Shehzadi at Kyzyl-Kala in Khorezm, where Uzbekistan's Silk Roads story moved beyond tiled cities into canals, mud-brick fortresses and the desert edge.

Uzbekistan began at the Keles crossing, where our Kazakhstan leg ended and the Silk Roads network tightened into river valleys, oasis cities and desert corridors. Shehzadi and Chetak crossed together, carrying Kazakh dust into a country whose old trading routes would keep reappearing beneath the modern road.

Our line would run through Tashkent and the Fergana Valley, swing west through Samarkand and Bukhara, reach Khiva and the fortress country of Khorezm, then turn back across the Kyzylkum toward Aydarkul and Jartepa. Tiled cities were part of that crossing, alongside water, mountain passes, caravan infrastructure, wrong turns, roadside hospitality and the border rule that finally split our two-truck convoy.

Turquoise ribs, calligraphy and patterned tilework on the Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi in Turkistan.

This Kazakhstan episode begins where our Russia overland leg ended: at Karauzek–Kurmangazy, with Astrakhan and the lower Volga behind us and a very large country ahead.

The map looked simple: Russia to Uzbekistan. Kazakhstan had other ideas. A closed western crossing would eventually push us east, but first came the Caspian lowlands, oil roads, camels and the long run toward Aralsk.

Shehzadi at our first roadside stop inside Russia after Verkhny Lars, with insurance, exchange, and food shops behind us.

This Russia overland episode began with a return to Georgia. After our Kapadokya-to-Batumi run through Türkiye, we drove back to Tbilisi, stopped long enough to reset the bags and paperwork, and pointed Shehzadi north again.

Ahead lay the Georgian Military Road, Verkhny Lars, Russia’s North Caucasus, the lower Volga, and the Karauzek–Kurmangazy border into Kazakhstan. Three days and two nights would contain a fourteen-hour Russian entry, unreliable navigation, one spectacularly unhelpful shortcut, domestic checkpoints, Astrakhan, and enough paperwork to make camel caravans seem administratively relaxed.

Ennar Cave House in Nar, Nevşehir, where this Kapadokya leg began inside the rock.

We woke inside a rock.

After the long run down from Ankara, we had checked into Ennar Cave House in Nevşehir. Morning made the change impossible to ignore. This chapter continues directly from Türkiye Overland Part 1, where Shehzadi carried us from Kapıkule through İstanbul, Bursa, Frig Vadisi and Ankara before reaching Kapadokya.

Gerdekkaya Mezar Anıtı near Çukurca, Eskişehir — our first clue that this route through Dağlık Frigya would involve a great deal of carved rock.

This Türkiye chapter continues directly from Sofia, Bulgaria to Türkiye — Silk Road Overland and forms the next leg of our 2025 Silk Road expedition. We entered at Kapıkule, crossed European Türkiye, returned to İstanbul, then kept going east until the road put us inside a cave hotel in Kapadokya. Türkiye has a charming habit of making a route map look simple and the actual trip much more interesting.

It was also a return. We had already visited İstanbul in 2021, and later crossed the country westbound from Georgia toward Greece on our earlier overland Türkiye crossing. That westbound run left an HGS toll tag on Shehzadi's windshield, bought at a PTT office in Arhavi and still doing its little administrative duty long after most souvenirs would have retired.

“Drunken people crossing” warning sign near Boyana Church in Sofia. Balkan road safety can be unexpectedly specific.

That road sign near Boyana Church was our introduction to Sofia's practical side: warning triangles, old stone, and a message unusually specific about who might wander into the road. We had arrived the previous evening after driving from Belgrade through Niš and crossing from Serbia into Bulgaria, then climbed Vitosha Mountain for the night.

This episode begins the next morning. We descend from Vitosha into Sofia, spend the day among medieval frescoes, Ottoman and Orthodox monuments, markets and Metro stations, then retrieve Shehzadi and turn east toward Kapitan Andreevo. Kapıkule and Türkiye wait across the frontier; the crossing itself belongs to the next chapter.

Church of Saint Sava, Belgrade, Serbia: Ayasofya-inspired Byzantine architecture and stunning soaring dome

Having driven Shehzadi from Croatia and Bosnia into Serbia the day before, crossing the Una and visiting the Jasenovac Memorial along the way, we slept well in Belgrade at the Hotel Villa Bulevar, not too far from the Embassy of The State of Palestine Serbia.

That rest mattered. Belgrade had earned a morning of its own before we pointed east toward Bulgaria.

Bridge on Una river between Croatia (right) and Bosnia & Herzegovina at Hrvatska Dubica-Kozarska Dubica Border Crossing

We woke in Zagreb after driving in from Venice via Lake Bled and Ljubljana, then started with coffee off Tkalčićeva Street. The city was familiar from an earlier trip, but the truck was different: Shehzadi, our Toyota Tundra, was now carrying us east across Europe.

The route would cross Bosnia and Herzegovina before turning back through Croatia to Serbia. Between the border posts sat Donja Gradina and Jasenovac, places where the travelogue needed fewer jokes and better history.

Bled Castle overlooking Lake Bled, Slovenia

The day started with a cappuccino in Venice, fresh off our Simplon Tunnel crossing, silk workshop tour and night in Piazza San Marco. Shehzadi, our Toyota Tundra, and Chetak, the Odyssean Journey Toyota Hilux, were ready to point east again.

Slovenia put Lake Bled, Ljubljana and Maribor in our path before Croatia returned us to Zagreb, a city already tied to an older road-trip memory. In 2019 Zagreb had been the launch point for our drive south to Smiljan and Nikola Tesla's childhood home; this time we were arriving from the opposite direction with the Silk Road still stretching east.

Hand weaving at Tessitura Luigi Bevilacqua in Venice

After visiting Chandolin and following Ella Maillart's story through the Valais, we had returned to Camping Molignon in Les Haudères for the night. Morning sent us downhill again with Shehzadi, our 2024 Toyota Tundra, and Chetak, the Toyota Hilux Invincible-X of Odyssean Journey. The Alps were not finished with the trucks yet.

The previous leg from Lyon through Switzerland had ended among mountain roads. This one pointed toward Italy: Sierre, Brig, a train under the Simplon massif, Lake Como and then Venice. It would take two days, which was reassuring. Venice already has enough canals without adding a schedule emergency.