Cycling the World | Uzbekistan (Ep.7)

Uzbekistan, a country we knew very little about but were excited to cycle across. Over 20 days we cycled the length of this fascinating country, battled extreme heat in the deserts, enjoyed the ancient cities and were humbled by the kindness of the local people.

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Landlocked by landlocked countries, Usbekistsan is a nation in the heart of Asia that few people know about, let alone visit. We arrived with little expectations and were blown away by what we experienced during the 20 days we spent cycling across it. From ancient Silk Road cities, surreal landscapes, and unforgettable encounters with the people who call this place home. >> Thank you. After fixing my broken bike in Kazakhstan and being forced to take a train across the border due to a closed road, my dad and I set out from the city of Nucus to continue our journey around the world by bike. I’m not feeling mentally that good at the moment. Um I think just the issue with the bike having to go back to Acttow and then getting the train further than we were originally planning. It’s kind of I don’t know. It’s just it’s not sat right with me. Um and it’s knocked all the motivation out of me. But this trip is going to be full of highs and lows. This is just one of those lows. Just got to quickly as we can get back onto a high. But yeah, it’s not I don’t feel great right now, but yeah, it’s all part of it. Can’t all be plain sailing. We knew the next few weeks would be brutal. Cycling across a desert in the middle of summer isn’t anyone’s idea of fun, and it wasn’t ours either, but we pushed on. It suddenly all turned green into a big river valley, and it’s a lot more agricultural. Trees. First time I’ve seen trees in a while. It was quite pleasant riding despite the heat, as there were frequent shops to have a cold drink. In Usuzbekistan, they have peach flavored Fanta, which is actually really nice. [Music] That was a really brutally long day. 170 km. And the heat has ramped up this afternoon. It was not fun. So, we didn’t really film much because yeah, it was just exhausting. But, we’ve now got a day off, and we thought we’d treat ourselves a little bit. We’re staying here for £30 a night. And this is what it’s got. First outdoor swimming pool of the trip. And just there is the old city wall of Ka. And we’ll spend the next day, our rest day tomorrow exploring that. Apparently, it’s meant to be really cool. So, I’m looking forward to checking that out. But for now, time for a swim and some rest. [Music] These roads are so bad. Had like 150 km stretch now after we come off the main highway and they are awful. We’re having to cycle on the like the gravel bits to the side cuz it’s better than the tarmac and the temperatures are ramping up into the mid40s. Uh so it’s pretty brutal riding and we’ve got a headwind just to make things even better. Bit tired, are we? It’s >> hot. >> Hot? >> Yeah. >> There’s nice breeze. >> You are what? 43°. >> Yeah. It’s like being a haird dryer. Hello. >> Hello. >> Hello. >> Thank you. >> Hello. [Music] Josh is not in a good place. I feel for him. There’s a lot of criticism coming his way on the videos. It’s very easy for people in an armchair to poor scorn when they’re not the ones battling through this quite tough challenge. Let’s hope he uh he perks up today. Left the oasis bit now. A lot of trees. >> Yeah. >> Now it’s just desert. >> Only for several days. >> Yay. [Music] Already an hour in for the day. Sun is just rising up in front of us. Just getting as many kilometers in as we can before it gets really hot. A little bit of a headwind breeze, but we’re going to keep pushing on. [Music] Tell me about the hills. >> I’ll find some shade. >> Well done. Oh, >> well, there goes our shade. [Applause] [Music] >> The road just goes on for miles. What have you found? >> Found a building. >> Is there anything in it? >> No, it’s closed. >> It’s closed. We could have had some nice fish. >> Apart from all the oceans nearby. Hm. Landlock countries >> by landlock countries. Pretty impressive view of the river valley. And just the other side of it is Turk Menistan. One of the hardest countries in the world to get into. Just when we needed some ice cold refreshments, this place pops up. and he’s making the most this slept for a few hours this afternoon to get out the sun at a restaurant, but they’re giving us a private room so we can get our heads down for a couple hours if we didn’t get that much sleep last night and then we’ll go again back on the bikes this evening. That’s hopefully cool down a little bit. Had 6 hours rest in the restaurant. Got a couple of hours sleep and it’s 6:00 p.m. Little bit cooler. Hopefully, it will start to drop as well as we carry on. Got 40 km to the next settlement. We get there and then see how we’re doing. [Music] Got try and get in without getting attacked. Oh my days. try and get in. We arrived at a restaurant kind of truck stop and they’ve said we can sleep in a little room at the back and they just cooked us some food. So, we’re going to check into that and get our heads down for another early start tomorrow. [Music] 8:30. Sun’s already beating down and somebody’s taking time out. Oh, this uh this this desert leg’s proving a real tough one. Uh the heat is debilitating. The scenery impressive, but just consistently vast brown and light green. Uh, the road seems never ending and I’m finding it really tough now. That might be the best sight in the world. These headwinds are awful. We’re going at about 14 km an hour. And when there’s a shop, not for every 40 or 50ks. There’s quite long stretches between getting cold water. My mouth is as dry as anything. And it’s hot and it’s just hard work. It’s not fun at all. It’s definitely probably the hardest stretch of the trip so far, [Music] but only a little bit more to go. Well, that was probably the hardest ever day I’ve done on a bike. That was that was something. Sat out 3:00 a.m. Didn’t really sleep much at all because the room was so hot. And then the first hour I was fine, but then soon as the sun rose up, soon as the sun Yeah. rose, the winds picked up and then it just got hotter and hotter and hotter. Of course, the winds were headwinds. Um, so we were just cycling into a boiling hot haird dryer for the whole day. And there was meant to be sort of gas station, service station kind of restaurants every 20 