The wind got up in the night and the surf rolled in all
of 10" high but quite noisy and raised the level of the water
so we were now perched half as far from the water as last night. And
the water was all mud colored. A little army colored jeep came in
early and checked us our. It came back about 10ish. The wind had died
down a bit by now and the surf had backed off. I went out to say
hello but they were interested in a guy in the water swimming in with
a couple of floats. It appeared that the floats wee holding up a
sugar sack of fish and the net. I was not allowed to take a photo
but was given four fish for dinner….
I
gutted and beheaded the fish then we drove back into Bukhara.
We
got stopped at the train crossing for about 10 minutes. They have
steel parts in the road that hydraulic up that is another barrier to
not being able to cross as well as the boom gate. A little man in his
“office” sits there and pushes the buttons or pulls the leaver when a train is coming. Doesn’t seem automated.
We
found a paid park in Bukhara. At what we thought was 5000som an hour
AU$1. Just feels a little safer leaving the vehicle.
Wondered
around visiting a few of the sites. Checked out a few carpet shops
again. Just looking and dreaming…. One day. We walked a little from
the main tourist area and had lunch opposite the castle.
We
paid AU$6 each to enter the castle. Not much of the walled area
appeared to be open to public. Saw a few different museums coins,
nature.
Back
to EC paying our 5000som AU$1 for the 4 hours.
The embroidered silk jackets were beautiful but sadly no room in EC
A lovely spot for lunch
Heading
south east towards Termez, the map showed a track leading our to the
lake. We would not make the lake but thought we would be able to camp
on the track. However the start of the track had shut gates and a no
stopping sign on it. We noticed a small flat section down by the
canal so went to the nearby house to ask if OK. They were fine with
it so we camped below road level next to the canal. Some other guys
came by and John went and spoke them. One guy was the guy with the
gate key he was letting a vehicle through. They seemed all happy with
us being there. No Internet.
Was
just starting the dishes when a real aggro guy came along shouting at
us from the top of the bank. John went up to him to be told we had
to leave right now and we can’t be there. He was very very angry,
but indicated the other side was OK and this side had a no stopping
sign see, 20m away on the gate. John said we needed 15 minutes to
get packed up but he was not happy with that.
Half
way through packing up he started yelling again.
He
just had to wait, then we needed to turn in the dark which took a few
more minutes. We had no idea why he was so angry or way we needed to
move.
Across
the bridge and down the other side a couple of km’s to perch above
the canal at road level.
I
was about to climb in the shower when a car stopped beside us and 4
guys got out. One introduced himself as a detective and he had some
English, the other a uniformed cop, some-one else and yes our aggro friend
from the other side of the canal. The detective was nice and friendly
asked what we were doing checked our passports couldn’t or wouldn’t
tell us why the other guy was so aggro. The detective was OK with us
staying the night and as they left Mr Aggro was still having a go at
the cops…….
Finally a shower and a collapse
into bed.
He
kinda did us a favor as we had good internet.
103km