Taking the long way home from Japan to Frome, UK
Nine months passed between deciding that Fromeward Bound was going to happen and finally leaving Tokyo. During that time I did a huge amount of researching and planning – reading blogs and forums, pouring over maps, etc. – and created quite a clear idea in my head of how I thought things would play out.
Despite all that ‘deep’ thinking, some things have turned out a bit differently…..
Our very first night on the road
Setting
Due to the road literally being honed from the mountain side with the river raging below; small picturesque villages have settled where the valley, on occasions, widens and flattens. As occasionally happens, dusk started to fall before we had found somewhere good to camp. And so it was we found ourselves having to stop, before darkness completely fell, just off from the road in a large lay-by. It was far from ideal but at least we managed to tuck ourselves next to a small half built building.
Looking out across the road to the mountains of Afghanistan
Setting
At the moment we are driving from Khorugh to Dushanbe in Tajikistan. The road follows the Panj River as it meanders between numerous mountains. On one side of the river is Afghanistan and on the other is Tajikistan. At times the river narrows as it flits through tight canons and you come so tantalisingly close to the people and dwellings of Afghanistan. As this is a porous border there are Tajik soldiers manning several check points along the road but also keeping ‘an eye’ on any unwanted activity from ‘across the river.’
The view of Afghanistan from our camping spot
In the west it seems it’s all the rage at the moment to build houses from shipping containers. However, throughout all of Kyrgyzstan it’s old news and we have seen shipping containers being reused in all manner of creative ways.
Container plus windows and doors
Sunset at Song Kol. It was bloody cold that night.
The bazaar at Karakol where you can buy everything you might ever want. Apart from the thing we needed.
#1 Shipping containers are recycled in all manner of new uses (see my separate blog post!)
#2 There is a plethora of VW cars – Golf Mark 2, Passat, Jetta and lots of Audis from the same era too
#3 Morrison shopping bags seem to be cropping up in quite a few of the smaller supermarkets
#4 Yet more apples and huge mounds of the biggest butternut squashes I have ever seen
#5 All the taxis are Mercedes vans
#6 Many of the towns and villages have tree lined roads of huge Poplar trees – they are so beautiful
#7 As in the rest of Central Asia, honey abounds
#8 Men usually wear clothes of rather drab colours while the women are often sporting pinks, purples and reds
#9 There are car washing facilities everywhere – all manned by young men and cost about £1.50 for a wash
#10 There are lots of rose bushes – though I haven’t yet come across one that smells divine
#11 On many of the houses, and particularly fences, there are long diamond motifs
#12 Porridge and rice pudding are popular breakfast dishes
#13 The landscape is simply stunning – the snow capped mountains are quite frankly the bee’s knees!
#14 Lots and lots and lots of Vodka
#15 As with the rest of Central Asia the people are very friendly and hospitable
On October 16th it will be 100 days since we left our lovely little flat in Tokyo and hit the road. So we thought we would do some statistical analysis……
Total distance travelled: 16,862km (10,047miles)
Highest elevation: 4655 metres (Ak Baital Pass, Tajikistan)
Snow leopard sightings: a big fat 0
Nights in hotel rooms: 10
Nights sleeping in Totty within a guesthouse complex: 16
Nights wild camping in Totty: 73
Nights as guests in someone’s house: 1
Bottles of gin drunk: 2
Bottles of beer drunk: too many to count
Bottles of good red wine drunk: not nearly enough
Countries visited: 6
Breakdowns: 0
Oil changes: 2
Police ‘fines’: 2
Fromewardbound Facebook friends: 252
Number of Scrabble games played: 5
Number of Scrabble games won by Clare: 0 ….. utterly ashamed
Car washes (paid for): 2
‘Stuck in the mud’ incidents: 1
So there you go…….everyone loves some statistical analysis every now and then 🙂
Better late than never, here’s the edit of the footage we shot in Kazakhstan.
Apologies to the folk who are interested in seeing more of us as my videos seem to be going the other way and turning more and more into nature documentaries 😉
Enjoy!
Following on from my other piece about choosing our drone, here’s a more technical look into the finer details of using the drone day-to-day.
Casual readers will find this monolithically uninteresting!
An action shot in Kyrgyzstan
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