85km till the Uzbekistan border

We woke up in the morning still feeling tired. We slowly crawled out of the tent, made breakfast and tea and took time to enjoy it. We were thinking about the train, when it passed buy. Mirko said “We just missed it.”

It was a bit cloudy so we didn’t feel like rushing. We took water from the well, packed our bikes and start the journey towards the border. The trailer was making strange sound when the wheel was rubbing against the cart. So we tried to fix it. But it didn’t make any difference.

What we should do? I asked. We were again in the similar position like the day before; just the village was now behind us some 10km. We decided to hitch to the border. The truck passed by, but it was full so we didn’t have a chance. 30 minutes passed, than an hour and there were still no cars and no trucks to be seen from either side.

We looked at each other and smiled. What are we doing here? And how are we going to get a ride? There was nothing on the road.

After some time we saw a truck in the distance. We waved at it as it approached and it stopped. He was going 60km in our direction and it was empty. We loaded the bikes and the trailer and sit with the two men in the drivers’ cabin. Chatting about the life and the places we have visited.

The dirt road was good now; at least it seemed so from the truck.

We were left on the crossroad from where was only 25km left to the border. There was no traffic at all, so we decided to cycle, which was hard on the trailer.

We would make the distance shorter and we could always stop somebody on the way, if someone would show up.

Soon we discovered that the road was even worse than the part we did in Kazakhstan. It was hard to ride. Strong face wind picked up made us moving very slowly.

I was thinking about our conversation yesterday, how nice the desert was to us and here it was, showing her other face; Lots of sand and wind and bad road.

I think this was the hardest 25km I did in a long time. But we did it. Slowly we managed to push through the sand and the wind and reached the border.

Before crossing the border into Uzbekistan, we stopped in the last Kazakh chaikhana and had a rest. We were exhausted but after some tea and a nap we were ready for all the border formalities.