually the tunnel entrance was already at 2600 m, and not at 3000 m as I thought. A pleasant surprise. This tunnel has been built by the Chinese and after the horrible tunnels in Iran, it was very relaxing to use this tunnel. It had proper lighting, was very wide, the surface was in excellent conditions, and there was also not a lot of traffic. Nevertheless, I still tried to get through the tunnel as quickly as possible because the air inside is not the best. After about 15-20 minutes we reached the exit of the tunnel which was actually 100 m higher than the entrance.

Descending into Zarafshan Valley

After climbing 2500 m in the past two days, we now could collect our reward: A descent of 1400 m into the Zarafshan Valley. For about 20 km our legs could relax and our fingers were challenged with the usage of the breaks. It was extremely beautiful to slowly descend from Alpine climate with snowy peaks through various geological layers down to a fertile and green valley.

Once arrived in Khushekat in the valley, we filled our energy reserves with ice cream, Snickers, Mars, etc. Then we decided to continue our route south towards Dushanbe for another 30 km.

Climbing again on the other side

Tomorrow we want to visit Iskanderkul, a small but very beautiful lake in the middle of the mountains with an official campground next to the lake. This lake is a small detour from the route to Dushanbe but from what I heard definitely worth a visit. In order to have more time tomorrow at the lake, we therefore left Zarafshan Valley towards south again and proceeded 30 km into the mountains through a very impressive gorge that was carved by the Fan Darya River into the loose rocks. Even though it looked very majestically, it was kind of scary to cycle through this narrow gorge because a land slide or falling rocks had to be expected at any time. Only after 30 km the valley got a little bit wider and we found a village named Zarafshon, where we found first a small bar to get a well-deserved beer after a day full of impressions, and then also a small guest house where we could take a more or less decent shower and have a bed again for one night, before spending the night tomorrow on the campground at Iskanderkul lake.

Detailed Track

Total distance: 78.46 km
Max elevation: 2718 m
Min elevation: 1401 m
Total climbing: 1968 m
Total descent: -2242 m
Total time: 08:02:20

Day 40: Visiting Istvarashan and climbing Shahriston Pass

May 2, 2017

After a morning of running errands (Tajik SIM Card, changing money) and visiting the Bazar and an old mosque of Istvarashan, we started climbing the Shahriston Pass after lunch. There were still more than 2000 altitude meters to climb from Istvarashan, so it was clear that we would not reach the pass in only half a day, but that we would climb half of the pass today and then do the rest tomorrow.

Istvarashan

Being located at the foot of the Fann Mountains, the scenery around Istvarashan is simply beautiful. It is a combination of mountain city, green fields, trees, and stunning snow-covered peaks of more than 5000 m altitude. The city itself is not really a tourist destination, however it still has its charm because you basically meet only locals in the streets and you can observe well how their life is. As in every new country, first I had to organize a SIM card with Internet so I can keep my blog up to date. This went more or less easily as two locals were helping us with it. Also, changing Euros into Tajik Somoni was no big deal. Compared to Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan where money is basically changed on the black market, we actually went to a bank and changed money for the official rate.

After running those errands we visited an old mosque and then headed back to last night’s host’s house to prepare our cycling today.

Climbing 1000m

Our goal today was to climb in total 1000m which is half of what we need to climb in total for Shahriston Pass. The road was good and we made good progress. We reached today’s altitude goal after 4 hours of climbing and then we saw a nice grass field where we wanted to put up our tent. Unfortunately, there was an army base right next to the field and they were not very happy to have tourists camping in front of their base, so we had to move to a location on the other side of the valley. There we spotted a very simple farm and we asked the owner if we are allowed to camp on his land. He approved, but suggested that we sleep inside his one-room “container”-farm (see picture). We happily accepted because it already got quite chilly outside once the sun disappeared behind the mountains. We then all cooked some pasta together, had some tea and went to sleep at a very decent hour as there is not much to do up here (except writing a blog post on the laptop).

