CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
On the way it passes The Chatkal State Biosphere Nature Reserve, Tashkent Modernist Architecture. Modernity, Big Solar Furnace and back through Tashkent Modernist Architecture. Modernity. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,700 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Kyrgyzstan into Uzbekistan - carry ID and check the toll rules. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Far up the Chatkal valley in western Kyrgyzstan, where the river runs between the Chatkal and Sandalash ranges of the Western Tien Shan, lies the Besh-Aral State Nature Reserve. It protects mountain steppe, juniper woodland, walnut and apple groves and rocky high country, and it is part of the transnational World Heritage Site of the Western Tien Shan, inscribed in 2016 and shared with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The reserve was created in particular to protect Menzbier's marmot, a small marmot found only in this part of Central Asia.
Read the complete Besh-Aral State Nature Reserve - main part write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Besh-Aral State Nature Reserve - main part is where the day begins. Next is The Chatkal State Biosphere Nature Reserve.
East of Tashkent, the Western Tian Shan rises in a series of ridges, and the Chatkal range is one of the most accessible of them, its snowy peaks visible from the capital on a clear day. The Chatkal State Biosphere Reserve protects a part of this landscape, with forests of juniper, walnut, maple and wild fruit trees, and alpine meadows above, home to Tian Shan brown bears, snow leopards, ibex, wild boar and many birds of prey. The Western Tian Shan, shared by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, is on the UNESCO list.
Read the complete The Chatkal State Biosphere Nature Reserve write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Chatkal State Biosphere Nature Reserve comes up about 120 km into the recorded legs. Next is The Chatkal State Biosphere Nature Reserve.
East of Tashkent, the land rises steeply into the western ranges of the Tian Shan, and the Chatkal range forms the border with Kyrgyzstan. The Chatkal State Biosphere Reserve, established in the Soviet era, protects a stretch of these mountains, with juniper forests, walnut and wild fruit trees, alpine meadows and rocky peaks.
Read the complete The Chatkal State Biosphere Nature Reserve write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 216 km into the recorded legs you reach The Chatkal State Biosphere Nature Reserve. Next is Tashkent Modernist Architecture. Modernity, 128 km on.
At 5.22 in the morning on 26 April 1966, an earthquake struck the old city of Tashkent and flattened much of it. Within days, architects and engineers from across the Soviet Union arrived to rebuild, and the capital of Uzbekistan became a showcase for Soviet modernism, with wide avenues, big squares, concrete and glass blocks, and a new kind of public art. The older mud-brick lanes were largely lost, but the new architecture has a boldness of its own, now loved by a younger generation of photographers and architects.
Read the complete Tashkent Modernist Architecture. Modernity write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tashkent Modernist Architecture. Modernity, about halfway. Next is Big Solar Furnace.
In the foothills of the Tian Shan, about an hour north-east of Tashkent, there is a building that looks as if it belongs in a science fiction film: a huge curved mirror, made of thousands of smaller mirrors, facing a field of tracking mirrors that follow the sun and focus its light onto a single point. This is the Big Solar Furnace near Parkent, built in the Soviet era in the 1980s, and still used for research into materials that can withstand extremely high temperatures.
Read the complete Big Solar Furnace write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Big Solar Furnace sits at 515 km, about halfway. Next is back through Tashkent Modernist Architecture. Modernity, 128 km on.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tashkent Modernist Architecture. Modernity write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Tashkent Modernist Architecture. Modernity comes up about 635 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through The Chatkal State Biosphere Nature Reserve.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Chatkal State Biosphere Nature Reserve write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 815 km into the recorded legs you reach back through The Chatkal State Biosphere Nature Reserve. Next is back through The Chatkal State Biosphere Nature Reserve.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Chatkal State Biosphere Nature Reserve write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The Chatkal State Biosphere Nature Reserve, late in the day. Next is Besh-Aral State Nature Reserve - main part.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Besh-Aral State Nature Reserve - main part write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 1028 km.
Besh-Aral State Nature Reserve - main part → The Chatkal State Biosphere Nature Reserve is 120 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Chatkal State Biosphere Nature Reserve → The Chatkal State Biosphere Nature Reserve is 96 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Chatkal State Biosphere Nature Reserve → Tashkent Modernist Architecture. Modernity is 179 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tashkent Modernist Architecture. Modernity → Big Solar Furnace is 120 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Big Solar Furnace → back through Tashkent Modernist Architecture. Modernity is 120 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Tashkent Modernist Architecture. Modernity → back through The Chatkal State Biosphere Nature Reserve is 179 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through The Chatkal State Biosphere Nature Reserve → back through The Chatkal State Biosphere Nature Reserve is 96 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Chatkal State Biosphere Nature Reserve → Besh-Aral State Nature Reserve - main part is 120 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.