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.
1063 km from Tashkent to Tashkent, about 18 h 21 of riding. It goes by way of 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. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
On the Tashkent metro, the stations are the sights. The system opened in 1977, the first in Central Asia, and the Soviet planners treated each stop as a small palace, with a theme, a colour scheme and local craftsmen to carry it out. Marble, carved alabaster, mosaics and chandeliers decorate the platforms, and the Kosmonavtlar station, the Cosmonauts, is one of the best, with a space theme: blue-grey tiles, circular lamps like planets and portraits of cosmonauts, a tribute to the space programme of which Uzbekistan was proud. For years, photography underground was banned, and the rule has now relaxed, so you can look around with a camera if you are polite.
Read the complete Kosmonavtlar Metro Station write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kosmonavtlar Metro Station 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 170 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 255 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 533 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 688 km into the recorded legs.
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 811 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 Kosmonavtlar Metro Station.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kosmonavtlar Metro Station write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 1063 km.
Kosmonavtlar Metro Station → Big Solar Furnace is 170 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Big Solar Furnace → The Chatkal State Biosphere Nature Reserve is 85 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 123 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 155 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 155 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 123 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 85 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Big Solar Furnace → Kosmonavtlar Metro Station is 170 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.