Pictures about our Italy – Samarkand Motorbike round trip in 2014. Umberto Straccia & Maria Pia Nuti. You can find also pictures on Facebook here
Samarqand Motorbike Tour 2014
Samarqand Motorbike Tour 2014: Itinerary
Samarqand Motorbike Tour 2014: Itinerary
Bike
Pamukkale, Turkey
Wonderful lake in Turkey between Pamukkale and Goereme
On the road in Cappadocia….
Güzelyurt, Cappadocia
Uchisar, Cappadocia
Güneş Hotel almost on top of Nemrut. Nice place to stay to get to the top of Nemrut (30min of walk)
Nemrut
This horse deserves retirement …
Lake Van
On lake Van we hit the hell of a thunderstorm. No way to continue. Had to stop on the street and wait. It was THE test for our riding suits
Doğubayazıt, Turkey and close to Iran (target of next day).
Ishak Pasha Palace, Doğubeyazıt, Turkey
View from the Ishak Pasha Palace down to Doğubeyazıt
Time to go to Iran… we are unsure what to expect..
Ehhmmm, Iran border: around 10km of queue of trucks only… no car, no motorbike. No way to go through. We had to move forward on the opposite line… where no one was coming from, which did not comfort us too much…
Don’t read farsi, so a good map and GPS map are required
Iran’s country side view
A short break … 40 degrees warm and my wife had to wear always something on the head….ufff
Fresh and dried fruits are very good in Iran
A characteristic restaurant in Tabriz, Iran
Drugs are forbidden in Iran, of course, but their tobacco seems to have some side effects…
To be honest, newer seen drivers as crazy as in Tabriz… either you adapt or you don’t will survive …
Incredible mountains…
Homes…Iran, country side
Bazaar in Qazvin, Iran
My wife in the Mosque of Qazvin, Iran
Towards the desert, Iran
Caravanserail after Damghan, unfortunate that it was closed
No clue what all these flags are about in the desert
Ufff, what the hell is this truck doing coming ahead driving on my line…
The biggest surprise in Iran: the people are incredibly friendly. A real pleasure.
Mashhad
We were lucky to be allowed to get into the Imam Reza Shrine in Mashhad. Thanks to the local organisation to provide us a guide.
Iman Reza Shrine, Mashhad
From Mashhad towards Sarakhs, on the border of Turkmenistan
Always a lot of curiosity …
Border of Turkmenistan. The worst one we have ever got through. It took three and a half hour. Terribly complicated: the admin is simply impressive ..and I spent 4 months to get a transit visa…
Colourful turkmen woman, quite relaxed at the border
Eventually, we entered Turkmenistan
Main traffic on the road…. needs time…
Main traffic on the road…. needs time…
Not really relaxing roads…and we turn towards Mary, my wife’s name.
Mary, city with empty buildings…
The only hotel in Mary…we were alone there…
A class of scholars in Mary, Turkmenistan
In the desert between Mary and Türkmenabat
Desert in Turkmenistan
Appears to be an ambulance in Türkmenabat.. hope we do not need one…
Towards Farab, border between Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan
Entrance of Bukhara. A fully loaded car on front of us.
But, overloaded cars seem really to be the sport here
Bukhara, here we are! Wonderful.
Bukhara.
Bukhara.
The Arc wall in Bukhara
Main attraction in Bukhara
Leaving Bukhara towards Samarkand. Old methods are still good ones…
Shahrisabz, Uzbekistan. The great Amir Temur was born here
Beginning of Samarkand province
After a short game of soccer…
The way down to Samarkand we encountered the champion of champions for overloaded trucks…
Entrance to Samarkand….wondering what to expect else
Samarkand, Registan Square. Impressive. Quite happy to make it till here.
We were lucky: Two weddings at Registan square, Samarkand
This is Peter Krutza, a brilliant young men. It was a pleasure to listen to his recommendations…
Search for this beautiful B&B (called Antica) in Samarkand. Almost impossible to find.
Me, Herve Noble and Peter Kruza, which we meet at Samarqund.
Breakfast at Antica B&B (Samarkant). with Peter Kruza and Herve Noble. One of the finest moments.
PS: We had a new entry, Nathalie…getting a wonderful group
Strolling around Samarkand: Bibi-Khanym Mosque
Samarkand, market
Inside Registan square, Samarkand
Samarkand, Amir Temur Mausoleum and Tomb
Dangerous lunch? No, of course. He put a cardboard box behind the truck, just to be sure no one will hit into him from behind the truck ….what about from the top?
