BACK to the DESERT! - UZBEKISTAN 🇺🇿 - Australia to Scotland by road - Episode 76

The crossing to Uzbekistan involved one of the most thorough inspections we have experienced. There was a full physical search of the Troopy which involved removing all belongings, searching all fixed items, and careful crosschecking of all paperwork which was carried out by several friendly border officers. One thing which is usually difficult to communicate at borders is when we’re requested to bring all bags in for searching, we don’t have any! We’ve came to the realisation that simply taking and showing the officials the back of the Troopy helps get the message across. The guards explained that there is a drug problem between Tajikistan/Uzbekistan which gave cause for their sampling of all our herbs and spices, and giving the Troopy a fuel tank endoscopy!
With the formalities out of the way we were on our way to the Samarkand. Before doing anything though we had a little more work to do on the Troopy. Heading to Panjakent the previous day we had heard a noise coming from the rear diff so at our restaurant camp spot we took both the rear wheels off to check the brake pads, they were worn pretty badly!The Troopy runs ‘pretty’(very) heavy and all the mountainous roads had taken their toll. Thankfully we carry spares so changing them out wasn’t so much a problem, it was more finding somewhere suitable in the fading daylight. We decided to look up a mechanic and after finding one with good reviews we made a beeline. To our surprise the workshop was owned by a young Uzbek man called Oscar who had not long returned from working in Sydney for the last 12 years. He quickly organised one of his trades to have the replacement pads put in and, seeing as it was 5pm on a Saturday, we decided to shout him a beer. Oscar showed us to one of his favourite local restaurants and treated us to some delicious local Uzbek cuisine - a lot of Uzbek cuisine, so much so we nearly went into a food coma! The hospitality of Central Asia continued and Oscar obliged to be our guide the following day and show us around the city, most notably to the markets (unfortunately our camera died so no footage) and the Registan.
The Registan is a combination of mosaic tile covered Madrasahs framing a central square which was the heart of the ancient city. Built in stages over a period of 200 years it was used as a public square where locals gathered to hear announcements, see parades, and executions. The three buildings (Madrasahs) were used for studies, science, prayer, and as a residential college. Over the 2700 years Samarakand has been inhabited it has been ruled by Persians, Greeks, Turks, Mongols, Chinese and Russians. This combined with its strategic position on the silk road made it a crossroads of cultures and in 2001 it was recognised and placed on the UNESCO world heritage list for that exact reason.
After staying the night camped out the back of Oscar’s workshop we packed up and begun to head north. The end goal was to get to Nukus in the far North West of which there is a crossing to Turkmenistan. Contrasting to Tajikistan the roads here are straight and long, and the landscape is dramatic in a very different way. Once on the outskirts of the city the lush greenery began to reside and the topography dropped to near flat. Before long that’s all there was and as far as the eye could see was desert. The landscape coupled with the temps in the early 40s (degC), we were taken back to our time touring the Australian outback. The weather fluctuations here are significant through the year ranging from -25degC to 45degC. The roads appeared to cop the brunt of it being cracked and potholed, the further we pushed north though it appeared progress was being made with the installation of a huge concrete dual carriage way.
We drove until close to dark before finding a track off the highway and made our way into the dunes to a nice quiet desert camp. We awoke the next morning to find we weren’t the only ones out our remote desert camp!…….
Thanks for watching!
Jolie and Mark
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[@flipperseru]

Can’t wait for the next video Love all the beautiful video,s so far Thanks 🙏

[@gameoftrout5098]

Love from pakistan.lovely Uzbekistan 😍

[@TheWayOverland]

🙂

[@aph1555]

I discovered your channel recently. I have now watched every episode. What a amazing journey you are on. Keep it going

[@TheWayOverland]

Cheers, thanks for the support!

[@robkeith1776]

Hey Jolie and Mark. Greetings from Oz. Remarkable building the Rajistan. The disc pads have served you well. Thanks for taking us along on your journey.

[@TheWayOverland]

Thanks Rob. You're right, the Troopy is very (too) heavy and we've crossed some rather large mountains over that past year so those pads definitely got a workout. Don't want to be misleading too mate though we're in Aus. at the moment, just catching up on footage till the borders reopen. The Troopy's in the Caucasus patiently waiting for us to get back and keep driving. Cheers

[@terryvictor1]

Cool architecture! & love the Fredericks! 😀

[@TheWayOverland]

🤣 Thanks Terry, it's probably not difficult to notice Jolie's fondness for animals!.....

