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Australia to Europe

April 2019 - April 2023
29th of April 2019 until 1st April 2013 Read more
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  • TravelerAustralia to Europe
    2

    An Experience of a Special Kind

    October 6, 2019 in Tajikistan ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C

    WARNING: contents of the following article may offend hygiene conscious readers. To protect the modesty of the participants, no pictures are provided.
    Traveling in a simple van like mine in a cold environment and minimised water usage excludes regular showers or baths other than the ones with a flannel (Washlappen), a bowl of heated water and my doggybath. So reading about a public bath and the prospect about a shower and washing hair under running water is really exciting!
    After needing to stop and park the vehicles on the steep, rutted hill because we fear we might ruin our vehicles in the pursuit of our hygienic endeavor we march to find the public bath. It is as well we parked the vans where we did, because the bath ended up to be on a different location as the map showed us. (Well, that's no news to us. In this part of the woods the mapping does not always reflect the actual location).
    After asking several locals we finally find it- a quite decrepit hut , not indicating it's purpose to the foreign eye.
    I enter the women's section to find myself in an ante room about 2.5x2.5m, a slim timber board on each side, to sit on whilst changing your clothes. About 8-10 children were in there of different ages and different stages of undress.
    From this room an open doorway directly leads into the the huge bathtub about the same size as the ante room in which several women enjoy the process of cleaning themselves.
    Firstly of I course have to find out where the queue starts or ends, so I point at the children and ask "Tamam?" which I know in Turkish means "ready", and I hope in Farsi it means the same. But my hope to make myself understood gets ruined right away as the girls start to giggle and say "Blablabla tamam". Until today I am non the wiser what I said.
    Doesn't matter, I made them laugh, and am shown, they are ready to leave and it is my turn to undress and join the ladies in the soapy tub.
    Here I am now, soaking away and trying to communicate in bits of English, some shabby Farsi and even shabbier Russian but we enjoy each other's company. Out of the wall sticks a pipe from which spouts fresh, hot water. The ladies fill tin after tin of water, pour it over me. We scrub each other's backs and shampoo each other's hair. Once done and rising out of the suddsy floods, they douse me with more tins of fresh hot water to rinse me clean.
    This process might not satisfy our Westerners' idea of hygiene, but it definitely gave me a lot of simple, unexpecting and unexpected sisterly love and affection and a lot of fond memories.    Read more

  • TravelerAustralia to Europe
    12

    Happy B' day Elisabeth!!!

    October 7, 2019 in Tajikistan ⋅ ⛅ 1 °C

    To have birthday in an environment like this, in Tajikistan, in view of Afghanistan, at the feet of the mighty Hindukush! You've got to be dreaming!!!
    This was totally enough to make my b'day a special day.
    But then, to top it all up, we were invited for tea in the home of aTajik family. Thanks to Lena's translations we were even able to communicate. . Finally you can ask all these things about their life, you are curious to know! This really beats the wordless smiles over cups of tea.
    AND, as if this wasn't enough, when returning to our vans Lena and Christoph presented me with a cake they baked this morning and a picture of Rex Lena has painted. How sweat is this??? Thanks so much you two!!!    Read more

  • TravelerAustralia to Europe
    11

    Dog psychology

    October 13, 2019 in Tajikistan ⋅ ☀️ 2 °C

    I wasn’t really aware to what extent peoples from different countries react differently to dogs.
    Russia: People with dogs themselves quickly pick up their little dogs, no way that they can sniff another dog. Generally people are scared of dogs. When they see one coming into their view, even though the dog is not the slightest interested in them, they fall into a karate pose, one arm up, one leg thrown towards the dog, and shout, what, I have forgotten by now. The dog of cause feels threatened and now starts to bark and if on leash or not to run towards the attacker. Self-fulfilling prophecy.

    Mongolia: They are even more scared. The initial reaction is a different one though, with the same effect: they pick up a stone and walk two steps towards the dog with raised arm, prepared to through the stone. Mongolian dogs usually run away, as they all have felt stones, mine however doesn’t.
    If the dog is locked inside the car, they might make a big bow around the vehicle. I was once sitting in my van and observing a man, going past the car, Rex barking at him. He runs away, hiding behind a tree. Once he realises, the dog really can’t do anything, he tantalises the dog: runs towards the car, knocks onto the window and goes into cover behind the tree again. After the third time I showed myself, and he stopped this game.
    Children love to walk as close to the dog as the leash allows sufficient distance and make loud Wow, wow noises, which of course annoys the dog. The parents find that really cute and funny. Once, after that went on for quite a while, I went down to all fours and barked at the child, which started to cry. I felt really bad after that.
    Kazakhstan: similar to Russia, karate stance, but not as phobic. Sometimes you can see dogs accompanying the Sheppards, which might help with the acceptance of the animal.
    And then you cross the Tajik border and everybody is really friendly with dogs. You see them accompany the children, the women walk to fetch water accompanied by their dogs, the sheppards have dogs, dogs sleeping on the streets and suddenly my dog is much more relaxed, nobody is scared of him, nobody threatens him, he is getting treats and pets.

