I keep saying ‘never again’ to carrying tyres, but it keeps happening…

In the end, both Eugene and Valentina found us a tyre ☺. We opted for Eugene’s as it’s a good brand, but it’s quite worn out so we’re delaying fitting it for as long as the current one holds on, in the hope that it will then get us home.

We said goodbye to Eugene and Alena this morning, they’ve been very kind to us and we hope to see them again one day!

Eugene was keen  try out Betsy before she disappeared again, I was a bit nervous about it, but I gave him the keys anyway…

As it turns out sometimes you need to listen to your gut… but no damage done, the tree probably came off worse than Eugene or Betsy 😜  I hope you got some ice on that bruise Eugene!

Then we said another sad goodbye to Valentina, who has been extraordinarily kind and helpful to us again.  Such a lovely lady! She took us out yesterday to mail some clothes forward, then sight seeing in Tashkent, and eventually  spent a few hours finding us a dentist and fussing over us in the clinic.

We enjoyed a meal together last night, spent looking at photos and making the best conversation we could with the help of Google translate.

Today we rode 350km to Samarkand, narrowly escaping some bad weather, as we pulled up the heavens opened and it’s pouring rain now ☺

Waiting nervously here for news from the Turkmenistan embassy, they were supposed to let us know about our transit visa today, but nothing. If it’s rejected we need to go back to Tashkent and apply for Azerbaijan… that would suck!

xoxo