km. This was on on the maps, but two or three of them were closed or completely abandoned. Um, and that meant we were doing 60 to 70 km stretches of just nothing. Um, and our water bottles were boiling. Luckily, a couple of the cars stopped and gave us some fresh water. But yeah, that was so tough. Um, but we’re here. We got this cheap little hotel, which 10 pound for the night. Just going to get good night’s sleep hopefully. It’s got AC, which is amazing. And then on the road again tomorrow into Barara. Well, early start today. Um, unfortunately with a bit of the belly. Uh, so it’s been emotional so far. just managed to get out first half an hour, 10ks in and Joshua suffered with it as well. So, um it could be could be quite a grim ride through the desert this morning. After attending to business in the desert, I came back to my bike to find this a camel spider and it was huge. Luckily, it scured off and we got to enjoy a pleasant hour of cycling towards the rising sun. Another early wake up call in the desert. I’ve got 100 kilometers to Bicara and then a day off to explore the city. But for now, we’re cycling through nothing just like we have been for the last 3 days. Stopped for a quick breakfast at 65ks in good pace. Dad’s got pomegranate. Yummy. Think. All of that food plus four drinks was 35,000 which about £2. And then they just came and gave us two free bottles of cold water as well. The locals here are incredible. We’re finally out of the desert. We pedled into the ancient city of Bicar where we spent a few hours cycling around the old city, taking in thousands of years of history. The architecture was beautiful and it was the perfect rest stop from the brutal desert. [Music] Well, the the heat and the sweating uh and the long days has created a bit of an issue with the uh the derriè. Um some fairly painful saddle sors have appeared. uh which is a first uh first for me. Um but it’s not making the riding any any any means pleasant. Um also not helped with the the runny tummy. Um which is still going strong. Luckily we’ve got today as a rest day. So hopefully we’ll get that cleared up before we set off again tomorrow. Otherwise, it’s going to be a very very emotional few days on the bike. So, not feeling great at the moment, but we’ll we’ll push through um and uh and bounce back into it. [Music] >> Rack has snapped just there. >> Looks like mine’s gone as well. They’ve both broken in exactly the same place. Must have been all those bumps we went over a couple of days ago. [Music] Got a temporary fix on it. Hopefully that holds for a while. Which way south? >> That way. >> Why is it? >> Well, cuz the sun’s rising over there. >> Yeah. How else do you know? >> I don’t. >> Oh, moon. Moon moon compass. >> Right. >> Take two points. Draw a line down the horizon. That’s south. >> Right. They are a full moon. >> You’ve had it. [Music] It’s only meant to get to a cool 35° today. However, in the UK, there’s a heat warning because it’s meant to get over 30. Yet, we’re out here boiling and it’s not even a hot day to use Beckistan. Some local cyclists just caught up with us. We have come to a restaurant to try the local use Pakistani dish of was it pl. [Music] It’s quite funny when the locals here ask where we’re from and we say England, they sometimes look confused. Then we’ll say London and they still look confused. But if we say Manchester, they 99% of the time will be like, “Oh, because one of the good used Pakistan football players plays from Manchester City. I don’t know how to say his name, but so they all know of Manchester. My bum is so sore. [Music] on the seams. You put your stuff on? >> Yeah. It’s just blistering all the way along. Where’s yours blistering? Like a line on the seams near there. Yeah. Look along there. Yeah. [Music] It is 3 in the morning and we’re setting out for a big day. We’ve got our first big climb in a month. The last time we did a climb like this was in Georgia. We’re currently at 900 m of elevation. We got to get up to 2,200 to cross this pass and then down the other side. So, yeah, we’re going to try to do it before it gets too hot. That’s why we’re setting out so early. Pikes are loaded. Let’s get going. We have now started the big climb. Got 1,200 meters to the top. [Music] Almost to the top and they’ve put a tunnel through the top of the mountain. Well, we got to the top and there was a big tunnel and the military wouldn’t let us through on our own. since we had to get an escort and they were very um adamant that we’ve been not allowed to film. So they kept saying no camera, no filming, no photos. Um but we made it through and now we’ve got a massive descent. Almost dropping 2,000 m. So that’s going to be fun. Get some speed. Woo! Let’s do it. [Music] hotel. Oh, shut >> today. No, of course. >> Any other hotel? [Music] >> No, the hotel’s closed today and it’s the only one. He said the next one’s in 30k and we’re 200k in. I don’t want to cycle anymore. 203 km, our longest ever day. That was a tough one. Self at 3 this morning. Had that massive climb up to 2,000 m and then a great descent and then just a tailwind and there was no hotels and it’s too hot to put up the tent during the day. Um, so we’re just going to keep pedaling until we either found a hotel or it got cool enough to put the tent up. Found this hotel. Thankfully, the owner is now here to let us in. Hopefully, we can get a good night’s sleep. But yeah, that was a brutal day. We got 10 hours of sleep after that 200 km day yesterday. And we’re now packing up the bikes, ready to head out for our final day here in Usuzbekistan as we’re going to cross this afternoon into Kyrgyzstan. [Music] Phantom one. Yeah. Oh, I should go again. >> Here’s a question for you. Would you prefer to have no winds for the whole trip or like we’re having some days headwind, some days cloud winds? No wind. Yeah, I agree. No, we just don’t like tendons are awful. Tailwinds don’t make up for it. >> And I’d rather have them downhill all the way. >> Well, yeah, that’s a given >> and smooth road. >> Not too hard. Now heading into our final few kilometers of Usbekistan and just reflecting on what an incredible and challenging two weeks. Probably the hardest two weeks of the trip so far with the heat and the remoteness, especially with that desert section. But it’s been fun. It’s been incredible. The people have been so friendly and kind. And now it’s time for a new adventure in Kystan. [Music]