Tomorrow we will have to climb another 1000 m, followed by a 1500 m descent down. After this pass we are still have however one similar pass to cross until we reach Tajikistan’s capital: Dushanbe.

Detailed Track

Total distance: 46.44 km
Max elevation: 1923 m
Min elevation: 908 m
Total climbing: 1352 m
Total descent: -337 m
Total time: 05:26:38

Day 39: First impressions of Tajikistan

May 1, 2017

Today we finally crossed the border to Tajikistan after an unwanted detour of 260 km and followed the Uzbek border down another 40 km, this time on the Tajik side. Today’s goal was to get as close to the Fann Mountains as possible so we can start the first day of the ascent to the Shahriston pass (3378 m) tomorrow.

Border Crossing

When we read online about border crossing out of Uzbekistan, we expected the worst, as there have been plenty of reports that travelers had to unpack all their bags and had problems with medications that were brought along. But these worries were unfounded. Both the Uzbek and the Tajik borders were very efficient, and we were able to fulfill all the customs formalities in around one hour.

First impressions of Tajikistan

Tajikistan is the poorest country in Central Asia which is due to its Civil War a few years back as well as its mountainous topography and lack of natural resources compared to its neighbors. I was told that in some areas the unemployment is around 60% and many young people have to leave the country in order to find work.

The first impression of Tajikistan however was not much different from rural Uzbekistan. People were farming with simple means, waving their hands when we passed and are very open to meet strangers. The only difference between Uzbekistan that I noticed immediately: We spotted many used Mercedes and Opel cars on the road and also a delivery car with German text on the back of it. These cars date for sure from before year 2000, so here is where our cars go after 20+ years.

When refilling our gasoline bottles of our camping cookers at a gas station, a guy wanted to know how much my bicycle cost. I told him $1000, which is a high amount for Central Asia. He then started to laugh and told me that his Mercedes cost only $1000, so why would he buy a bicycle. Well, he makes a good point.

Hospitality in Tajikistan

When we arrived at Istaravshan towards the evening, we were looking again for a family to stay with or at least put up our tents in their garden. I was very much for staying at some people’s places because I haven’t been able to take a proper shower for the last 4 days.

Just like in Iran, we started talking to some older people in the streets, and it took 1 minute until an older man invited us to stay at his house. We had a wonderful evening there and were offered dinner and everything else that we needed. The hospitality of the Tajik people is not any different from the neighboring countries in Central Asia.

Luckily the old man’s 18 years old grandson and one of his school mates spoke good English so we could actually communicate. They told us a lot about the perspective of the youth in Tajikistan and that in the recent years many young people started to learn English to have a perspective in life in the sense of being admitted to universities abroad and maybe also find work. The grandson told me that he would apply for a green card in the US, and also wanted to know if it were possible to work in Switzerland or other European countries. It is really touching to see that the young people are very motivated to study and work and at the same time sad to see that it is so hard for them to do so due to political and financial obstacles.

Tomorrow we will go see the city of Istaravshan in the morning and then start with the Sharishton pass. We most likely will not climb the 2400 m in one day, so we will camp somewhere in the middle.

Detailed Track

Total distance: 101.88 km
Max elevation: 894 m
Min elevation: 291 m
Total climbing: 971 m
Total descent: -382 m
Total time: 09:47:22

Day 38: Reaching the currently open border crossing

Apr 30, 2017

The past 3 days of cycling had one purpose: To reach one of the two border crossings that are open for tourists because the preferred border crossing near Samarqand is closed for some years already. We chose to cross at Oybek, which is close to Uzbekistan’s capital Tashkent. The other one would have been in the south of the country.

Mountain Panorama

The one positive thing about our rather long detour was the impressive panorama of the Fann Mountains. Due to excellent visibility today, we could see the peaks from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan during our ride. In two days we will be cycling through these mountains and see them close-up.

This wonderful mountain panorama also reduced our suffering from the strong head wind a little. The wind really was not our friend today. During the last 40 km to the border crossing it was constantly blowing into our face.

