Join me on my trips

We flew back on Uzbec air. Visited the lovely textile and cultural museum. These amazing carpets. Tiles. And delightful miniatures. Perhaps this how I feel.

The city and environment are catastrophically affected by the death of the Aral Sea. Pollution in all its forms, scarcity of water, dust storms are all frequent. Not sure it will be fun. Those are some of the many green houses. There is plenty of water on the way along from Kiva. Gate to a cemetery  You can just see the tombs. No burials in groud as water table is too high. These little sunken gardens separate the road from buildings and a path. Some shots along the wsy through the autonomous Karakalpakstan. All very agricutural. Take a look at the clay pot on the right. It is for burning your rubbish. We did not stay here. C hilpak. I didn't climb up but drew some flowers. ...

A walking day in Xiva.  There are already hundreds of tourists waiting to go into this incredible place. Not sure I'll make an all day walk. I need not have bought new white shoes as everyone wears trainers and my old blue ones would have been better having been more worn in. Well that went well as i was stung by a wasp. Took a quick Piriton which was a good thing as it spread rapidly. Perhaps a different kind of wasp.  before we started then 30 minutes later was all dizzy and nauseaus so was looked at by paramedics. Taken off to one clinic then hospital. Seen by doc BP normal. Given huge injection and lay down and drifted off to sleep By 12.30 back to normal and by evening not a mark, lunch here. Near the south gate residential area. All a bit of a shock. Not due to heat or crowds but doc told Mohammad our excellent guide that I was to go to lie down and no more walking today.  All medical and education is free ...

We broke the journey so it was fine. Much through what they call desert but looked more like semi to me. Scrubby zerophytic bushes, the odd patch of little yellow flowers and moving from very pale ground to more ochre sand. Some scenes along the way. Huge natural gas mine near Gazli  built by Chinese. Many tracks go off into the distance. A lonely place to live. But if you have a caravan the world beckons. A lonely place to work. Stabilising the sand. Huge solar farm. Electricity going everywhere. We saw these old abandoned carriages frequently.  Pipes for the gas. Bridge over the Oxus. The train to Khiva starts on 1st May hence our road trip. Once there is water there are abundant crops, particularly fruit trees, grapes, rice, c...