I
am already feeling the pressure of a date to adhere to.
Uzbekistan border first week of June. The sad thing is we don’t even
have the visa yet.
Leaving
camp shortly after 8am we are making some miles today. Sitting on red
and orange and cruising.
We
passed a sandstone quarry and this weird house for bird watching or
something.
These
decoy cop cars with flashing lights and all are very common. I have
always said that we should have them in Australia just ensuring every
3rd or 4th is a real one.
Stopping
in Zara we had a bite to eat and saw these small milking machines for
sale. We had seen them being used in the field in South America but
have not seen them here. Maybe they milk inside here.From here we are on yellow road and a bit slower in places.
Wonderful landscape we traveled through
Finally
made it to the beginning of the tunnels to be met with this sign
saying only 1.7m wide and 2.2m high.
The
first tunnel looked OK so we entered.
What
an amazing place. Every now and again there would be a hole in the
wall so the miners could push the rocks down towards the river, or we
would be out of one tunnel briefly before entering the next. The
tunnel was just hewn out of rock no concrete anywhere, large enough
for two cars to pass.
About
2km’s in was an opening that had plenty of space for an earth
cruiser between tunnel and river. And as it turned out space for 3
small tents as well.
About
bed time we were joined by 3 fisherman who were probably quite
disconcerted to see “their“ spot taken up by foreigners! They
invited john for tea but he was ready for bed. It was raining when
they arrived and I assumed they’s pitch their tents inside the
access tunnel but when they went to bed in the wee hours of the
morning they had their tents pitched in front of EC near the bank to
the river 30meters below.
377km
377km