Our mission today was to find "the" border crossing into Uzebekistan. Even when we were back in Gig Harbor planning this trip with all the resources of google available to us we had trouble understanding the convoluted border line between Uzbekistan and its neighbours and now that we are "on-site" it is no clearer; infact maybe even less so as the 4 maps we have of this region (3 paper and 1 electronic) show quite different road networks across the border between Tajikistan and Uzebekistan. So todays mission was to sort this out and by the end of the day know our way to a border crossing.

As it turned out it was not all that difficult and our digital OpenStreetMap map was the one that proved the most reliable. We followed the main M34 road all the way to the city of Khujand, and on the western edge we found a road that bypassed most of the city to the west and north and led us onto the road to Buston (БУСТОН).


We eventually camped about 30 km short of Buston in the desert a good distance off the road and spent the last half of the afternoon cooking. Also contrary to our expectations and fears the day was only hot, not blazing, and the outside temperature did not even get above 87°F.