For anyone wondering I've decided to stop putting entries in my blog and deleted all previous entries. I find it impossible to think straight in I-C's with sweaty children playing games. Instead I have listed some advice which may be of use to someone planning a trip similar to ours. It's ongoing so expect more in the future.

# Ferry across English channel cost just 15.00 pounds, got there early and had free shower on board where the truck drivers shower. Bikes safe.

# Danube cycleway, fantastic, flat easy cycling with enough water and food supplies (providing you don't get there during Easter when as we found out the entire country shuts down for about three day's. Very easy 'stealth' camping.
Decided to leave cycleway for last 100miles or so as the trail gets undefined and quite poor in Hungary. Took roads instead. Easy.

# Uzbekistan LOI...Got ours through Stantours. took 10 days total NOT 10 working day's. We made a mistake with filling in the form. When asked for your occupation make sure you put your work address plus phone number. This cost us a lot of delay. Be sure to have entry and exit points. We paid via paypal.

# Azerbaijan visa cost us 101 US (UK passport holder) and 100 US $ for a US passport holder) Got ours in Istanbul, straightforward. For address and directions see if you can get hold of Joe Hamada via Lonely Planet.

# Got our Uzbek visa also in Istanbul but we went to Ankara whilst waiting for the LOI. Had we kept checking our e-mail we would have spotted the delay and saved ourselves time. Uzbek cost about 50$

# Tajik visa in Ankara, very very straightforward providing you have Uzbek first. Cost $50.

# Also got Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan visa in Ankara. You may find the addresses wrong, sorry I lost the addresses but if your in the visa district some cab drivers have the addresses. My advice double check the addresses via several different websites. Taxi's in Ankara are at least cheap. We got a hotel straight arcross the road from the hospital which is about 1km from the main train station. Let us put bikes in room. Can't remember cost but cheap especially if sharing room. For the hotels turn right out of the train station and walk 1km, should see 'Otel' signs. Ankara is polluted and unpleasant but the people are all friendly and helpful. Virtually nobody speaks English.

# If needing train service between Ankara and Istanbul remember you have to pay extra to have you bike in the luggage hold. You must do this before boarding the train. Reasonably easy.

# We got our Georgia visa at the border, free for both UK and US, I think free for everyone.

# Roads in Georgia and Azerbaijan not too bad condition, but polluted on major routes.

# We got our 3 month Chinese visa at the embassy in Baku. Dead easy... Paid $60 for UK and $80 for US, got it in one day service. Fantastic.

# Staying in Otel Araz. Cost $25 a night for room. Think it's cheapest around. Reasonable enough as Baku not cheap.

# After hearing lots of horror stories regarding the ferry to Aqtau we have decided to fly. Several travel agencies told us we could only fly to Almaty. But if you persevere you can find one who will sell you a ticket to Aqtau. We paid $220 each for a one way ticket. Flight takes one hour. We scoured the streets and found cardboard boxes ready to box up our bikes.

# A quick tip regarding alloy/steel carriers. We both have alloy carriers but they have serious chafe on the legs and may break in the future. We are travelling very light so we thought we could get away with alloy, but if you buy alloy make sure to check for chafe. We have fitted pieces of hose pipe onto the carrier legs, but we have made 'splints' along the leg with nails incase the legs break.

# Flight Baku-Aqtau took 1 hr, we had to pay 60US$ for luggage. Total weight 30kg. This was for bike in box plus all gear. We each had one pannier with valuables as carry on luggage.

# Great supermarket near the Irish Bar. you would leave the bar and go up the main road about 1km (north) then you turn left on one of the main roads and look on the right for the supermarket. It's literally 1km from the bar. Sells everything, better than anywhere in Baku. Enjoy far less choice further on road.

# We missed the direct route towards Shetpe and ended up doing extra 70km (approx) not prob' for us as we had time to burn before we could enter Uzbek. Using Ryse Know How maps and with help you should be able to find the correct turning.

# Shetpe has a restaurant, again with time to kill we blew $100 here on 3 day's accomodation (basic). They threw in food aswell. There is a bank in town also. We tried internet but they wanted $50 for 5 mins!

