Steve's Cycling Blog

For over two and a half months I had no stomach problems at all, but in the last two and a half weeks I’ve had nothing but problems which started all over again at 0230 this morning! By the time it was time to get up I’ve ‘been’ four times, so it was back to the three horsemen of the gastro apocalypse, anti-nausea, anti-biotic and something to ‘stop’ things!

Stage 72 route notes

I forced down some breakfast but it wasn’t with any enthusiasm and got out on the road as quickly as I could to try and get as much of the ride done as possible before it got too hot.

One thing I was hoping would help was the climbing was pretty much all early on, so at least that would be over with before the heat. The police check was time consuming but uneventful as my details were recorded in their ‘big book of foreigners’ and then I kept on up the hill.

The climb was good on generally recently repaired pavement, but then things deteriorated for the descent and much of the rest of the day with long stretches of gravel and construction work which had been ongoing for at least 2 years (given that it had been noted on the last time this trip ran in 2014).

I had to make one quick stop in the bushes before lunch and by the tie I got there the nausea had got much worse and there was no chance of eating anything so I had a rest, forced down some rehydration solution, filled my water bottles and continued on.

A cold bottle of coke at 95km actually helped to make me feel better and gave me more energy to continue on – unfortunately at the roundabout shortly after in my hot, tired, dehydrated, nauseated state I misunderstood the direction and headed off down the wrong exit. By the tie I was sure I was in the wrong place I’d gone 6km, and having no idea of where I was actually going (something of a constant frustration to me) I had no option but to turn around and backtrack.

Out the correct exit from the roundabout, and right at the lights and the flagging was very confusing so I still wasn’t confident I was in the right place, the railway crossing wasn’t flagged, and then there was junction shortly after which wasn’t in the notes and wasn’t flagged either. With one thing and another it wasn’t going well at this point!

Looking at the map I was pretty sure I was in the right place and an oncoming truck had slowed down because the road was so rough so I mimed ‘have you seen any other cyclists like me heading up this road’ to which I got a very definite response of ‘three’, so decided to press on.

Some time later there was flagging to confirm that which made me feel a lot happier. By now it was getting on in the day and I was starting to run out of energy so was very pleased to see Erwin and Jackie stopped at a shop ahead of me – though the shop didn’t have anything for us it let me catch up with them for at least moral support.

Shortly later we also caught up with Michael, Will and Phil who had been given a couple of melons by a passing local and were carving the up at the side of the road. Erwin and Jackie continued on but I stopped for a break and rode on with Michael and Will.

A few km later we found a store which did have cold drinks and while I had to dash into the bushes again (which is a whole lot less easy to do in Uzbekistan than it’s been elsewhere because it’s much more densely populated) Michael kindly bought me coke and water to get me through the last few kilometres to camp.

By the time I got there I’d done 141km and it was 39ºC in the shade! and I was pretty done in Michael and Rob put my tent up for me which was very kind as it meant I could get changed and lie down for a while but it was just too hot in my tent, even without the fly on, so the afternoon passed in a blur mostly of ‘just sitting’, periodically moving to stay in the shade or to refill my water bottle.

Later in the afternoon I had some bread, and I managed a small helping of dinner but it was more out of a sense of ‘must eat’ than any desire to do so.

As I headed to bed I discovered the worst news of the day – someone has stolen my Garmin cycling computer. I’d left it plugged into my solar panels to charge at the edge of the trees my tent is under, which seemed perfectly safe as there was nobody about and it was right by our camp, but it’s gone!

That it’s worth £600 is one thing, but it’s absolutely essential for being able to navigate since all of the directions we get each day are based on the number of kilometres since we left camp, so without my computer I don’t know that and therefore don’t know where to go.

Rastam, our local support person here in Uzbekistan, has gone to the closest house and I’ve offered $100 as a ‘no questions asked’ reward for it to magically return, but nobody’s particularly hopeful. The moist frustrating thing is that it’s completely useless to whomever stole it – I presume they thought they were stealing a phone, but a cycling computer has no use here at all to anyone other than me!

And so now you know why the cycling data from the last three days has been Michaels – my data went west with my Garmin.

Riding data

View from my tent

Through the trees to the fields over which some thieving prick took my Garmin