    I really wonder what expects us in Uzbekistan and Iran. We’ll see.    Read more

  • TravelerAustralia to Europe
    2

    Quiet days on the lake

    October 27, 2019 in Tajikistan ⋅ ☁️ 2 °C

    Whilst waiting for my Car parts I decided to drive to Iskander-Kul, a lake high in the Fan mountains. To get there from Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, we had to drive up a pass which is particularly interesting as you have to travel through some really mean tunnels, the longest being 8km. I am not easily intimidated but when leaving the bright sunlight and driving into this pitchblack tunnel, no or hardly any lights, no white markings, drains along the wall, no ventilation, therefore very smokey and the environment swallowing any light, that is quite scary. It is noted on the map as "dangerous tunnel", which may give you the gist. It was definitely worth the while driving this road.
    And then through quite spectacular mountain scenery on a dirt track eventually you reach the opal blue mountain lake. Stunning colour!!!
    Here I am, nobody else on this lake at the end of the world, apart from myself and my co-travellers, who arrived a day later, and you assume nothing is going to happen apart from some hikes.
    But low and behold one afternoon there was a fashion shoot, the next evening we were invited to a BBQ à la Tajik, (oh, never again vodka,) and one morning we were woken by a huge herd of Yak being driven past our vans making their grunting yak noises.
    Unfortunately I had to get back to Dushanbe sorting out my car business.
    PS: captions ruins every picture, particularly that photoshoot one which has a fairy-tale quality to it. Therefore the caption here: it was a very cold day, and the poor girl had to pose in sleeveless dresses. A hard job...    Read more

  • TravelerAustralia to Europe

    Garage life

    November 1, 2019 in Tajikistan ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    My Car is up for repair in Dushanbe. Second garage. In the first they "ordered" the part, due to arrive in 10 days, just to be told after 7 days, it's not available.
    Am now at another garage. They apparently habe the part at the end of next week. Appointment at 10am, it's now 1055am. Tajik time! 10 probably means 11! So plenty of time to observe.
    Lots of garages are located here on this plot, and a lot of activity going on, however not of that kind you'd expect in a workshop, hammering, sound of screws drivers, clonking of tools.... No, it's lots of men coming and going, lots of discussions over cups of tea, lots of phone calls being done, then the men that went are coming back, just to disappear again. And all the cars are standing in their booths, unattended. I really wonder how long this all will take today. And if I really get the parts in time before my visa runs out.
    It's a miserable, rainy day, so I'll have a lot of fun walking the city with my country dog.
    But Overlanding can't only be fun, some hardships will increase the joy once everything runs smoothly.    Read more

  • TravelerAustralia to Europe
    2

    Rainy days

    November 4, 2019 in Tajikistan ⋅ 🌧 8 °C

    This are these kind of days you don't even want to think about when planning a trip in a small van with an adventurous dog. Rain is pouring, outside nothing but mud, but nature still calls.
    When back to the van, you are soaked, the clothes are dripping, the boots are muddy, the dog is filthy...
    And this is just the beginning. The winter is approaching fast! We were so lucky until now!    Read more

  • TravelerAustralia to Europe

    On the Road again!

    November 8, 2019 in Tajikistan ⋅ 🌙 1 °C

    On the Road again
    After 11 nights, yes interrupted by stays in the vicinity of the city, in Dushanbe, my car is finally repaired and I am on the move again. It was not easy to say good bye to my new friends at the hostel: many shared meals, long conversations, life stories, exploring different cultures; it were very rich mornings and evenings, and extremely boring days waiting hours on end for Lola to be repaired.
    But now out is time to move on.
    Driving out of town I pass several cars with stuff piled up on their roofs, past a concrete factory where on top of the chimney sits a big hood of concrete dust and then, as of to make good to the community, each segment of the km long fence surrounding the perimeter of the factory painted with a different picture.    Read more

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