Cycling In Uzbekistan - Tashkent To Samarkand

km

Uzbekistan - Tashkent to Samarkand (333km)

0

Tashkent (480m) – on Usmon Nosir at the Orzu Hotel. Go along this road to the South West away from Oybek Metro Station.

5

Petrol station on right and a choice of roads – don't bare left – keep going straight.

8

Road crosses a huge multi carriage way road – this is the road you want (heading South). If there is a way down to it here, we missed it....so go over the bridge and hunt for a turning to your left that is the filter road for oncoming traffic to go down this road. Go down this filter road and after a few hundred metres you eventually hit the road. Turn right on to it and move into the central lanes when you get a chance. Don't stay on the side road that runs parallel to the main road.

9-20

Lots of cafes along here – drinks and snacks – the road is gently undulating dropping about 20m every 10km

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Cafe on right – friendly with cheap food There is nowhere to camp until about 3km after Gulistan, so if you need to camp you will have to ask someone to let you camp in their garden

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Road veers left to Gulistan (signposted) There is a straight on road but this is the one that goes through Kazakhstan. People told us that this was dangerous because of bandits!!! If it's possible you would need a Kazakh visa.

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Cafe on right near small junction in a town (300m)

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Beginning of Gulistan

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Right turn for town centre

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Market on road

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Another right turn for Gulistan centre – 2 km after this is the first clear spot for camping in some trees that line the road. There are a few more places along the next 10km stretch.

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Group of trees at crest of a small climb. Right side – alcoholics R us, Left side – super friendly family will let you camp behind their odd old restaurant type house, they have fresh water in a tank and will leave you alone completely if you want.

139

Village starts – just always stay on the big road, the route has no surprises if you do this.

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Road bends West and there are some shops

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M34 road heads left to Dushanbe, you go straight on, surface isn't great but whenever it pisses you off too much it improves again.

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Restaurant on left

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Junction (shops ) go straight on, from here there are lots of places to camp

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Good place to camp – left and right where the road crosses a water channel

203

Town of Pakhtaabad starts and there is a good well on the right with unsalty water.

204

Cafe

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Pakhtaabad finally finishes

208 - 220 Trees on left and right suitable for camping, many places 224

Large fly-over – turn left for Mountain route to Samarkand, or if feeling lazy then go straight on for Jizzax (Djisacs) – the sign is only visible for people leaving Jizzax. If you do go up the by-pass then there are plenty of places to camp in the hills...secluded and peaceful. We don't know how far this alternate route is though.

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Jizzax starts

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Market and junction of railway tracks – go slightly right of straight on (don't turn right or left)

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Junction – nice cafe on right. - turn left for Samarkand at this junction. You are now leaving Jizzax.

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Hotel on road – the road climbs along a river valley all the way from Jizzax – lots of camping spots. Jizzax is about 370m above sea level

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Campsite!!!! with amenities and restaurants... signposted from this direction but not the other. Looked nice.

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Road finally meets the by-pass road that climbed through the mountains and joins your road from the left

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Town of Ghailaraal starts. It is a long thin town and drops to cross a large river...from here it starts climbing steadily – rising about 250m before it drops again.

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Ghailaraal town finally ends.

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Top of hill (830m) cafes

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Small town starts

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Centre of town with some shops on the road

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End of town

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Turn right for Samarkand and Bukkhara – signposted.

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Turn left for Samarkand (Bukkhara straight on) The Observatory is 100m along on your left. Follow this road and it bends left and becomes a new and major looking dual carriage way. Keep on it past some mud caves, and also past a popular Mausoleum to your right with nice green grass. (We think it was the Tomb of the Prophet Daniel). Pass another large mausoleum on your left and continue until you get to a cross roads. Turn left and stay on this road until it comes out on a major road with the view of some Mausoleums and the city infront of you. The road you meet is called Registanskaya.

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Registanskaya. Turn right and almost immediately left for Antika B&B next to the Guri Amir Mausoleum. Look for the sign on the wall to your left as you approach the mausoleum.

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Antika B&B. Samarkand is 710m above sea level

Extra Information The route is difficult to camp on in some sections, but we discovered that the Uzbek people along this road are friendly but not over inquisitive. They might come and see you for a minute or two, but they have things to do so they just move on after shaking your hand. Water is a bit salty between Gulistan and Jizzax, so stock up when you can. The route is mainly signposted in Roman not Cyrillic, and distances given are correct. Early in the year there may not be much cover - we passed through in late March and there were few trees with leaves on them, so we never really 'stealth camped'. We have listed all the obvious places to camp but may have missed some that would have been more obvious in the summer. The road is never really bad, occasionally it is a bit bumpy but there is always tar of some sort and for 95% of the time it is smooth. As soon as you get pissed off it changes. We cycled this in 3 days, but if the wind is against you there is no escape, on the second day we averaged 10km/hr into a head wind. On the third day we cycled the last 48km in one and a half hours with a tail wind. There are no steep climbs anywhere on this route and you may think that it is almost flat, depending on the wind. The only climb of note is from 235km up to the 280km mark.