Finding the right road and fuel isn’t always so easy as at home, even with maps and navigator…
…and here we are, Peter run out of fuel.. Herve’ gave Peter his 4l fuel reserve can. Herve”s low fuel warning light was also on since a while and he wondered why he didn’t stop before Peter.. I was in a more comfortable position… My board computer told me that I’ve still 5km to go before standing still..but I had also 7l fuel in my reserve cans. So, overall we had in average 3.7l available, better than nothing…
Eventually, we found a fuel station at which after a long-lasting discussion with local people we were able to convince them to call the fuel station owner, to give us fuel. Here we are waiting a while for him to arrive. I do not yet understand why in Uzbekistan there are so many closed fuel stations…
For some unclear reasons, the usual Uzbek-Kazak border crossing after Tashkent, was closed for us. So we went to a second one, which was closed as well for us. After another heated discussion with locals, the told us to go back another 80km to try the boarder crossing at Yallama. Two young man showed us the way…which we figure out later on will cost us a fortune…
Towards Yallama. Pictorial representation of mechanical unstable equilibrium
After a very heated discussion with the guys that guided us to the border about the amount of money to pay them, after nerve-racking 3.5 hours of administrative formalities at the boarder, eventually, at sunset we were able to cross the Uzbek-Kazak boarder… but the next village is at 70km from here and driven in the dark isn’t really recommended around there
Driving towards Saryagash looking for an accommodation were to sleep…I almost hit this cow on front of me…
Uff, very late in the evening, thanks to a taxi driver, we were able to find an accommodation in Saryagash (pict is from day after). INHM, the town appeared somewhat hostile to us…
Shymkent, time to split…Hope to see you soon somewhere. Keep on moving!
Towards Kyzylorda, Kazakstan, endless Steppe
Hotel in Kyzylorda, Kazakistan. Watch out. We had to park the bike in an armed guarded residence…was feeling unsafe around here
Condominium in Kyzylorda, Kazakistan.
Watch out of the wildlife … e.g., horses are around everywehere and do not care about you coming…
Distractions are not allowed on Kazak terrible roads…
You always hope that one time is enough, but it isn’t…
The road development plan outcome of a Kazak engineer after too many beers…tarmac is just like butter
This one seems not to hurry … wondering how much fuel it consumes for 100km, less than my GS for sure…
On the M32 from Aralsk to Aktobe… take it relaxed, you need some time for it…No clue what the enlargement is good for….going right or left towards where?
And, of course, take fuel as soon as you have the opportunity to do so…
Good to find some fuel… after 280km
Between Aktobe and Oral
Shymkent – Samara, 2250km through endless steppe coming closely to an end (only 300km and we are done)
Succulent dinner at Oral, Kazakistan, 08 June 2014. Best dinner since a while. For good reasons, its our 17th year marriage anniversary :-))
Farmer close to Samara, Russia
Plenty of space for agriculture in Russia
Lovely, my bike didn’t complain at any time…unlike me: I was dreaming of playing billiard…
Fuel station with two fuel pumps only and ..
…and a bunker for the fuel station owner … The owner told us that in this region of Russia guns and swords are the main arguments to get fuel for free…
Voronezh, Russia. Another place to avoid. If you ask for help, people turn you the back. We also went into a restaurant and the owner told us “no turist”. Wanted to change money in a bank, but they didn’t allow me to get in….
10km from the Russia – Ukraine border on E101. Last stop on Russian ground … at least I thought so…
Unfortunately, on the Russia -Ukraine boarder things turned out to be more complicated as planned. Apparently our bike turned out not to be registered on the Russian computer system and the order was: take your luggage out, your bike is confiscated. If you like you can walk to the Ukraine border and ask for a drive to Kiev where you fly back home …after incredulous hours, with the help of an eng… See More
First stop in Ukraine for a “cold” tea, after some military blocks, a police fine for too much speed in no mens land…apparently in the forest the limit was 50km/h, while I drove 105km/h… another way for the police to get some extra money….
Never seen that many storks as in Ukraine
Kiev, Ukraine. There were some problems in the center, so we decided to go around it…
Nice Hotel in Zhytomyr (I believe). First stop in Ukraine after the Russia -Ukraine border nightmare. Sunday evening and there was a wedding banquet. We were the only guest there. We were lucky because we got a very good dinner, but… the morning, after a too long night with music, was a real surprise. They forgot about us and closed the Hotel. No way to go out. Eventually, we found a way out from the fire escape door in the underfloor … Unlucky that we paid the evening before …and the kitchen was unreachable …
City center of lviv, Ukraine. On UNESCO’s world heritage list. Wonderful, and seems to have nothing in common with Ukraine.
City center of Lviv, Ukraine
Last lunch stop with our daily Borsch soup…Hell, hope not seeing that thing for quite a while… not to speak about the public toilet here… just an overly filled hole in the pavement…disgusting :-(( The bush is by far a better option..
Hungary, nice to be in Europe again. It’s feeling like home.
Diner at Gödöllő, Hungary, just before Budapest. Lovely place and good Goulash !
Gödöllő, Hungary
Short drive through Budapest. We where there already, so no stop again
Slovenia, very nice. Need to come here again and spend some more time.
After a month of biking, it was a relieve to see this, which also announces a great dinner at Trieste
Trieste, wonderful. If you have a chance, stop half a day here.
Trieste, Italy
This is it how it looks like when after a month of lamb I get tasteful spaghetti “allo scoglio”… :-))
Here we are back home sweet home. Happy, exhausted and, thank god, crew and machine still in one piece
