From Kyrgyztan’s capital Bishkek it was only a 25km ride to the border. I met up with the Frenchman Bertrand (who I’d cycled with in Tajikistan) and we headed over to Kazakhstan together. The border was a total shambles. I’ve come to expect nothing less from Central Asia’s border crossings, but the last couple I’ve … More Kazakhstan: Searching for Borat (26/10/15-05/11/15)
Between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan there’s a long 20km of no-man’s-land. Unsuprisingly there’s not much going on in there but one family, it turned out, had a tea house right in the middle. It was getting late in the day when I exited Tajikistan and I was over the moon to find some civilisation. After struggling … More Kyrgyzstan: Meeting the willy snatcher and wearing strange hats (02/10/15-26/10/15)
From Khorog you have a couple of choices regarding which road to take. The main Pamir Highway (M41) leads up into the mountains, while a southern route continues to follow the Afghan border as the Wakhan corridor narrows. Recently there was only one choice, as the M41 was closed due to big landslides a couple … More Tajikistan Part 2: The Pamir Highway (22/09/15-01/07/15 Khorog to Kyrgyzstan)
During the hour long search at the Uzbek border the guard felt the need to make a little small talk with me. ‘Did you hear about the killings in Dushanbe a few days ago’. ‘Err, no?’. ‘Yes – many terrorists in Tajikistan’. I thought she was just gloating about how much better Uzbekistan is (those … More Tajikistan Part 1: Cycling the Afghan border (08/09/15-21/09/15 Uzbekistan to Khorog)
I arrived in Tehran with only one thing on my mind – Turkmenistan visa! Essentially the missing piece of this jigsaw that would connect two sides of the world for me. There was only one feasible road to Central Asia and everything depended on it… But first I needed to find somewhere to stay. I … More Iran part 2: Tehran to Sharhud (28/07/15-04/07/15)
I cycled off from Yerevan in the burning sun. For a good while the road was nice and flat and there was only one mountain in sight – the two unmistakable peaks of Mount Ararat, the Armenian icon (that now lies 40km into Turkey). Just before the day’s climb started I stopped in a village … More Armenia part 2: Yerevan to the Iranian border (09/07/15-15/07/15)
The Armenian side of the border was a chaotic shambles, but within 5 minutes of cycling I was cycling in peace and quiet. In the evening sun everything looked golden – the fields a deep yellow and the mountain peaks different shades of blue as they faded in the distance. In one village not far … More Armenia part 1: From the Georgian border to Yerevan (03/07/15-08/07/15)
If the border change from Bulgaria to Greece was dramatic, the crossing into Turkey was something else. Finally I was out of the easy EU borders. This crossing had a long no-man’s land, rusty barbed-wire fencing and large ‘no camera’ signs against military personnel stencils. There were soldiers around the buildings and for the first time … More Turkey Part 1: From the Greek border to Istanbul (08/05/15-22/05/15)
With my brakes working again, we crossed the Macedonian border back into Bulgaria again. Just passed the border we found a what looked like a perfect picnic spot by on old bridge over a river. But the picnic didn’t last very long – a shepherd arrived out of nowhere shouting at us to move so that … More Bulgaria & Greece: Mountain climbing (27/04/15-08/05/15)
I’ve been busy since my last update – cycling ten days straight around Hungary’s borders with no less than five other countries. I was looking forward to a ‘social-break’ from the Couchsurfing routine, and had treated myself to a couple of nights in a hostel in Vienna. I was looking forward to an early night … More Vienna to Szeged: Austria to Hungary via four other countries (24/03/15-06/04/15)
JKB's Bike Ride 