Following the Silk Road through Uzbekistan

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We entered Uzbekistan along the Fergana valley. This is a valley of cotton, nicknamed "white gold" in Uzbekistan. It is also a valley of suspected Islamic militancy. The flat countryside is a shock after Kyrgyzstan's endless mountains.

We climb out of the valley across the Kamchik pass, 2268 metres, the only way for the Silk Road to progress west. The pass is a security zone, heavily policed because of suspected heroin smuggling and concerns over those Islamic militants. We are not allowed to travel across in our truck as all "buses" are banned because of a bus crash ten years ago. And we are not allowed to take photos while crossing. Uzbekistan is a place that like rules!

Tom drives the truck over the pass during the night to avoid paying bribes to the security forces. We get into four white Chrysler taxis, every car here is a Chrysler. They have a factory here and all imported cars carry a100% tax. The taxis drive across the pass in close formation, somewhere between motor race slipstreaming and a real life video game.

Our destination is the capital Tashkent. Dinner is shashlik (kebab) and bread. The other national dish is plov which is rice with carrots topped with grilled beef or mutton. Sometimes there are other interesting additions - chickpeas, raisins or a blob of fat. Plov can be very good but quality varies! There is often an absence of vegetables although the markets are full of them. Apparently vegetables are poor man's food and, therefore, not served in restaurants. Rich men east meat.

We take the excellent Metro in to town. Photography is forbidden on the Metro.

We walk around the squares, the Soviet concrete has been grassed over but walking on the grass is illegal. Our guide has to report how many foreigners he is bringing into Independence square - the guard radios it in to control. We are surreptitiously photographed by local men, we don't know whether they are just interested in us or are secret police. Uzbekistan is proving to be a different place to laid-back Kyrgyzstan.

Then on to the mythical Samarkand, a major crossroads on the Silk Road. Here the khans, particularly Tamerlane, loved to build impressive buildings to show off their power. These beautiful mausoleums and medressas (religious schools) were built from the 13th to 15th centuries. They are covered in ceramic tiles, mostly blues but also greens and gold. The effect is quite breathtaking and we spend two days wandering amongst them, spell bound by their beauty.

Most of our drive through Uzbekistan has been past cotton fields, occasional fruit orchards and some grape vines. It is cotton picking season for everyone. From professors and doctors to clerks and students, it is the law that you get out into the fields and start picking - for as long as two months. Some look as if they are enjoying their break, some don't.

Leaving Samarkand, we are into desert - sandy and rocky with low dry bush vegetation. We spend the night in the middle of nowhere in a yurt camp. Yurts are the traditional dwelling of the Silk Road and ours is very fine with a low wooden door and frame. The walls and roof are covered in a thick layer of felt to keep us warm. Dinner is around the camp fire with music from a local camel herder playing folk music on his two string lyre. The next day we have the chance to ride the Silk Road's favourite animal, the bactrian camel. Huge and hairy, they were ideal to carry loads across the steppe.

The weather has changed a little and we have some days with a cool wind and some cloud and others with bright sunshine and blue skies. We seem to go from warm to cool and back again many times during the day. The only rain showers have been whilst we travel in the truck.!

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