After finally leaving Dushanbe we made our way to the small town of Panjakent close to the Uzbek border. We left most of our gear and cycled to the Seven Lakes from there with only a minimal load on our bikes. The ride up the narrow valley is a nice one and the lakes are a beautiful sight. Even the very steep sections of road could not stop us with the little weight we had on the bikes. Within one day we got all the way to the 6th lake and had a great time along the way. We were invited for tea and bread at lunch time and at the 3rd lake local fishermen offered us some freshly caught fish the fried for us. Once we got to the 6th lake we were looking for a quiet place to camp, but instead we found a large group of locals having a weekend off there. We joined their party and had great fun eating, playing cards and dancing. Next morning we went for a short hike to lake #7 before heading back down the valley. At the 2nd lake we met back up with Daniel who had taken a different route through the mountains before. We had a fun evening with a another lovely British couple who is travelling around in their Landrover.

After leaving the lakes it was time to get into Uzbekistan. From Panjakent it was only a short ride to the city of Samarkand. The scenery changed completely, gone were the steep mountains and we found ourselves in a flat and scorching desert. We took a few days in Samarkand to rest our still troubled stomachs and to explore the old city. The architecture is impressive and we enjoyed the oriental atmosphere in town. From Samarkand we then cycled the last 270km with Daniel to get to the city of Bukhara. Every day was above 40°C and the sun was merciless. After having cycled 150km by 5pm, we were still ambitious and wanted to push our limits a little: Cycling 200km in one day. We were committed and just after the sun set, we hit the 200km and felt like superheroes! The next day we reached Bukhara by lunch time and were glad to get out of the heat. In the early morning the next day we set out to explore the ancient city before the heat would get unbearable. It was lovely having few other tourists and acceptable temperatures to dive into this amazing city.

In Bukhara we had to say goodbye to Daniel as he is heading South through Turkmenistan and Iran to get to Africa eventually. Our path would lead us West but the prospects for cycling were not really nice. We would have had to ride in desert for most of the time with scorching temperatures and possible head winds, so we chose the train over torturing ourselves. Our first train got us to the ancient city of Khiva. It was the last place we wanted to visit in Uzbekistan and it turned out to be another highlight. The walled ancient city is known for being well-preserved and restored and we had a great day strolling through the city and visiting museums and mosques.

The next train did not leave from Khiva but from Nukus, another 170km further towards Kazakhstan. Again, it was incredibly hot and with our next train leaving at 4am, we chose to just push ourselves again and get to Nukus in just one day. When we got to the station in Nukus we were depleted entirely, the heat was almost too much to bear. We slept in the station for a while before getting on the train that would get us to Beyneu, Kazakhstan. It was very hot on the train but the ride passed relatively quickly anyway. A local woman shared all her tea and food with us, so actually did enjoy ourselves. Crossing the border meant waiting both on the Uzbek and Kazakh side for the soldiers to check passports, stamp them and to check our luggage. After 15h we finally reached Beyneu. After a few more hours we finally got on our final train that would get us to Aktau. We arrived in the morning as planned and had one last important task to do: Sending Droni to Tbilisi, Georgia, as importing drones into Azerbaijan is illegal. With nobody speaking English in the post office it took a while to get it organised but we sent Droni on its way eventually.

We got ourselves a local sim card to find out when the next ferry to Azerbaijan would leave and to our surprise, we were told it would be leaving just the next day - perfect! That gave us just enough time to get to the port in Kuryk 80km South of Aktau. In addition to these good news, there were even better ones. I am officially an uncle now, my brother and sister in law just had their first child. Finn was born on July 19 and is a healthy and beautiful boy. I am so happy for them and I cannot wait to meet him once we will be back in Germany in November.
In the evening we got to the ferry port and after a bumpy night of sleep and plenty of waiting the next morning, we got on the boat at noon time and left shortly after that. The sail was a bit choppy at times but nothing to shaky. It took us 22h to get to Baku, but the time just flew past with many other travellers on board. That's how we reached Azerbaijan and we will keep on riding towards Georgia and Europe from here.

All the best from Azerbaijan,
Have a great tail wind,
Vroni & Jonas (Droni sends greetings from inside its package :D)