Central Asia tour Finland-Russia-Kazakstan-Uzbekistan-Taijikistan-Kirgistan

[Pata]

Day 15 Tavildara TAJ - Khorog TAJ

We woked up in the morning around 7 am. First a cold shower and after that we started to make breakfast, porridge and some decent coffee... Part of the group has arrived in the middle of the night. British girls had a major problems with their Fiat Punto! Yes, you read right. They already lost their brakes and now there was a big gasoline like somewhere in fuel line. We managed to do fix in fuel line and we were ready to hit the Pamir Highway.

We started early, because roads are bad. We teamed up again with team Canada. I guess that Finns and Canadians are similar people so it was easy to get a long without any hassle. We leaved Tavildara and first we had to get by on probably million sheep what locals were moving some other place. Just drive trough little bit faster and sheep's will give you way. It is chaotic but normal there. Before Pamir highway we had to do first bigger river crossing. Volvo did great job and I was happy that I had build a snorkel before we leaved home. Now it was useful.

Inka is checking how deep it is.

In the beginning of Pamir Highway there is control post. They kept us waiting about two hours, because there has been some fighting in that area last night. Finally they let us go. Landscape was great! Snow topped mountains, green grass, gravel road and great people. I let photos to do the talking.

We started climbing on mountains and there was still snow on side of the road. Days highest point was 3456 meters from sea level. And yes you feel bit dizzy in your head. Ten meters walk was like running a marathon.

We started to get down from mountains and stopped for lunch by the river. Snow was melting in mountains and there was pure water rivers here and there. And it was very cold. You could chill a can of soda in couple minutes just putting it to stream.

When we were sitting at lunch it finally hit us. We have drove about 50km and days leg was around 280km. It is going to be long day. You could only drive like 30km/h with Volvo because roads were so bad. We drove on bad roads and reached hotel on around one clock in the night. It's crazy to drive on dark, because you just don't see anything and you can not avoid hitting these holes in road.

 

[Pata]

Day 16 Khorog TAJ - Murghab TAJ

After some sleep we worked up and started to plan days drive. We were sitting in breakfast and British girls told that they have serious problems with Fiat. They planned to find a mechanic to fix critical things and after that they will catch us somewhere. Team Belgium and Polish girls with Samurai are somewhere in Uzbekistan and they are trying to get Samurai in shape. Hungarians are still somewhere on the road, but ok. People are around Central-Asia but that's what adventures are made of. Everyone had their own experience.

We were looking at map and planning route when it hit us. An earthquake. First I thought that someone is rocking table, but no it was an small earthquake. Nothing catastrophe, but still an earthquake. First time for me. We decided to take easier route on tarmac road, because I wanted to give car an easier day. We had to pay some "environment taxes" to checkpoint officer that he let us drive this route. We didn't have permission to drive there in our passports.

Even so views were great.

Maria started to get crazy and talked silly on the back seat. We were thinking what is wrong. We stopped car and immediately I get it. Fuel tank was leaking, but when we drived windows down fumes were only at the back seat. Fuel tank had a bad leak on the seal of tank. I did add some Plastick padding to stopped from leaking. It did help little bit but it didn't stop permanently. So we decided to filled just halfway.

We reached altitude of 3600m from sea level. And it was beautiful.

We reached to city of Murghab in the afternoon. Place was small family owned hostel with 5 rooms. But it was the best place so far. Owner was 23 year old guy with he's family.

Owner with his daughter

Place was high, still in 3600m above the sea level. I had an some small headache and it is one symptom of altitude sickness. And only cure is to go down if it hits. But luckily no one didn't get it. The owner was very nice guy and he did speak some english. He asked if he could read our latest edition of Lonely planet. Of course we borrowed our book for him to read. After couple hours he came back with smile on he's face. I asked about what makes him so happy and he told that he's hostel is mentioned in lonely planet! Now people will come here, he told. And yes I can recommend this place:

SARY KOL LODGE
Murghab
Tel.: +992 935 321 383
N38 10.920 E73 59.209

They offered us an hot bucket of water and plenty of cold water to "shower". Dinner was great and huge. We waited late other to arrive but there were only us, Canadians and another British team. Hungarians arrived on very early morning. But British girls were missing and we couldn't reach them by phone or radio.

Day 17 Murghab TAJ - Sary Moghol KIRG

After a good night sleep we hit a road again. Owner offer us breakfast and we give them a blanket from our sponsor as a gift and thanking them of their hospitality. We drive off the city and then up to north.

We reached our eastern corner and in there is China!

You can actually see a barbwire fence on background. Personally I started to look highway bandit again... =D

We reached Karakul lake and some of us decided to take a swim... water was refreshing. This lake is quite high around 4000m from sea level. Lake is made by an meteor hit some 5 million years ago. This is in top 5 of most beautiful places where I have been.

