Osh is the first city during my entire trip that I have visited twice. When planning my route back to Almaty, I had three main considerations: (1) I wanted to avoid hot weather - such as Uzbekistan’s 40+ degree days, (2) I wanted to do it relatively quickly and minimise repeating roads, to keep the journey as linear as possible, and (3) ideally it would be an interesting route, so it is a nice ending (rather than endless riding of boring highways).

I have come up with a happy solution, such on the road, such that the map on the website is no longer current (ie i am not following the original plan of Dushanbe > Samarkand > Tashkent > Taraz > Almaty.)

Instead, the route is: Dushanbe > Khujand > Osh (via Kyzl Bel pass in the Fergana Valley which just opened in June) > Songkul Lake > Issikul Lake > Almaty.

This way I get to maximise the fun roads and mountains until the very last day, and to visit the best of Kyrgyzstan’s summer attractions along the way.

Today’s route in blue (note the interesting borders)

Today’s ride was quite boring, involving a border crossing and avoiding accidental detours into Uzbek territory. Along the way are several exclaves where small towns would be “Uzbek” in nature with the rest of the area Kyrgyz. I feel like this is the relic of drawing borders along ethnic lines, although it seems like a relatively incomplete affair. I have come across many Kyrgyz in Tajikistan, and many Tajiks in Uzbekistan; i suspect organising things by ethnic group would get very messy very quickly.

It was an early start (for me), leaving at 8:30am, and gunning it straight to the border. I reached there in record time, and passed through with somewhat ease (as smooth as borders can get here).

Tajik steppe

Near Isfara in Tajikistan…fast roads

Right at the border (on the other side of these hills/rocks)

Closer look at the rocky hills

In Kyrgyzstan I was reunited with Nitro energy drinks and useable mobile internet once again. What luxuries!

The roads on the Kyrgyz side were mildly interesting hilly steppe, with the occasional oil well and mine.

Oil in Kyrgystan!

The green town is an Uzbek Exclave

The next town over from Osh (there were police at the round about looking at me strangely as I parked my bike for a photo)

Road to Osh

Strange hill…i think the black parts are burned grass?

By 3PM I had reached Osh, and stayed once more at Cube House for their laundry service.

In the afternoon, I caught up with some local entrepreneurs (including at the Osh Business School), to get a better sense for the scene. I feel like it could be an interesting place to partake in the emerging tourism industry.

For dinner, I shot Jeff (the French biker) a text to see where he was; he was riding towards Kyrgyzstan last I remembered. And by luck, he and Klaus and Max (the two Aussies who gave me the courage to do the river crossing) had arrived in town. We grabbed a few beers and then burgers at a nearby cafe.

Tomorrow; Songkul (or somewhere along the way if i don’t make it!)

Some stats:

• 372KMs travelled
• 3 unique interactions
• 16.4L fuel added
• 30g coffee consumed

Altitude map of today’s ride

Route to date