# We were in this area in mid June, temperatures were never over 38c in the shade. Even so you want to be sheltering from the heat during the day. Plenty of culverts along road to Uz border. NONE AFTER.
The tarmac ends about 30km from Shetpe. I don't have that map anymore so can't remember the names of towns properly. At Sayotesh tarmac resumes for about 20km either side of town. Sayotesh is off road. There was a small bazar in town, but there's a good enough restaurant on the main road 2km after the Sayotesh turn.

# Tarmac (ask for 'asphalt') resumes about 25km before Beyneu.

# At Beyneu we got Uzbek cym from the vendors in the market. We both got a bit ripped off. I checked the rate on the internet which said it was 41.4 to the dollar. So I thought 50 dollar should get me 2070 cym. One vendor went to give me 2000 and I thought it didn't seem right. He laughed and gave me a bundle totalling 13000, now I didn't know what to do, I just had to trust him. My cycling partner tried someone else and got 37000 for 40$, so I was pretty annoyed, then an hour after my first transaction the vendor came back and handed me another stack of cash. I was stunned that he would be so honest. As it was we both got a bit less than we should. Official rate seems to be somewhere around 1200 cym to the dollar.

# Good store just before Uz border.
#Uz border opened at 9.00am. Make sure you have your customs declaration. We hid most of our US dollars, but it was ok, no search. Maybe the morning was a good time to cross as there was a backlog of people. We got to the front of the queue, maybe because we were tourists, or just because we had bikes not cars.

# Some supplies at border

# Qarakalpakstan post 25km from border plus a restaurant (good one)

# Qarakalpakstan to Jaslic was 135km, we managed it in ONE day. It's tough but we were travelling light. We did the first section at late afternoon 5.00pm till 9.30 and the morning one first light until maybe 9am. 20km after Jaslic tarmac resumes and you should have little prob's. Head winds are a bitch though and can stunt the pace to less than 10km p/hr so don't count on anything.

# Advice regarding OVIR and GBAO (Tajikistan) ... We got our GBAO permit for Tajikistan from Stantours. They charged something like $30, however, it took almost a month longer to get it than they suggested it would. That said though they got it for us it time.
You NEED a GBAO permit for the Pamir Highway.
What you are also supposed to do is register with OVIR once in the country. In Kazakhstan this 'appears' to be unnecessary and in Uzbekistan I checked with the OVIR office in Nukus and was told it was only relevant if you were staying in one place more than three days. (God knows why you'd want to be anywhere in Uzbekistan that long).
Anyway the important thing is that you HAVE to register with OVIR in Dushanbe within THREE days. Now if you go across from Samarkand the route is nearly 300km's on what I believe is a difficult road. You would be unlikely to make it in time. However, if you go via Termiz on the Afghan border you can easily make Dushanbe in half a day. We were told by Stantours it was essential that we register with OVIR. Saying that though a number of other people have had no problems registering even in Khorog many day's later. We're going to try to register ours through a chap at 22 Pushkin Street in Dushabe centre. I hear even that costs 35, (I suppose that's $35 but Stantours just said 35 in their e-mail to me).
More of the OVIR debacle later. (See below for up-to-date info'.

# Just adding this in now after arriving in Dushanbe... In the end we did enter from Samarkand and we did make it in in time. It took 2 tough day's and the route is 260km. Our first day we did 160km (including 30km to the Uzbek/Tajik border) then another 130km into Dushanbe. We were pretty fit and carrying little weight but the climb is quite long and the road isn't brilliant. Just this morning I heard the Chinese expect to have the road sealed by the end of next year. So I would say get here and do it now before it becomes too easy and also before the tunnel opens and you miss out on the views.

# We have the Central Asia Ryse Know How map plus a copy of the Pamirs Map both of which we got from Stanfords in Covent Garden London. I've since heard there is a link from a pamir website which lets you download Russian maps at better detail. I've seen these and quite frankly don't think it's worth the effort to print out 40 odd pages of A4.