[@worstchannelever5232]

Cute Squirrels 🙂

[@Onward4x4]

I've been watching your videos going backwards... so far I really enjoy them!

[@johndiaz7240]

Thank you

[@smiznak]

You mentioned how there's no diesel. I can imagine little Fred flexing his front paws and going "I got your diesel right here mate!"

[@colinross6259]

Can understand the border check. Lol, dodgey duo rollin up. When convenient, get that brake caliper rebuilt, it's binding causing your accelerated pad wear. No biggy, if happy to keep putting pads in. How good to come across a bloke that lived in Oz to do repairs. Luck of the angels. Little tip. If you want to get closer to small animals, reduce your height, you won't look so threatening. Wise move with the extra fuel. Bad headwind, all of a sudden, oops.

[@TheWayOverland]

Haha thanks Colin, evidently we are very suspicious characters! 🥸 We pulled that rear assembly apart again in Bandung, Indo after the original swap to see if there was anything noticeable on the piston etc with no such luck. Resorted to waiting for a full rebuild when we get her home, or maybe Europe depending on timing. Happy to do the swap outs in the mean time. There’s been a few very generous people from different walks of life we’ve met in our travels who really set the tone for an area/country, Oscar was one of them. Great bloke!

[@ronellefiji]

Love traveling with you! ...and...yes, the music 🤣

[@stevestott3652]

Great video again . Looked like a awesome city to visit with all those beautiful buildings . And the history of it all . Food looked good to made me hungry 😋 . Cheers and thanks for sharing your awesome videos with us all your over landing friends. From Steve Stott in Sutherlin Oregon U.S.A.

[@TheWayOverland]

Thanks Steve! Hungry is definitely not something we felt after our time with Oscar, he generously fed us enough to feed a small family! Great food though and great company. Cheers

[@tawan20082008]

love your videos!

[@czajkinadwoda]

Hi guy’s lovely to watching yourz adventure, how long take urz to travel roundKyrgistan Tajikistan n Uzbekistan ❤

[@azadkashmir9939]

great country ,,,,,,

[@shahnawazhanjra6531]

U both awesome nd great keep it up GOD blessing u 👍♥️🇵🇰

[@TheWayOverland]

Thank you 🙌

[@aletnortje8929]

Great vid! We have similar little buggers in the Southern African semi desert and we call them ground squirrels, but I don't know if that's even what they're really called. They are inquisitive and can sometimes even be a little bother when we are prepping food ;)

[@TheWayOverland]

You mean you didn't call them Fredericks!? 😂 Thankfully I don't think these ones see many humans so they were keeping their distance. I can imagine the food prep difficulties though, the monkeys in South East Asia were bad for that too!

[@CCCP_Again]

Love your content. Gives us a proper pov.

[@TheWayOverland]

Thanks Muhammad

[@jakeharris9293]

Iv just gone past you in Cannock England smart space van have a gooden 👍🏼

[@navgoraya3198]

Nice one. I liked the music in the beginning 👌👍⛰⛰👏

[@TheWayOverland]

Thanks 👍

[@AllenSLFONG]

Appreciate the info on diesel fuel

[@JonoNJD7]

Sadly I've made it to the final episode which has been released. But I am a Patreon now, so hoping to contribute even a little bit. Turkmenistan will be interesting, it'll be good to see parts that aren't just Ashgabat. And hopefully there will be heaps of footage for Iran, despite what happened. Hope you're both well, saving up back home for all that European diesel 😂

[@TheWayOverland]

Cheers for the support Jono, did you catch the Turkmen ep on Patreon yet? Not too much to see outside Ashgabat, lots of desert and a mighty big bbq! Haha yeah would love to see those Turkmen diesel prices in Europe! Would make the budgeting MUCH less intensive!

[@asviagens]

O love your videos, thank you. Can you put coordinates of your sleeping spots? I'm preparing a trip on central Ásia with tight schedule

[@georgingenbleek5319]

Great videos. I enjoy every episode. Can you let me now which camera equipment you are using.

[@TheWayOverland]

Cheers, we use a Sony A7R with 15-35mm and 70-200mm lenses.

[@Zacker72]

You've done it again. Great videos. One question, how do you keep cool or warm at night in that camper? And, since you've been out for few years, what's are the setup work and what's not. Can you guys do another videos on your rig, which really work? Thanks

[@TheWayOverland]

Thanks Zac, we have fans in the bed space to keep cool and just use extra bedding layers for when it’s for when it’s cold. We have a bed down the bottom as well we can use when it’s really cold. It’s better insulated down there. We’ve made a video with a full run through of the Troopy which we might put up soon...

