Hi Richardjw1, this is a copy of our official route to zarafshan as supplied at the border.
Regards Jamie.
A Scot lost in the Valley’s
davemackie:
I remember well that section of Kazakstan that jutted into Uzbekistan, first couple of trips used to run past customs did not know who they were, seems a bit silly sitting at a table on the roadside.Gave them a wave as I passed, they always waved back real friendly people.
That strip of land had more fuel tankers than Stanlow refinery, always filled up on my way through, very cheap.
Just for info, Dave, if you go that way in future you’ll find that stretch of road is now closed. Basically a few years back a bus got hi-jacked on that part so they closed the road off and now you will get directed down through Guliston & Sirdarya then take a right & head back out towards Jizzak - just a pain in the ■■■ detour…admittedly they are improving the roads along this route but it is a painful process
M&C Jamie:
Hi Richardjw1, this is a copy of our official route to zarafshan as supplied at the border.Regards Jamie.
A Scot lost in the Valley’s
Hahaha the famous map!!!..I arrived in Tashkent back in May '96 with one other engineer, after sorting out the registration details for our 2 new cars (SSANG-Yong Mussos) we picked up some tools then within 2 days had to head down to Karshi to meet up with other team members…I was more than little surprised to get a map very similar to the one you have just shown and be told by one of the gaffers (at the time) to “just head towards the sun”…well without translators or guides and with no more than 2 words in Russian (and no0thing in Uzbek) it took us 1 hr to find our way from the office to out of Tashkent to the Hipodrome Bazar which we knew was the main road south west. So we finally hit the big road by 3pm and off we went - not one clue where we were going!!!..you will know as well as me that the sign-posts in those days were minimal and all the roads looked the same!
We were travelling on blue plates (foreign Co. working in the country) so this made us great targets for the local plod.
Even now I am amazed how we found the way down at Samarkand, one road goes to Mazar e Sharif, another to termez, the Karshi road and Samarkand/Navoyi. Cut a long story short by about 9:30pm we were somewhere between Samarkand & Karshi - in the desert…decided to stop for a Cig break and put the seats back because in all honesty we had no idea if we were even going in the right direction!!!..within a few minutes we had some of those bedhuins and their camels looking in the windows…time to get going again!
So on we went, so cut a long story short we rolled in to Karshi about 10:45pm and again, purely by chance, we happened to see one of our cars parked in the hotel carpark!!! What a relief…the bottles of Bavaria tasted SO good that night.
Anyway within a week I was on the road to Bukhara…
Hi Richardjw1
I once took a load to a UN funded water salination plant in Nukus and
stayed with a very interesting egyption at his flat. On my return to the UK
my boss told me there must be a road following the railway towards Beyneu
Kazakstan as this would take thousands of kms of the job. Low and behold
he was right but a few times my F16 Volvo was dragged along by a Kamas
towrope and when i got to a telephone 3 days later with only 6hrs sleep i
was a very relieved man!! The Uzbek ,Kazak , Russian drivers were always a great help, and they are very hard working.
Hope to return one day and im sure i will 
colin.f.whitetrans:
Hi Richardjw1I once took a load to a UN funded water salination plant in Nukus and
stayed with a very interesting egyption at his flat. On my return to the UK
my boss told me there must be a road following the railway towards Beyneu
Kazakstan as this would take thousands of kms of the job. Low and behold
he was right but a few times my F16 Volvo was dragged along by a Kamas
towrope and when i got to the border 3 days later with only 6hrs sleep i
was a very relieved man!! The Uzbek ,Kazak , Russian drivers were always a great help, and they are very hard working.Hope to return one day and im sure i will
Hiya Colin,
Nukus is a bit like the place that time forgot, in fact as you no doubt know its in autonomous republic of karakalpakistan. I’ve never been that far west but have heard about the place. This past year has been very dry in Uzbek, firstly because of the dry spring & secondly because the tadjiks opened up the dams for the Sirdarya & AmyDarya rivers early on in the year because they “thought” there was going to be heavy rain which would cause the dams to break, they were wrong…so they had a hard year, I heard they declared a state of emergency and were actually trucking in extra supplies of water because the situation was so serious.
Have to admit I never knew about the road out by the railway…our eqpt. mostly comes in by train, the first we know is when its in the railway yard 
Not sure whether you know or not but in the Xhoresm/Urgench half way between Bukhara & Nukus they were building a few Merc. trucks back in the mid. '90s on one of those PKD schemes, those white Mercs still surviving with Central Asian Transport written across the side of the trailers came from there.
Nowadays I live in Ashgabad, Turkmenistan, so if you DO come out this way make sure you drop me a line
Hi, Colin I would like to here more about this route.
Back when we were still going there, Alan Kendal reckoned that he had found another way across the Kysl Kum Desert that saved five days, no one believed him at the time, maybe he was right after all.
One problem I would be wary of is after having struggled through only to reach a strange border and then be turned back, its happened before.
Dave.