Search for accommodation

As we figured out yesterday in Hovos, looking for a place to sleep in a border town is not so easy because of the military and police presence, and because officially it is not allowed to camp or sleep at people’s home. Today we had the same task here in Oybek. But since Lucie joined us again and she’s the expert for this, we were rather quick with finding someone who allowed us to sleep in his garden. It was a retired Russian teacher with his wife, a retired mathematics teacher. We had tea and some snacks in his garden, but this time they literally offered us what we were asking for and not more. This means that we did not have any dinner tonight. But what’s more important is that we have found a safe place to sleep.

Leaving Uzbekistan tomorrow

Because it was already late in the afternoon, we decided not to cross today to Tajikistan. But being only 1 km away from the border crossing, it will most likely be the first thing we do tomorrow morning. It will be a relief to finally crossing the border after having followed it today for the whole day.

Detailed Track

Total distance: 78.8 km
Max elevation: 368 m
Min elevation: 285 m
Total climbing: 393 m
Total descent: -450 m
Total time: 06:57:50

Day 37: Approaching the Tajik border

Apr 29, 2017

After a very relaxing and pleasant night and a nice breakfast, we left from Alec’s home. Today we only planned to cycle 85 km to Hovos so that we can reach the Tajik border comfortably the following day.

Wonderful cycling conditions

While yesterday we had to fight a lot against the wind, today the wind was very weak and sometimes even came from the back, easing our ride a little. In addition, we had beautiful weather allowing us to spot several mountain peaks above 5000m of the Fann Mountains in neighboring Tajikistan. In a few days we will cross those mountains and see those peaks from much closer.

Search for accommodation

Very often we were lucky when looking for accommodation and after a few minutes there was always someone who invited us into their home. Unfortunately this did not work out today in Hovos. Hovos in a border city, only 1 km away from the Tajik border, and things are a bit more tense here than elsewhere in the country. One guy that wanted to help us went with us to the police post. The officers were very friendly but told us, as a tourist we must stay in a hotel. It is forbidden in Uzbekistan to camp or stay at local people’s home. The next hotel however is around 40 km away, and there was for sure not enough time until sunset to reach it, besides it would have been in the wrong direction. So we assured the police officer that we would go to this hotel, but in reality we left town and set up our tent on farm land nearby which at the time of arrival was empty.

What we did not know is that all farmers will return their animals to this land in the evening, so one hour after installing ourselves between some concrete walls which were in the middle of this land, we had to move our stuff, but luckily only 100 m away. In the end we found a beautiful spot for camping and could watch the even more beautiful sunset while setting up our tent.

Detailed Track

Total distance: 87.39 km
Max elevation: 432 m
Min elevation: 355 m
Total climbing: 420 m
Total descent: -431 m
Total time: 07:39:59

Day 36: The green side of Uzbekistan

Apr 28, 2017

Uzbekistan so far has not impressed me at all with very repetitive landscapes with some hundreds of kilometers going through semi-dry flats. But after Samarqand, Uzbekistan changes. First you see beautiful green hills and impressive mountains in the east. The land is very fertile here, there are forests, grassland as far as you can see and plenty of water everywhere.

Cycling towards the Tajik border

Around 240 km separated us in Samarqand from one of the two border crossings which are actually open for tourists. There used to be a crossing 40 km east of Samarqand, however that border crossing is closed already for several years due to political issues between the two countries. Therefore we have to cycle some additional kilometers along the Tajik border in order to find a crossing that will actually let us pass.

The advantage of this route is that we will be following the Fann Mountains (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fann_Mountains) to their north entrance and then we can cross them completely from North to South towards Dushanbe, Tajikistan’s capital. We will cross two passes above 3000m and the mountains are supposed to be very beautiful.

Strong winds

Even though the scenery was very beautiful and after a day of rain the weather was beautiful again and rather cool with up to 17° C, which is perfect for cycling, the wind was definitely not on our side. As in the past days in Uzbekistan the wind came from easterly directions and hence was blowing us right in the face, and today with quite some strength. This slowed us down quite a bit, but luckily the terrain overall descended during the day so this compensated a little the head wind.

