a2b - Crotos, to Zhangye

Another posting from Crotos in one week! Written by Vasilios Mesitides and posted on 2008.7.10.

The narrative begins at Tung Huang [Dunhuang] with their visit to the Mogao caves, murals and carvings. [days 126-7] There is small problem with a cycle lock - key is missing – so it must be cut [...]

a2b - Crotos, across the Taklamakan and beyond.

We have two blog postings this week, one from Carlotta and the other from Vasilios and Danae. One thing to note is that the group appears to have divided into small sub-groups and even a few sub-sub-groups. This is just speculation but possibly they have given up their support vehicle as they couldn’t [...]

a2b - Crotos, from Kashgar into the desert

Now we have lost our prime blogger information must be taken from other sources. Some of the these notes have been gleaned from a Google-analytics translation of Carlotta Dal’Aglio’s blog and the rest taken from the blog of Vasilios and Danae.
2008.6.11 At Kashgar the party said good-bye to 6 members, Joachim Lent who [...]

a2b - Lent leaves Crotos

Bad news. After 99 days and six and half thousand kilometres Joachim Lent has decided to call it a day. Details on this latest posting. Other riders have joined and left the tour as it has progressed and no doubt others will do the same for the last 5,000 kilometres. No [...]

a2b - Crotos, into China

The two blog postings covering the entry to China are particularly significant as they cross borders into the final country and the flavour of the tour takes another change. Some things remain the same, for now, they are still passing through Moslem territory, the terrain is still mountainous but everything takes on Chinese characteristics. [...]

a2b - Crotos, through Kyrgyzstan

As the tour entered Kirgyzstan something significant was going to happen as the planned route on travellerspoint suddens starts wriggling around and the stops are much closer together. As might be guessed immediately after leaving Osh the Silk Road passes through mountainous country, so lots of zig-zagigng, ups and downs and aching knees for [...]

a2b – Crotos, Uzbekistan into Kirgyzstan

After the border problems the group detoured around Tajikistan and entered the Ferghana Valley from the Northwest. This is an area which seems to constantly give trouble to the dictatorship of Uzbekistan so notions of the place are somewhat clouded. Reality is quite different to Lent’s expectations and he seems quite pleased [...]

a2b - rerouting through Uzbekistan

The Crotos tour has taken an unexpected turn. After trekking along, 6 days and a couple of minor navigation mishaps later, the tour arrived at Bekobod on the Tajikistan border to be told they must go 50 kms northwards to the next crossing point as Bekobod is closed. Another three hours hard [...]

a2b – Crotos on the Golden Road To Samarkand

We travel not for trafficking alone:
By hotter winds our fiery hearts are fanned:
For lust of knowing what should not be known
We take the Golden Road to Samarkand.
James Elroy Flecker

This is a section of the tour I’ve been looking forward [...]

a2b - Crotos - Bukhara

One day’s worth of travelling into Uzbekistan and, although Lent may not be a 100% happy bunny [he still has a sore stomach], his mood lifts noticeably. The border crossing takes only 2 hours, whereas the previous one took all night. Even the temperature has dropped to a mear 33 degrees C.

“In Bukhara, archeology [...]