Day 25

Distance Covered: 177miles

Total Distance Covered:  5057miles

Hit the sights of Bukhara with a fellow rallier called Kevin who had left his teammate with their broken down car just outside Khiva. Having attempted to buy several silk carpets (only to be put off by the $150-500 price tags) we settled for further tourist tat and after a quick lunch of Plov (local rice dish) and samosas we headed to Samarkand. Still ‘convoying’ with the English team (they were taking a 4x4 so arrived about 2hrs before us at each location!) and still with our American cargo we arrived in Samarkand in good time after a fairly easy drive including a high-speed exchange of bread and grapes with a passing car. After a brief detour around the back streets of the city we found the hostel we were looking for and soon found out that we weren’t the first team to have this idea (in fact the hostel was packed with rally teams). Cue a night of alcohol-fuelled fun including shots with chilli chasers and cigars lit from 100som notes (about 3p), all whilst wearing our newly acquired wolf fur astrakhan hats.