Hi Richard,
The other main reason i took that route is because i spoke to some Central
Asia Trans drivers in Samarkand on the way to Nukus and they told me that
it was ok if it didnt rain. When i did the customs clearance at Nukus they told me i was mad to go that way on my own but i said i would tag along with the locals on the way. I alread knew that side of Kazak due to previous trips to a
gas plant near Nebit Dag(Turkmenistan).
Distant dreams it seems!!!
Hi Dave,
The road was a bit like the stretch at Irgis (Kazak), only the backache
lasted much longer! That was my last trip to Uzbek but i would think
of using that route again if i ever get back that way as it did save
about 4 days drive. You head for Opornyy, Kulsary, Dossor, Aterau
then head north for Oral. Was i good trip in the end and no props
at the Uz/Kz border
colin.f.whitetrans:
due to previous trips to a
gas plant near Nebit Dag(Turkmenistan).Distant dreams it seems!!!
Small world!!! its about 400kms west of AGB, I will be honest and say that I really thought the only way in from the North to Tmstn. was over the border at Alat > Chardew/Turkmenobat, I’m sure you can’t cross at Dashowz.
But IF you can now I can say that the Dz > AGbd road is virtually done, our guys travellled it the other day and of the 600kms only about 70kms need asphalt, it will be much better than the Lebap/Mary/tedjen/AGbd road.
Agb to Nebit dag is good for about 130kms after that its back to the rough stuff.
Second deepest in the world.
Dave.
Some more image’s of Khazakstan/Uzbekistan.
Desert camp at Marantua.
Roadside Fuel Tanker Khazakstan.
M32 Khazakstan.
Dave.
Here’s one from not too far from you…that appeared in Ashgabad this year (apologies to the folks who have already seen them in the photos page)
Crossing the AmuDarya (or in fact Oxus river as it is in history) pontoon bridge at Farap
On the border Turkmen side of Uzb at Lebap/Chardjew/Turkmenobat (depending on which name you like) - not my trucks, I was busy organising the export of 18 pcs of Ag. machinery - thats another story!
Turkish unit
Kazak unit (seem to have longer trilers than anyone else)
Hi Richard
I was last in Nebit Dag in 2000. I took the road from Oral to Aterauy
then onto Zhiangpozen, Felisivo, Aksu, Azhibay, Shestogo. I cant
remember the name of the Turkmen-kazak border but it was just
the usual formalities and shock on their faces of seeing some one
from the west!! Dont no what it will be like now but then it was only
half tarmac half dirt track then. The 1st time down i came down thru
Dagestan an took the ferry from Baku to Turkmenbasi but it was
getting to difficult to cross the border area of dagestan.
colin.f.whitetrans:
Hi RichardI was last in Nebit Dag in 2000. I took the road from Oral to Aterauy
then onto Zhiangpozen, Felisivo, Aksu, Azhibay, Shestogo. I cant
remember the name of the Turkmen-kazak border but it was just
the usual formalities and shock on their faces of seeing some one
from the west!! Dont no what it will be like now but then it was only
half tarmac half dirt track then. The 1st time down i came down thru
Dagestan an took the ferry from Baku to Turkmenbasi but it was
getting to difficult to cross the border area of dagestan.
Flippin’ 'eck…I think you deserve danger money for that trip, first going thru Dagestan knowing that they’re as bad as the Chechens when it comes to starting a scrap…and secondly for using the Baku ferry.
I was out on the Tm coast there in '02 we were offloading machines that had come in by barge from Europe and they said then that only good swimmers seriously consider using the ferry…such is life 
Anyway all the best for new year!
richard and colin, and dave i guess, do you have any more pictures at all? i would love to see them!
also does muckles or keith have the second magazine article?
euromat:
richard and colin, and dave i guess, do you have any more pictures at all? i would love to see them!
Most of my pics are/were of ag. machinery, what I have I’ll post up, but I lost several when a hard-drive crashed, the others I’ll scan in and post up when I get back to U.K. for a holiday in January
Hi Richard
That ferry from Baku was very interesting but getting there was even more fun!
The russian side of the border was ok but the Azerbijan side seemed to have more cash changing hands than Western Union!! The Somat ferry from Novorossycs to Poti was even more luxurious, got to sleep in my truck on
there so i was one of the lucky ones on the top deck.
All the best for the NEW YEAR to you too
Hi euromat
Ive just joined so when i find more time to scan and upload them
i will. I have lost a lot of photos but one of my mates is going
to send me some of his to put on aswell
as you’ll know, that ferry (astrakhan-turkmenbashi-baku) was always unpredictable, a few years back we had 2 lads wait about a week for it at astrakhan
when it did finally arrive in turkmenbashi on the saturday teatime, they managed to clear and tip 4 wide loads (we had the ruskies pull 2 trailers from st pete’s to astrakhan) top the empties and get back on the same boat - no way on earth were they going to wait around for another week - amazing what you can do when the chips are down 