Hi guys.
In a couple of weeks I will arrive to Samarkand after having been cycling here from France for the past year.
Basically, I have about 5/6 weeks to get from Samarkand to Almaty where I will finally fly back home! I’m just wondering if anyone has any suggestions on where is best to spend these weeks?
As you can see on the map I’ve illustrated, there’s a split at Samarkand with Option A in blue and red going into the Pamirs, and then Option B just going through Uzbekistan… both finishing in Osh.
I think the pamir option is objectively more interesting with it being the Pamirs… however the Pamirs are time consuming, I presume at least 4 weeks in Tajikistan…? This leaves me very little time to explore Kyrgyzstan and I’d likely have to rush or even take some transport to get to my flight on time.
The other option is much more direct. I would have much more time to explore Kyrgyzstan which I’ve heard is beautiful, as well as do things like the Kazakh corner loop to Karakol, as is on the map picture too.
I suppose it seems like whether prioritising the Pamirs or time in Kyrgyzstan/Kazakhstan is important.
Any advice or opinions would be greatly appreciated!! Thank you so much in advance
by Special-Pipe-1558
2 Comments
You could in theory shorten the Pamirs by cutting through the Bartang valley. If I were you I’d ride around more in Kyrgyzstan instead of doing that Kazakh part.
Blue and red is what we did there and it was one if not the greatest part of our journey. Except we did the northern road to Qalaikhumb (we recommend, but it is a lot harder). Doing it in 5 weeks is pretty hardcore though. The Kazakh part was not very interesting.