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: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
419 km from Kolkhozobod to Kolkhozobod, about 9 h 36 of riding. The stops in between: Tugay forests of the Tigrovaya Balka Natur, Shahrtepa and back through Tugay forests of the Tigrovaya Balka Natur. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Southern Tajikistan is a land of wide river valleys and dry hills, where the Vakhsh and the Panj rivers flow towards the Amu Darya, the Oxus of the ancients, on the border with Afghanistan. Near the town of Kolkhozobod, known today by its newer name, lies Halevard, an archaeological site in the fertile Vakhsh valley. This region was part of ancient Bactria, a land of cities and fortresses that flourished under the Persians, the Greeks who followed Alexander the Great, and the Kushans.
Read the complete Halevard write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Halevard is where the day begins. Next is Tugay forests of the Tigrovaya Balka Natur.
The Tigrovaya Balka, the Tiger Gully, lies in the far south of Tajikistan where the Vakhsh river runs down to meet the Panj and the Amu Darya, and it is an odd, lush corner in a dry country. The nature reserve protects tugay, the riverine forest of poplar, willow, tamarisk and wild olive that grows along the flood plains of Central Asian rivers, with thick reed beds and clearings of tall grass. It looks like a jungle, which is why it was called a gully of tigers. The Turan tiger, a relative of the Siberian tiger, lived here until the 1950s, when hunting and the clearing of reed land for cotton drove it to extinction.
Read the complete Tugay forests of the Tigrovaya Balka Natur write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tugay forests of the Tigrovaya Balka Natur comes up about 60 km into the recorded legs. Next is Shahrtepa.
Shahrtepa lies in the lowlands of southern Tajikistan, in Khatlon province, within sight of the Panj river and the Afghan hills beyond. The word tepa means a mound, and it is the right word: a mound that has built up over centuries as one settlement was layered over another, in the Bactrian country that Alexander crossed and that later fed the Kushan empire. A Buddhist temple site is linked with this area, a reminder that this was once a place where monks, merchants and caravans met on the way between India, Central Asia and China.
Read the complete Shahrtepa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 207 km into the recorded legs you reach Shahrtepa. Next is back through Tugay forests of the Tigrovaya Balka Natur.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tugay forests of the Tigrovaya Balka Natur write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Tugay forests of the Tigrovaya Balka Natur, late in the day. Next is Halevard.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Halevard write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Halevard. That is the ride.
Halevard → Tugay forests of the Tigrovaya Balka Natur is 60 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Tugay forests of the Tigrovaya Balka Natur → Shahrtepa is 147 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Shahrtepa → back through Tugay forests of the Tigrovaya Balka Natur is 152 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Tugay forests of the Tigrovaya Balka Natur → Halevard is 60 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.