Another family dinner

It is almost no news anymore, but I mention it here anyway: When arriving in a small village close to Jizzax and next to a small artificial lake, we were immediately greeted by some locals and when asking them where we could put up our tent for the night, he immediately invited us to dinner and to stay at his place.

We seem to slowly enter the Vodka region. After already been offered Vodka for lunch on the road, there was also a full bottle on the dinner table and it was impossible to avoid drinking at least some of it. But since everybody drank in reasonable portions, nobody was drunk and we had a wonderful evening with the family.

Detailed Track

Total distance: 104.14 km
Max elevation: 802 m
Min elevation: 323 m
Total climbing: 871 m
Total descent: -1226 m
Total time: 09:47:40

Day 35: Exploring Samarkand

Apr 27, 2017

After three days of cycling, we left the bikes at the hostel today and went exploring the historic city of Samarkand, once one of the greatest cities of Central Asia due to the strategic location along the Silk Road.

Bad weather for once

Last night there was heavy rain here in Samarkand, and the morning started very cloudy and the temperatures were much lower than yesterday. In general this is good for sightseeing, but for photography some sunshine would be nice. And even though we thought the weather is going to improve in the afternoon, actually the opposite was the case and starting late afternoon rain set in.

A handful of sights

Even though Samarkand is a very old city, the number of actual sights is not too high. Basically there is the Gur-e Amir Complex that we already visited yesterday, then the famous Registan area with several Madrasahs that are quite well preserved, and the impressive bazar where you can buy basically almost everything from fruits and vegetables to bike repair parts, electronics, and so on. It took us a bit more than half a day to visit all of these sights, the rest of the afternoon we spent relaxing around our hostel as the weather was not inviting at all to be outside.

International dinner

As Lucie with her German / Belgian friends also arrived in Samarkand and we met Mateusz from Poland and his German friend in our hostel, we went for dinner in a typical Uzbek restaurant with a group of seven. We basically had salads, soups and of course Shashlik, the grilled meat. Also we tried some more Uzbek wines, but as the wines we tried in Bukhara they were not comparable to the wines we can buy in Western Europe. And to finish the experience we had a shot of Vodka.

On the road again starting tomorrow

The next three days we have to cycle around 260 km again to reach the border to Tajikistan. In theory, there is a border crossing only around 40 km from Samarkand, however that one is closed already for several years so we won’t even try to get in there and take the additional 200 km. After that we will spend between 40-45 days in Tajikistan in the mountains, which will definitely be the highlight of my bike tour.

Day 34: Finally reaching Samarqand

Apr 26, 2017

After spending the night at a drunk guy’s home we needed to cycle around 90 km to finally reach our target Samarqand after in total three days of cycling. The road was basically a not very frequented highway, was just like the other two days mainly flat, and had around 10-20 km of very bad surface, everything else went smooth however. As the landscape next to the road was as little inspiring as the past few days, I am not going to lose any more words on it apart from: flat and monotonous.

Samarqand

Because we started today already at 6:30 again and made good progress, we reached Samarqand already at 13:00. After checking into our B&B, we then had plenty of time to visit Samarqand. However, the past three days were tough due to the head wind and the road conditions, so we chose an easy program. First we went to a fast food place and had some French fries and a Pizza. Not really the typical Uzbek food, but we were both very happy to eat something familiar after a few days of Uzbek food on the road.

Afterwards we solved some SIM card problems so I can have Internet again for this blog and then went relaxing in the beautifully laid-out Central Park and enjoyed the spring weather. It was good not to do anything for a few hours and let our heavy legs recover a bit.

On the way back we visited the famous Gur-e Amir Complex. Even though it is a very nice building, I was a bit shocked to see that a ticket to visit this rather small building costs $8 incl. photo tax. Quite a steep price, especially given that locals pay only a few cents for exactly the same. But they obviously had some tourism advisors which told them, how much such things cost in Europe. Luckily, the back entrance of the complex was wide open so we still could have a look at the interior.

