Saturday 1st June - Monday 3rd June 

Saturday to Monday was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. MayLyn and Tjaling had their Tajikistan visas approved a few weeks ago — Pierre, David and I had been waiting for approval, with the Tajikistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs requesting various additional pieces of information. We had requested StanTours.com to help us with one of their requests for a ‘letter of invitation’. 

It seems like UK passport holders Tajikistan visa applications were stalling or being rejected, as per this Caravanistan thread and this blog of a U.K. couple who recently applied. 

However, Pierre, who holds a U.K. Jersey passport, had his visa approved on Saturday. This got David and my hopes up, as it meant we could possibly continue cycling together up to Dushanbe. 

However, on Sunday, StanTours emailed us saying they had been informed that their normal method of facilitating e-visa’s applications was no longer possible for any further British passport holders, and this was the first time they experienced it in 22 years of business. 

This meant the group would split — Pierre and Tjaling continued to Dushanbe today and are now in Tajikistan. David, MayLyn and I decided to cycle south west of Samarkand, and get the train back to Samarkand from Navoi in a few days time as a way of having something to do. 

We cycled out this morning on a busy road, not very pleasant. About 40km in there was a sign to Hazrati Dovud cave, so we decided on a diversion. 

After a decent climb, which we hadn’t experienced since Japan, we got to the start of a walking trail. This is a popular spot, with many restaurants and tea houses. Half way up the path to the top I had a plum juice which was incredibly refreshing in the warm weather. 

At the top is the cave of Hazrati Davud, which we were gestured to go into, and the guy in there said some blessings I think.

After returning to the bottom of the hill, we had two teapots of chai and biscuits. The lady even had to heat up the pot to reheat the tea, but refused to accept any payment. 

We decided to cycle towards the main road and camp out if we didn’t find a suitable hotel to stay in. After about five minutes, we could a tea house that also had sleeping rooms. Very similar to the one we stayed in on our first day in Uzbekistan during the sandstorm, but this one was much cleaner. 

After cooking dinner on the XXXXX I checked my Tajikistan visa application portal. The status has changed to ‘assessed’ and ‘validation in progress’, which is positive. I had uploaded a short message this morning explaining how we were on a tandem and wanted to continue our cycling trip in Tajikistan. It likely did not play a part in changing the status of the application, but there a small chance it did. Now fingers crossed David gets his visa approved soon too. 

It’s a relief that things are looking positive for the Tajik visa. If we couldn’t visit, I wouldn’t be able to collect the package my mum sent out, which is due to arrive in Dushanbe in a few days time. It would also have meant missing out on cycling the Pamir’s — but the back up would be more time in Kyrgyzstan, which has spectacular passes to cycle over, so not a bad back up.