Tohir Caravansarai and Tugay forests of the Tigrovaya Balka Natur

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Tohir Caravansarai

   A caravanserai is the original motorway service station, and the one at Tohir shows how much trouble medieval travellers took to rest. These fortified inns stood at intervals along the trade routes of Asia, a day's journey apart, with a gate big enough for a laden camel, an open court for the animals and rooms for merchants and their goods, so that a caravan could stop safely at the end of a day. Tohir lies in the south of Tajikistan, in the hot valley of the Panj river, which forms the border with Afghanistan, and the tracks that passed it probably linked the Oxus crossings and the old cities of Bactria to the mountain valleys of the north. The place has the hushed look of a ruin in a farm landscape, with clay brick walls and arched openings catching the afternoon sun.

   Read the complete Tohir Caravansarai write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Tohir Caravansarai is where the day begins. Next is Halevard.

2. 2. Halevard

   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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Halevard comes up about 127 km into the recorded legs. Next is Tugay forests of the Tigrovaya Balka Natur.

3. 3. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 188 km into the recorded legs you reach Tugay forests of the Tigrovaya Balka Natur. Next is back through Halevard.

4. 4. back through Halevard

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Halevard write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Halevard, late in the day. Next is Tohir Caravansarai.

5. 5. Tohir Caravansarai

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Tohir Caravansarai write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Tohir Caravansarai. That is the ride.