Tomorrow we will then visit more sights in Samarqand.

Detailed Track

Total distance: 85.15 km
Max elevation: 698 m
Min elevation: 465 m
Total climbing: 428 m
Total descent: -201 m
Total time: 06:13:30

Day 33: Continuing towards Samarqand

Apr 25, 2017

After an extremely unpleasant day yesterday, things could only get better. Since we only covered 85 km instead of 90 km yesterday however, today’s target was to cycle 95 km to catch up on the schedule again. We were hoping that the conditions are a bit more in our favor today.

Starting at sunrise

In order to avoid the stronger afternoon winds, we started cycling today already at 6:30. Apart from the almost non-existent head wind, this was also incredibly beautiful because we were cycling east towards the rising sun.

Good progress today

The first 20 km went fine. We had only very weak head wind. The second 20 km however were tough again because the head wind started to get stronger today much earlier than yesterday, plus the road now went directly against the wind while yesterday we had more like cross wind. But then surprisingly during the afternoon, the wind got weaker and weaker and at some parts we even had some tailwind. So we reached our goal easily, and actually surpassed it by 10 km, making tomorrow’s final leg to Samarqand a bit shorter.

Uzbek hospitality – and how things don’t always go as planned

I have already a lot of experience with Iranian and Turkmen hospitality, so today it was time to see if the Uzbek can keep up with them. When arriving in the city of Kattaqurghon, we went to a small food shop to buy ingredients for our dinner that we intended to cook. Now I am sitting in an alcoholic’s home where I spend the night together with his family and Anne.

What happened? Well, in front of the food shop the drunk guy who was in the car with a slightly older guy invited us to their home. It turned out it was the home of the older guy that was sober, and not actually the drunk guy’s home. Fair enough, it was a beautiful farm with lots of space, a well-deserved shower and we were looking forward to spending the night there. Appetizer and dinner were already served when the drunk guy told us, that we cannot stay there overnight. And it seemed because of the drunk guy himself. So around 20 minutes before sunset we had to leave the nice farm. The drunk guy then gave us asylum in his farm house which is by far less attractive.

I was discussing a lot with Anne why they would kick us out after offering us to stay there for the night. We came to the conclusion that it is because of the drunk guy. I assume that they wanted to get rid of the drunk guy, and because it was him who picked us up at the food store initially, it was his right to decide where the guests spend the evening and the night. We were never asked what we preferred.

This is the big downside of taking advantage of the hospitality of those people. The hosts are usually very proud to have us as guests and want to show us to as many people as possible and of course make sure that we get fed enough. Mostly the hosts are however not realizing that this is not what I am looking for. We experienced that today, but also in Iran, e.g. in Isfahan, when we had to suddenly interrupt our sightseeing and drive home in the early afternoon because of some family members wanting to spend time with us.

Well, anyway, we got used to the drunk guy’s home and his family (which obviously seems to suffer from his addiction) and feel safe here. Things just did not turn out as planned, but they turned out fine after all.

Detailed Track

Total distance: 106.98 km
Max elevation: 469 m
Min elevation: 325 m
Total climbing: 480 m
Total descent: -345 m
Total time: 09:19:45

About Daniel Moser

Steep climb

Relaxing afternoon

Detailed Track

Cold Morning

Chinese Tunnel through the Mountain

Descending into Zarafshan Valley

Climbing again on the other side

Detailed Track

Istvarashan

Climbing 1000m

Detailed Track

Border Crossing

First impressions of Tajikistan

Hospitality in Tajikistan

Detailed Track

Mountain Panorama

Search for accommodation

Leaving Uzbekistan tomorrow

Detailed Track

Wonderful cycling conditions

Search for accommodation

Detailed Track

Cycling towards the Tajik border

Strong winds

Another family dinner

Detailed Track

Bad weather for once

A handful of sights

International dinner

On the road again starting tomorrow

Samarqand

Detailed Track

Starting at sunrise

Good progress today

Uzbek hospitality – and how things don’t always go as planned

Detailed Track

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