The sudden upset of our plans has sent us reeling! We tracked down the overlanders we'd seen previously - to see what they had heard and inform them if they didn't know already... To be honest, they were not really very friendly/talkative... Hmmm...Not like the overlanders we know! We set about with the new plans: Plan C: We cut short our time in Kyrgyzstan (much to my despair - I had been really looking forward to exploring here where we don't need to register...

Bukhara! The city that hosted one of the most infamous days of the Great Game - the capture, imprisonment and beheadings of Connelly and Stoddart! The new city is largely built around the old city, and the main buildings have been preserved to some degree. Its very beautiful. We arrived at our hotel and at first drove passed it, it doesn't look like a hotel from the outside. We found the entrance, a small wooden side door with a bell as you open it. It opens int...

We left Nukus at about midday and drove southeast towards Khiva. The road was not very good, but we did see a fuel station with a queue of trucks! Diesel!! Or Diez-Top as its called here. After our drive to Moynaq we had used three quarters of our main tank but had our sub-tank full. It was decision time - do we fill up here and dilute it a bit if it's dodgy, or continue and hope to find somewhere else... more reputable (!?) After meeting another group who said ...

Fintan had said "It's a shame we don't get to go to the Aral Sea, that would've been cool"... perhaps I'm too honest - I did tell him we would be close to an old fishing town when we were at Nukus. Moynaq, one of the two major fishing towns on the old Aral Sea, is about 200 km from Nukus... so off we went. Again, the road was rough and long... a 4 hour drive to the site of the rusting fishing boats, sat sadly in the sand... but on the way the area seemed surpris...

In Nukus there seems to be not much going on... it's a fairly isolated town, but this seems to be the reason that it is famous. The Savitsky Art Museum is a collection of works by artists during the Soviet era who didn't really conform. Artist and collector Igor Savitsky managed to keep these works safe in the desert. The collection is overwhelming! Only 3% of the collection is on show, but still - it seems like every surface is covered! Everything from jeweller...