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.
A 469 km round trip from Vose’ - roughly 8 h 41 in the saddle. The stops in between: Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery, Tugay forests of the Tigrovaya Balka Natur and back through Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery. Long stretches are under trees.
Hulbuk was the capital of a small principality of the Samanid era in what is now southern Tajikistan, and it is one of the most evocative ruins in the Khatlon region. Its location is on the plains south of Vose, near the Kyzylsu, within sight of the Afghan border country. Archaeologists dug out a palace complex of mud-brick and fired brick from the ninth to eleventh centuries, with remarkable carved terracotta panels and a ceramic tradition that left glazed bowls with sharp, graceful script. Some of this is displayed in a small museum on site, and part of the citadel has been reconstructed so you can see how the high rooms were arranged.
Read the complete Kalai Hulbuk write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kalai Hulbuk is where the day begins. Next is Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery.
In the Vakhsh valley of southern Tajikistan, near the city of Bokhtar, once called Qurghonteppa, a low mound of earth in the fields hides the remains of a Buddhist monastery from the seventh and eighth centuries. Excavations at Ajina Tepa, which means the hill of the demons in local tradition, revealed a complex of courtyards, cells, corridors and stupas, built of mud brick and decorated with paintings and clay sculptures. The most spectacular find, uncovered in 1966, was a giant reclining Buddha, around thirteen metres long, depicting the Buddha entering nirvana.
Read the complete Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery comes up about 127 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 235 km into the recorded legs you reach Tugay forests of the Tigrovaya Balka Natur. Next is back through Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery, late in the day. Next is Kalai Hulbuk.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kalai Hulbuk write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Kalai Hulbuk. That is the ride.
Kalai Hulbuk → Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery is 127 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery → Tugay forests of the Tigrovaya Balka Natur is 108 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Tugay forests of the Tigrovaya Balka Natur → back through Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery is 104 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Ajinatepa Buddhist monastery → Kalai Hulbuk is 130 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.