After that we did reach a border to Kirgistan. Border is up on the mountains and it is easy. Just a question "Any drugs or guns?" just say no and you are good to go. There is again one river crossing on no mans land between borders. Sharp rocks on bottom of a heavy current river. Then it hit us. I smashed car chassis quite bad and gearbox was teared off on drivers side mountings. And to make this easier, Maria started to have heavy symptoms of altitude sickness. We have to drive car of the stream and stop to see can we still drive. I told Maria to start walking down from the mountain, because there wasn't no help to arrive.

I crawled under the car and watched damages. Gearbox was still there on engines side and one mounting on other side of the car. I could hold it up by hanging in shifter but not for long at one time. We decided to drive down to help Maria and see if we could do temporary fix after we were more close to sea level.

After we got down to about 2000m from sea level we stopped in no mans land to see if car could be fixed. We also opened our famous road side restaurant and made some lunch. I started to look up about car. Mounting was teared quite badly and there was no way to fix that without welding equipment. We stapped a rope around cars floor to hold up gear box up so we could drive to next village. Rope holded about 30km before it melted on exhaust pipe. After that a short brake, new knot in rope and back to highway again.

We found our accommodation in Sary Moghol village. It was time for family stay as a guest in local family's house and a yurt. We asked if there was a welder in village and yes there was! I get to welder and asked if he could do this repair. He was busy to fix a customers tractor and he said no. I asked if I could rent he's welding machine and do it by myself. "after one hour" said the man. We get back there after one hour and he took out the welding machine. Self made machine without any adjustments for power. And it was meant for bigger steel. First we unplugged main power line to he's house and attached that to welding machine. Just to make this fixing easier there was a thunderstorm coming...

I got moral and beer support from team Canada's Pat. It was so far most difficult welding what I have done. Welding machine was just too powerful to do so thin metal. If you have ever welded anything you know what I mean. But we got the job done and Volvo was running great. At this point we crossed our Volvo with name Lemmy. Because Lemmy don't die... (litle bit Motörhead humor...).

We had a great dinner with the family, they offered their best and it was great. We were still missing half of the people who started this adventure. Little concern was running in our heads, because there were no way to reach them. Phones just don't work there. Thunderstorm kept going all night and it was cold. After a quick hot shower in Banja we were ready to hit the bed.

 

[LocoCoyote]

As the guys in the OJ offices can testify, I have long wished to see someone do a long Overland journey in a Volvo Station Wagon.

It just goes to show that you don't need the latest 4x4 all decked out with all the bells & whistles....... drive what you got (or can get) and just GO!



Great story....... enjoying reading about your adventure!

 

[Pata]

Day 18 Sory Moghul KIRG - (Toktogul) Osh KIRG

After a long and wet night, we had a lovely breakfast from the family. After breakfast we headed to village to change some money.

After that I went back to welders place to pay a rent of welding equipments. Then we hit the road again. Roads were much better and we drive together with Canadians. We were usually first to leave, because we wanted to stop once in a while and get there early. We were headed to Toktogul and plan was to visit in the city of Osh were Marias mother was born. Plan was to look their old house in Osh.

We were driving towards Toktogul and I started to have a feeling that something was wrong. I couldn't tell what, but you know the feeling. After 50km of driving we came to place where is a small village and a huge roadblock. Villager had made big roadblock to prevent all traffic between south and north Kirgistan.

We stopped and walked down to see what kind of barrier there is. I talked with Chinese truck driver and asked how long he was been here. "25 days" was he's answer. "They don't let anyone trough here. And there is a rumour that government is "going to take care of this issue"... he continued.

More story to come, stay tuned...

 

[Pata]

Continuing day 18

These demonstration's are places where you shouldn't be. All tough this was a peacefull, but still. Things can change rapidly and then you are on your own. We look up leaders of this demonstration and started to negotiate our way trough this roadblock. After all we were just western tourist without any opinion on what is going on.

Lady in the photo is a sister to a man who is in picture. They claim that man was arrested without proper cause and asked us to call our embassy's and to our local newspapers in back home. We tried several times to explain that there is nothing we could do and we don't want to be part of any political disagreements. They didn't let us go and they told us to wait two hours. So we did wait. Our group started to gather on roadblock and we inform them about the situation what was going on. We let Maria and Jack to work as an diplomat from our group side. Maria speak's fluent russia and Jack was a good negotiator.

I started to look maps, and tried to find a detour. But nothing was available, even people in village told that there is no way around this place. I scouted this roadblock and I did find a place to drive car on the shore bank of river and driving on bank like 400 meters you could get back on road again. I quietly told people that I have discover the route.

I did understand that they don't want to tear down their roadblock. But we were there as a group, if we decided to rush trough, someone would be left behind or stopped anyway. So we kept on negotiating. They pressured us to call everybody, but we decided as a group that we don't do that. "You wait! Two hour." was the answer. And so we did. We started cooking and eat a lunch, and we didn't let them disturb us by waiting. Finally Maria did an Oscar acting. Couple tears, and a story on her mothers birthing house in Osh... It was truly heartbreaking and they let us drive on riverbank to other side.

