Day 85 to Denau, Uzbekistan, 105km, 7236 to date.  291m up, 597m end

Hot, but an easy day.

Crossed from Tajikistan into Uzbekistan, this is country #7 of the trip.  The border crossing was a bit entertaining, i.e. slow.  They very carefully went through all our bags, including looking at every picture on my laptop.  Most of us have fairly serious bags of medical supplies, a lot got confiscated.  Also, one of the guys has a drone that he has used to capture some excellent photography - the drone was confiscated, actually not confiscated but thrown out. So much for $1,000.

Not any pictures as the countryside is flat agricultural land.  Of interest is that every piece of land is under cultivation.  There has been a change from the very small family/subsistence farming in high mountains (Pamirs) to the large “industrial” farms that are are now the norm in the valley, flat lands.

Both in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan there is a common gesture - holding the right hand over the heart and nodding at you - this is like saying “you are in my heart”, a form of high respect.  A gesture that I have commonly been the recipient of.  Also almost every car that passes us on the road, both in the city and on the highway, beeps and waves, usually with a thumbs up.  Commonly with a “welcome to Uzbekistan”.

We are in a hotel tonight, they like 3-storey walkups in this part of the world - really fun carrying a heavy bad in 30+C temperatures.  Two odd (to our eyes) sights this evening - the hotel is on the equivalent of Blanchard St., in Victoria, quite similar in many ways, except the occasional cow wanders through the parking lot and feeds on the boulevard grass.  Then shortly after a quite well dressed older gentlemen rides past on a donkey.

The web connection here is impossible.  I'll try again tomorrow.  Presently in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.