OH No “POLICE”! 11th May

The four of us set off again for Samarkand and we usually take it in turns to lead and for some reason i am at the front. OK guys i will do it today as there seemed to be a sudden shortage of volunteers. The route is mainly what we would call a dual carriageway but the surface go from really smooth to pot holes everywhere with houses right to the side of the road. Livestock are just sat there and people cross the barriers where they like and even knock the concrete out for their own convenient path. They walk on the road like it is some sort of village road.
The main problem again this morning that petrol was required for the smaller tanks but every petrol station we went into was out of fuel. Seriously every single one.
We were then joined by others on the trip doing the same thing with me leading “LOVELY” (read Sarcasm)
I pointed to a station on the other carriageway and waited for others to go across through a gap that had cars at it. All the bikes went over and i waited to check that they would start filling up, yes the guys were taking their helmets off. OK i will go to the next gap and “LEGALLY” u-turn where the sign says and coming back MR.POLICEMAN points for me to pull over Brilliant! HE asks if is speak Russian, that bit I know, to which i shook my head. He points at machine and says something else, i think he likes my bike. He and his buddy then start looking at the dials and switches and presses the horn button. Big smiles on both their faces, which i return . They then start looking closely at the GPS and pressing buttons. It’s alright guys i will reset everything when you have finished playing. While all this is happening the others guys are all gathering on the other side of the road armed with cameras to which i give them all a wave
Mr.Plod then says “Where?”
Ahh! we speak a little English after all
“Samarkand”
HE then points the way i am facing and says “NO”, then motions for me to do a U-Turn
“THANKYOU” as if i did not know because if you had been paying a few moments earlier, then you would have seen me do a U-Turn to this direction.
OK off we go to the cheers of the other guys
Through a check point and into another province and first station has petrol.
We head off as a four but others are not to far behind when under a bridgeon a bend, i spy a traffic light, no warning and i pass under as it starts to flash amber (going to Red).
I slow down and check for traffic jumping the lights and as i cross.
MR.POLICEMAN jumps out from the shade and vigorously gestures for me to pull over and then motions for the other guys to pull in as well.
He start pointing up at the light and then at me and the others.
He then said to me “LEADER” while pointing
Oh nonot going to get done for everyone as i had not gone through on Red, Thankyou
We take our helmets off and Simon shows a picture he has on his iPhone of him with a presenter from their equivalent of MTV and the mood changes immediately. Time for a photo shoot then.This was a little trick Simon had picked up on his travels through India to get rid of corrupt cops and then the next line we had all been told by Kevin was to ask for their name and number and tell them you will be reporting this matter to the embassy.Finally Samarkand and we can park up in the hotel and unpack and get to the rooms for a shower and clean clothes and get some washing done

Jeff then jumps into action to start changing our tyres over to knobblies, starting with evryones front tyre and tomorrow he will do the rears. Then when we get to Dunshanbe it will be oil changes and filters.



5637 miles – Samarkand, Uzbekistan