日本語要約:また長い一日でした。向かい風がやめず、疲れました。しかし今日も120kmを達成。ブハラ全体は博物館のようです。
Another long day into a chilly head wind - 120km again. I do love these long straight roads though. You can just keep pedalling and pedalling and pedalling…but then it gets dark, which is rather a pain. Just when you’re getting into it at around 5pm, everthing goes dark. And an LED head torch just doesn’t cut it for illumination.
I do miss the deserted roads of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. There are many people on this main road to Buhara, which means we are back to the usual business of cars slowing down (on a main highway) to trundle along beside me and shout out the window, trying to speak to me.
There is a bonus on this highway however, and that is the frequent tractor traffic. These slow beasts, hauling spent cotton plants on massive trailers, are just at the right speed that I can catch up and draft along behind them. Nice to get out of the wind and get a ‘free ride’.
Buhara is a dream. An open air museum with narrow lanes and old buildings. The B&B that I am staying at (Mubinjan B&B) is essentially a museum. 280 years old, it is maintanied by a half Tajik, half Iranian man in his 50s. He is an ex professional sprinter, who sprinted for the USSR back in the day. His career ended however when he damaged his hamstring in a start in a race. Jolly interesting bloke.
permalink 5通のコメントあり朝に起きたら、温度計に氷点下3度。寒いとです。暖かいシュラフから出るのがつらかったとです。
道路は一日完全に平らでしたが強い向かい風があしました。それでも今日7.5時間で120kmを走ることができました。長い一日でした。
I didn’t get into Navoy until about 7pm tonight, and it was tough work to find a spot to sleep. Eventually I spied an under construction petrol station along the road. Upon investigation, I decided to set up my sleeping mat under the eaves around the back of the service station.
Thing is, I was half way through my dinner of bread, cheese, butter and raddish (I love this cold weather - I can now carry butter), when two people rounded the corner at the back of the service station. They hadn’t noticed me, and were checking some wiring, when I decided it was best to say hello.
Hello there.
A startled grunt from the bigger of the two, and then the expected “What are you doing here?”
It turned out that this was a couple that was working on the interior of the service station - a man and his wife. They had come to do a last check for the day before heading back home.
I explained that I was heading for England, and I had nowhere to stay in the town. To be honest, I was tired and would rather have slept there despite the cold (it was a relatively warm 3 degrees at that stage). However they would have none of that, and insisted that I come and stay at their place. Their logic prevailed, and I wheeled my stuff over to their place, and crashed there for the night. Of course not after entertaining them with conversation about me until about 10:30pm…shattered.
permalink この記事についてコメントを書く日本語要約:昼12時まで魔法瓶(?)を探していました。やはり暖かい飲み物が簡単に飲めないのはつらい。しかし、見つかれませんでした。アゼルバイジャンのバク市にあるのかな・・・サマルカンドを出たのは昼1時で、それでも気温はわずか3度でした。夜に泊まったところは古いトラックの後ろの部分でした(写真に参考)。
I spent most of the morning today searching, with the help of Kolima’s brother, for a stainless steel thermos. We searched in two bazaars, and along the streets of the center of town in Samarkand. However all we could find were cheap Chinese glass-lined thermi (?) that would last only a few hours clattering around on a bicycle. I resigned to the fact that I would not have warm tea on the bike for a while…maybe I can find one in Baku…
Leaving the Rakhimova’s place in Samarkand was tough. Out of a warm house into the chilly environment. It was about 3 degrees when I left. It only got to 5 degrees in the afternoon, and then quickly dropped below zero towards 5pm.
I was expecting dead flat roads today, however the land here is undulating hills. I tend to overheat on the uphills, and then freeze on the down hills. Problem is that the climbs and descents are too short to take the time to put on more clothes or remove clothes.
My accommodation for the night was an old steel back-of-a-truck that is obviously used by farmers during the summer. The main crops around here are cotton and other cash crops such as water melon. I guess farmers sleep out in their fields in summer to discourage people from pinching stuff…
permalink この記事についてコメントを書くコミラさんにありがとうございます!暖かいベッド、おいしい食事、やさしい犬・・・
パソコンを使わせていただいてありがとうございます。お陰様でタジキスタンで撮ったパノラマのいくつかを合成することができました。
permalink この記事についてコメントを書く7000kmぶりに、リアサスペンション(DT Swiss SSD 225 air shock)のシールとグリースを交換しました。ちなみに、このサスペンションはスバラシイです。遠く走っているのに、中は一切汚れていませんでした。
大活躍したのはLizzard Skinのサスペンションカバーです。サスペンションを水やホコリから助けて、サスペンションのシールを保護するものです。
サスペンションをばらすのはとても簡単です。工具はほとんど要らなくて、空気を抜けた後、手でカバーをはずすことが出来ます。
permalink 14通のコメントありアップデートがおそくなりました!
この5日間ほど、ウズベキスタンの首都、タシュケントにいました。5日間でもういいです!今日サマルカンドに帰ってきました。タシュケントに行った理由は、トルクメニスタンのビザとアゼルバイジャンのビザを申請するためでした。アゼルバイジャンのビザは5日間で降りてくるが、トルクメニスタンのビザは10日間かかるので、タシュケントに10日間いるより、どこか自転車で行ったほうが面白いかなと思って、サマルカンドに戻ってきました。
自転車はもともとサマルカンドに置いていきましたので、タシュケントへ行くのも、サマルカンドに帰ってきたのも列車でした。
ちなみに、髪の毛を切りました。まえよりも、テロリストです。
permalink 4通のコメントあり