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.
A 1069 km round trip from Tashkent - roughly 18 h 26 in the saddle. On the way it passes Big Solar Furnace, The Chatkal State Biosphere Nature Reserve, Besh-Aral State Nature Reserve - main part and back through The Chatkal State Biosphere Nature Reserve. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,700 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Uzbekistan into Kyrgyzstan - carry ID and check the toll rules. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
The blue dome of Chorsu is the best landmark in old Tashkent. The great market under it, a huge circular hall roofed with a single sky-blue cupola, stands on the site of a crossroads whose name means four streams or four roads, and the bazaar here has been the heart of the old city for centuries, long before the Soviet engineers built the dome. Around it, in the surrounding lanes, stalls spill into the streets, and the noise, smell and colour are overwhelming: pyramids of spice, mounds of dried apricots, raisins and nuts, piles of round, patterned breads, hanging carcasses at the butchers' hall, and women in bright dresses calling out prices.
Read the complete Chorsu Market write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chorsu Market is where the day begins. 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 comes up about 178 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 262 km into the recorded legs you reach 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, about halfway. Next is Besh-Aral State Nature Reserve - main part.
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 sits at 536 km, about halfway. 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 comes up about 689 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 810 km into the recorded legs you reach back through The Chatkal State Biosphere Nature Reserve. Next is back through Big Solar Furnace.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Big Solar Furnace write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Big Solar Furnace, late in the day. Next is Chorsu Market.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Chorsu Market write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 1069 km.
Chorsu Market → Big Solar Furnace is 178 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Big Solar Furnace → The Chatkal State Biosphere Nature Reserve is 84 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 122 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Chatkal State Biosphere Nature Reserve → Besh-Aral State Nature Reserve - main part is 153 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Besh-Aral State Nature Reserve - main part → back through The Chatkal State Biosphere Nature Reserve is 153 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Chatkal State Biosphere Nature Reserve → back through The Chatkal State Biosphere Nature Reserve is 122 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Chatkal State Biosphere Nature Reserve → back through Big Solar Furnace is 84 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Big Solar Furnace → Chorsu Market is 178 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.