Bukhara

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I was going to start walking at five in the morning, because I knew I was probably going to have to make 50k today. Only then I decided to sleep until seven, and I left the hotel at eight.

On my way out of town, I stopped at this gentleman’s house:

People in Uzbekistan seem to enjoy gardening, and so did he:

He showed me his courtyard with the traditional outdoor bed for hot days:

And when I said that I liked mulberries, he called his sons and they showed me how they went about to get them:

It only took about ten seconds and we had a whole plate of mulberries:

Knowing that my walking day was going to be rather long, I said good-bye after maybe fifteen minutes and got back on my way.

It felt good to be outside. Hot, yes. But there were some nice things to see:

Mostly it was just hot, though:

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When I realized that there was no restaurant anywhere to have lunch in, I got myself some tomatoes and some cherries:

And then I sat down in the shade next to the road, after 30km of walking:

This was how Astrid and Johannes from Germany found me:

They were riding their bikes in the other direction, and they told me that they really liked Turkmenistan: friendly people, easy-going police. Just a bit hot down there apparently.

I felt intrigued.

I had some mulberries on the way:

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These people were getting water from a well:

I didn’t. I stuck to bottled water because I was worried about my stomach.

When I arrived in a small town that was supposed to have a hotel, Bakhran told me that I was probably going to be out of luck:

He turned out to be right.

I got some more water and a bottle of ice tea in a shop next to the road:

Then I got a loaf of flat bread from this guy:

And then I sat down here to have dinner:

I munched through a can of corn with my bread, and then I washed it down with ice-tea. Then these guys appeared:

They had tons of questions, but I felt too tired to answer them all.

I walked well into the night:

Set foot onto Bukharan soil at about 9pm:

Crossed a two lane highway that was trying to kill me a half hour later:

And reached the old town at about 10pm:

When I found a hotel, I went straight into the shower, then I sat down on the bed and immediately fell asleep. I woke up in a very confused state about two hours later, brushed my teeth, and went back to sleep.