No time for photograph's, just get trough there. We continued towards Osh with team Canada. Other's kept on going to Toktogul. We promised Maria that we will find her mothers house, because that was one of the main reasons Maria joined to this adventure. So we headed Osh and started to find a hotel or other place to stay. We find a decent hotel with free rooms and decided to stay there. Cold beer's on terrace after a shower was a proper ending for the day. But there was an pleasant suprice, we got call from British girls. They had wrecker Fiat totally and they hitchhiked to Osh. They got trough that roadblock easy, because they traveled with local bus. Just of the bus and back to another bus on the other side. They asked us to book room for them as well and so we did!

We waited them in the bar and it was nice to see them again! We sit long in the bar and catch up about what has happened. They had quite an adventure, in the middle of the adventure. But that's a another story.

Day 19 Osh KIRG - Togtokul KIRG

In the morning after nice breakfast we started to look Maria's mothers old house. Like always, ask locals. We have a map what Maria's mother has droved for us, and it did help a lot. We found a nice gentleman who did speak some english and he promised us to take us there.

So we did find that house. Couple photos and back on the road again. We decided to head to Toktogul were we supposed to stay last night. Team Canada give up and they decided to stay in Osh couple of days and fly direct to Bishkek. So british girls took their car and drive with us. After goodbyes we started our drive to north. We drive in peace because it we weren't in hurry. We stopped to buy fresh watermelons on side of the road and took some photos. We keep in touch with UHF walkie talkies and suddenly there was an reply from Polish girls. They were in Toktogul! We decided to meet them there!

We find this hostel and there they were! Team Belgium and Polish girls. Also another British team was there. It was nice to hear what has happened. Samurai was repaired, a full engine renovation including two new pistons from Chevrolet and so on... cost 300 dollars...

We had a long dinner and talked about what has happened and how to head up to Bishkek tomorrow.

This stuff grows here naturally...

 

[Pata]

Day 20 Toktogul KIRG - Bishkek KIRG

Breakfast at the hostel and after that we hit the road again. We had to climb over the mountains to reach city of Biskek. Roads were smooth tarmac and after 2 weeks of dirt road it was nice for a change. When we came down from the mountains, our brakes did overheat and dissapear. So we managed to stop on side of the road and cooled them down. After that we did stop every once in a while to cool our brakes.

Statue on Tsingis Khan

We drived in nice and cool weather and reached city of Bishkek. Suddenly I did see red light's flashing on behind. It was an traffic police and they wanted us to stop. Imogen drived pass me and pulled on side of the road little bit further. They told in radio that they didn't have car papers with them, they were still in Pat's pocket. That could lead us to trouble. So, I was tourist again, without any language skills. Maria told me from backseat what to tell. We chatted a while, they asked where are we from and we told Finland. Then cop asked for "souvenir", we gave him a sponsor blanket in nice gift box. And he was happy and told us that we are welcome to Bishkek, but please drive slowly and tell that to your friends in other car. That was it. We navigate trough the city of Bishkek and we were first to arrive in hotel. Bags in the room, quick shower and after that cold beer on side of a pool. Slowly everyone get there and that was it, we did it!

In the afternoon we kept small party with pizza and cold beers. Everyone told stories about what has happened and what they had experienced.

Days 21 and 22 Bishkek

We decided to stay in Bishkek couple days before heading back home. Our plan was to sell Volvo there and fly back home, because we didn't get double visa for Kazakstan. Selling car was easy, some local guy bought it to spare parts to he's another Volvo!

After we had sold car we head back to hotel where part of the group was preparing to start their drive back home. After goodbyes we headed to pool to spend and afternoon. In the evening we book our home flights and went to eat with this group what was still here.

AFTERWORDS

It was an adventure. Great one, but some things I would (and I will do) differently than now. Car was great, but it was so rough for car that next time I will go there with an 4x4 car. It is pretty exhausting to drive car with small ground clearance because roads are quite bad. For that reason we missed big part of Pamir Highway. Climate can be hot as hell to chilly in the night. So prepare for everything. People are nice and food is good. No one had any problems with stomach. Uzbek is a tricky place to buy fuel, because there isn't any. And when you find some it is bad quality, so prepare for that.

Would I do it again? Yes I would. Actually I have hopes to go back there with motorcycle, but we will see what happens...

See you sometime, somewhere. Keep exploring!

 

[SuperKrisus]

Hi~ I want to find somethink like wine Tasting in Uzbekistan. I found some photos and I'm in love in this place. Can you advice for me somethink?

 

[NWDJ]

Great report..

. We end up buying Volvo 240 station wagon year model 1988, with just a bit over 400 000km driven.




.

Love the choice of the wagon. Before we were married my bride and I did some overlanding in the mid 8o's with a 1973 Pinto station wagon. It will teach you a ton, how to pick the best line on rough roads, how to dig and stack rocks. Like you, people were always surprised to see where we were able to go with the wagon and a good set of mud and snow tires.

We are shopping for a Discovery now!