Day 38: Reaching the currently open border crossing

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