[@Zacker72]

@@TheWayOverland cool. wish can meet you guys when you're back in town. so much to learn.

[@richardevans2534]

Hey guys. Love your videos Can I ask a question about your solar panel. It looks like a fixed one so did you suffer any damage with all the corrigations?

[@TheWayOverland]

Hey Richard, thankfully no damage to the panel, I imagine the fact the roof can move slightly seperate to the body may dampen some of the corrugations. This does however cause unwanted stress on the roof buckles which we've had ongoing issues with.

[@jaccoanker4540]

Great video!! I am planning a similar trip for next year from the Netherlands to central asia. What is your fuel range??

[@TheWayOverland]

Cheers Jacco, we average 1200kms, good luck with the trip!

[@TripsandFeasts1]

How come you didn’t go to Khiva? Or did you leave it out of this video? I spent a week there and along with Samarkand, it was a highlight of Uzbekistan. Although I did twist my ankle there :-((

[@TheWayOverland]

We weren't actually past Khiva at this stage though yes we didn't end up going. It was already 45 deg C and it wasn't even summer so we decided to keep moving. In hindsight we wish we had've gone though we can always go back and see the cities, getting out in to the more remote areas makes use of the Troopy. No good about your ankle!!

[@meiwing12]

I am glad you are travelling again. Which countries will you go through to get to UK. Is there a route map?

[@TheWayOverland]

Thanks Melissa, not travelling yet though. COVID has us grounded unfortunately. The final countries are a bit up in the air at the moment, we’ll see what the border situation is for different countries as the year goes on. Eastern Europe looks pretty incredible though!

[@999mrkhaled]

Hi guys can u please let us know what do u do regarding the drawn in non allowed countries

[@FrozenVision11]

Stupid question but... what's the weather like in Uzbekistan? mostly warm i think..

[@TheWayOverland]

Very warm in the summer - highest around 45degC, cold in the winter - lowest around -25degC. Reasonably similar to other countries in this region.

[@OsamahAlrasheedi]

How bad is diesel over there? Can you easily find ULSD there? My car require 50 diesel and planning to do a trip over there.

[@TheWayOverland]

We can't talk for Uzbek diesel as we never needed to fill up in the country, it might be ok though as it wasn't sold legally when we were there we can only assume that it was sub-par. Newer CRD engines might have issues. Diesel from the reputable Russian brand stations in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan however were good.

[@oldandgrumpy6284]

Hi, you haven't updated your KZbin channel for ages. Are you okay and safe? Thanks

[@tawan20082008]

will you guys ever travel again? I'm deeply sorry about what happened in Iran!!!

[@baltaarias]

What happened?

[@TheWayOverland]

Definitely, just waiting for these borders to reopen!

[@TheWayOverland]

We were stuck there a lot longer then we would have liked to have been.

[@JohnHMoore]

@@TheWayOverland Understatement of the decade...

[@AshleyPearceImages]

@@TheWayOverland that’s an understatement!

[@momiami7974]

How many miles do you get per gallon??

[@TheWayOverland]

Around 7kmpL, so what’s that like 16mpg? It’s essentially a big white whale 🚐

[@momiami7974]

@@TheWayOverland but shouldn't diesel give u more miles?

[@TheWayOverland]

Not necessarily, there’s a few factors which effect our range: fuel quality, weight, tyres, drag, road conditions, weather conditions, and generally how it’s been driven. A different Troopy with a different combination of these factors may be more efficient. A little more efficient for us would be great though we’re comfortable so we’re accept the mpg.

[@mark2073]

@@TheWayOverland Is it a 1HZ?

[@baltaarias]

Love your vídeos! But I have to say that is very, very difficult for me to understand you... I wonder if you could speak slower

[@TheWayOverland]

Thanks, though unfortunately we can't help much there as they're all recorded!

[@wolfgangwust5883]

Could you manage to hide your drone from customs? I believe they react allergic to foreigners bringing drones into UZ.

[@TheWayOverland]

Yeah it just stayed in it’s storage location. Not exactly hiding though some parts are just more difficult to get to then others. They were more interested in looking for drugs (and stowaways) with us!

[@wolfgangwust5883]

@@TheWayOverland Thanks for the info!

[@mdrasheduzzaman5139]

Wow lot of drinking for a Muslim country unusual

[@TheWayOverland]

These (northern) Stan countries love a drink! Not sure if it’s a carry over from Soviet times.