The bug still has me in its grip this day. The only calories that I can convince my stomach to deal with are oral rehydration salts & Fanta. I have to force myself to drink water. The 'Shemal', the wind has a name I learn, continues to blow against me. I come to the realisation that the only break from it for the next couple of hundred kms will likely be a break from cycle. One such is planned in Bukhara, some 100km North of my finishing point today.
I struggle towards the border & realise in the late afternoon that I risked not reaching it under my own steam. Hailing a taxi, actually a private car with passengers going in the opposite direction. It turns out the border wasn't so far away as I thought but still likely it would have been unreachable within the duration of my visa. The taxi was pretty cheap, much cheaper than the costs of overstaying my visa.
Negotiating the exit of Turkmenistan & entrance to Uzbekistan was pretty straight forward. There were English officials at key points & everyone was sympathetic. I think the novelty of being a cyclist helped a lot. At no point did I feel that bribe was being sought or some my gear was in jeapody of making it into the pocket of a thieving customs official.
I camped in a small grove of trees just beside the highway, which got very quiet soon after the border closed at 6pm. It was so nice to camp under trees after being in sand for the last couple of days.
I cycled 60 km in 5 hours & 35 minutes
Total so far 6335 km in 88 days
GPS Coordinates of end point - N 39°16.448, E 63°44.177
No comments:
Post a Comment