21 May – Uzbekistan – ~284 miles
Uzbekistan – not much petrol to be had. Nearly all cars are running on one of several derivations of natural gas, with lots of “Metan” or “Propan” stations available. “Benzine” or “Petrol” – not so much… and where there are some, they’re often selling only 80-grade petrol. Not sure how the bike will handle that, but need to ask the owners of the bike if it would be acceptable in an emergency. But today – made the journey, with the petrol sign flashing a warning for several dozen miles… but made it.
Rode from Khiva to Bukhara – the second of the “Big Three” Silk Road cities in Uzbekistan… many miles of boring highway on fresh concrete roads, and quite a few miles on “in-progress” motorway… at best, pot-hole trap-filled sections (feeling good about dodging a few potholes, then see a six-foot wide 1-foot deep trench I’m about to hit)… and some simply “this isn’t road, this is just base rock with remnants of road gravel with pits”.
A late afternoon recon of Bukhara – suggests it’s a slightly bigger version of Khiva. Full day tomorrow to wander about a bit more, but I’m figuring the day is going to go similarly to Khiva. Although I might need to re-stock on local currency… I don’t know how, but 1 million Som didn’t seem to stretch that far.
