Smack in the middle of the middle section of the Silk Road sits Samarkand – home of Tamerlaine or Timur the Lame, he who succeeded Genghis and Kublai Khan as the tyrant of tyrants of these lands of Central Asia. Timur was even more cruel but because he was Muslim the locals are so proud […]

As if she hadn’t had enough problems with men on this tour – what with the unruly masoginyst mob of Agre in Eastern Turkey who pushed her from her bike; to the “fashion police” of Iran who told her to wear her Burkha properly – Jo has got in strife with a man once again […]

The Silkriders wish to convey their condolencies to the families of Neil and Carol Bishop, so tragically killed in a road accident in Turkey. Without knowing anything apart from what’s been published about their horrific accident, we have often recounted at the end of a riding day through these parts on how many near misses […]

While wandering back to our Bukhara digs and trying not to fall in the open drain in the narrow high walled street I received an invite to a party. Well I didn’t know it was a party but being keen to see behind the walls I went in for “a cup of chai”. WOW a […]

Bound (more likely unbound) to happen, tummy upsets and worse are guaranteed to descended upon anyone travelling through the 3rd world. A generalisation about travel in these parts is that you eat what the locals eat – well as much as possible, keep your hands clean and purify your water. These are the keys to […]

We have a few Khanates (mini kingdoms) that the Khans (mongols) established across Central Asia which we’ll visit. Konye-Urgench was our first, and now we’re at Khiva, which is unique, in that the Soviets restored it to be a ‘living museum’. While it’s a bit sterile and like a theme park, it makes a nice […]

Turkey and Iran have got the most fascinating landscapes . I am now digging back 40 plus years to remenber some of the local geology ( Iam sure my friend Bruce will comment if I am too wrong ) The thing that struck me was the extent of Glaciation all the classic tell tale signs […]

As you head across the mainly desert wasteland a raised penninsular rises up where the run down town of Moynak is. Formerly a fishing village on the Aral sea and now 200km from the water” edge. The rivers that fed this unique ecosystem were diverted to grow cotton in another part of the desert under […]

It’s called the black desert, not because of the colour of its sand but because of the untoward things that befall those who attempt to traverse it. Mystical or felonous, the yarns over the centuries have made many in Turkmenistan very superstitious about venturing into this wasteland that occupies 80% of the country. It certainly […]

From muddy and dusty streets and adobe houses in the East of Iran we come over the mountains to what appears to be an American dream town Ashgabat in the desert. We are in shock as we didn’t expect such opulence and ostentatious wealth even though we had read of the oil and gas that […]