About uncommoncheros
Six kiwi entrepreneurs - Herb (Mark), JK (John), Paulie (Paul), Daz (Darren), Hongi (Gavin) & Brizza (Brian). Mainlanders who have a love for adventure. Into jetboating, fishing, hunting, travel, rugby and motorbikes. And a few quiet beers.
It was over one of those 'few quiet beers' that a plan was hatched to organise a motorbike trip through Central Asia - the stans.
So come August 8, some 12 months later, we set off to travel through Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan with a recovery weekend in Bangkok on the way home. After a few days exploring Moscow we hit Almaty (Kazakhstan) and meet up with motorbike expedition group SilkOffRoad who will provide our bikes, backup landcrusier and tour guide. With Herb taking charge of the Toyota - loaded with spare bikes, petrol, tents and the necessary vodka supplies - we crank up the Suzuki GR650's and head off for some 4500ks of adventure through some of the most remote and adventourous roads on the planet - taking us through places such as Taraz, Samarqand, Khujand, Dushanbe, Khorog, Gulcha and Bishkek.
The route will take us from the vast Kazakh steppes along the Zailiyskiy-Alatau Mountains into Uzbekistan where we will visit the ancient, 3,000 years old Silk Road cities of Samarkand. From there we go into Tajikistan up into the Fan Mountains. After a couple of days following the rugged Afganistan border we then head into the famous Pamirs - known as the roof of the world.
The Pamir mountains of Tajikistan are, without doubt, the least visited mountain range in the world. The Pamir highway, which is a route between Osh (Kyrgyzstan) and Khorog (Tajikistan) has a length of 728 km and is the second highest vehicle pass in the world standing at 4,655m above sea level - nearly 1,000 metres higher than Mt Cook (note: the worlds highest pass is on the nearby Karakoram Highway which stands at 4693m connecting China with Pakistan).
The Pamirs have been known since the earliest times, when first caravans went to ancient Egypt, bringing sky-colored lapis lazuli to the country - as part of the Great Silk Route. The well-known traveler of the 13th century, Marco Polo, on his way to China, visited the Pamirs.
From here we wind our way up through the Fergana valley (Kyrgzstan) into the mountains of Tien Shan crossing through the To-Ashu passs at 3,650m. From here we complete the route back to Almaty.
My Travel Map:
