Our Cycling Route Through Uzbekistan

Our cycling route through Uzbekistan

The map above shows the route we cycled through Uzbekistan. We entered Uzbekistan from it's western border with Kazakhstan and exited back into Kazakhstan from the border north of Tashkent.

Where do I even begin with the roads of Uzbekistan… I am sorry to report that during our time in Uzbekistan we experienced what were by far the worst roads we have ever ridden on.

We entered from Kazakhstan near to Karakalpakstan on what I hesitate to describe as a “road”. It was a gravel track at best. It had the remains of what I imagine was once a road but is a now a lumpy gravel track full of craters as if it had been hit by a series of meteor showers.

Progress is slow going to say the least and this road surface continues for about 200km. The road was so rough that even on bicycles we were frequently over taking trucks as they slowly tried to navigate the smashed up road surface.

Surprisingly this is actually quite a popular route, dozens of trucks and cars overflowing with goods travel pass you by every 30 minutes or so. They appear to be travelling from Kazakhstan to sell their goods.

After about 200km the road surface changed to brand new and pristine tarmac and gigantic gas drilling platforms stated popping up on the road side. I can only imagine that this entire road section is in a redevelopment phase and it’s likely that eventually the entire section will be resurfaced.

We cycled across this section in 2019, so if you’ve reading a few years on it may well be in much better condition now.

Uzbekistan is one of the most barren counties we have cycled through, there is very little along the road side and you need to ensure you’re always carrying a lot of food and a lot of water. If you’re cycling through here it’s a good idea to try and find information from other people that have recently crossed the country in regards to where you can find food, water, accommodation etc.

We found that the toughest sections were Karakalpakstan to Nukus and Nukus to Bukhara. There is a lot of empty land between these places and it was unbelievably hot. Day time temperatures we in the 40c to 50c range and staying cool was extremely difficult. We found it very hard to stop for extended periods of time and that it was easier to just keep cycling.

Uzbekistan is very flat which makes travelling big distances quite easy (Providing the wind isn’t in your face).

If you'd like to take a closer look at our route or use it for your plans you can download the .kml file using the button below. For PC users you can view this file type in "Google Earth Pro", available here: google.com/earth/versions/, for Android users we recommend maps.me and for iPhone users we also recommend maps.me.

Daily Cycling Activity

Below is a breakdown of our daily cycling activity, you can see our exact route and final destination each day using the map at the top of the page. The first section shows our activity from the Caspian Sea to the Uzbekistan border.