# Bukhara is like an Oasis in the desert. A really nice hotel costs about $20 for a double room, or $30 for a twin.

# Below is some info' from Joe Hamada, he cycled our route in 2006 and I found his advice invaluable.

OVIR REGISTRATION

This is vitally important. We are here in Dushanbe (Tajistan) and yesterday we took ages to try to sort out the OVIR permit to allow us to enter the GBAO. Save yourself untold headache and a probably fine (hefty) by following this advice. Go to 22 Pushkin Street and find Zafar, he is the only one in the entire of Dushanbe who understands the need for the OVIR permit.
So many travellers are leaving here without proper documentation and thus leaving themselves open to a fine of $350!!! and detainment of possibly three days (info from recent Lonely Planet TT post)
Registration costs $35, you decide for yourself if it's worth it.

The OVIR registration is stamped into your passport, if you don't have this stamp then your NOT registered despite what anyone else tells you. (At least that's currently true).
You embassy can tell you more about this, we went to the American embassy today and they confirmed we have the correct OVIR.

The Lonely Planet is WRONG when it say's that the Hotel Dushanbe will sort out OVIR registration. They simple charge you 20 Somani for a three day stay in Dushanbe and this definately is not sufficient.

# Below is some visa info' from Joe Hamada, he cycled our route in 2006 and I found his advice invaluable.

VISAS

This is meant to be an idiots guide to Central Asian Visas from Istanbul. Hopefully you can avoid all of the ballache I've gone through. Cycling here was a doddle compared to tracking down far flung embassies in all corners of the city.
It all applies to a British passport holder. All fees are payable in USD. Have the exact money ready beforehand to avoid the inevitable farce that you will have trying to change money at the last minute. I'll update this as I go along.

Georgia: Visa on arrival ^__^

Azerbaijan: Need a visa before hand. The Azeri Embassy in Istanbul is in 1. Levant. Take the metro there from Taksim and just ask directions.
Sumbol Sokak 17
1. Levant
+902123258042
Its open Mon - Fri until 1.
No LOI required but you need a passport photocopy and 2 photos. Pay 40USD at the local bank for a 1 mth single entry and pick up the visa in 2 working days.

Uzbekistan: Need a letter of invitation first (LOI) from a tour company, business etc in Uzbekistan. Got mine from stantours.com. Cost 37USD and took 10 days to issue.
The embassy is in Istinye in the far north of Istanbul and its hard to find. You'll have to take the bus. When you get off the bus keep walking north until you pass a kind of dock on the right side. Turn left up a steep hill away from the Bhospourous. At the top of the hill turn left, keep going 300m past a shop and you'll see it on your left.
It is open Mon, Wed and Fri 10-12
Sehit Hall
Ibrahim Caddesi
N923
Istinye
Istanbul
+902123232037

You fill the forms out outside and wait to get called in where I had a small interview with the guy there. Go to the local bank and pay the fee. 80USD for single entry (ouch) more for multiple. I asked nicely and the gut agreed to give me more flexible entry/exit dates than were stated on my LOI. Come back later that afternoon to collect the visa. Thats right..only one working day. If your LOI is all in order its pretty straightfoward. It just involves waiting around 6/7 hours while someone sticks a piece of paper in your passport.

Turkmenistan: Embassy is in Yeshilkoy in the far east of Istanbul. Take the train from Sirkeci (Platform 2). Its takes about half an hour. Its a 5 min walk from the station. Just ask Directions.
Gazi Evrenos Jadesi
Baharistan Sokak 13
Yeshilkoy
Istanbul
+902126620221
Open Mon-Fri 9-12 and 5-6

Getting a full tourist visa requires all kinds of jumping through hoops but it is possible to get permission to transit through Turkmenistan.
They will not consider your application until you have a valid visa for onward travel. Uzbek, Iran etc etc. They will fax a copy of your passport and onward visa to Ashgabad for approval, which takes anything from 5 to 15 working days. Once approval has come you return with your passport, fill out the forms and get the visa. 51USD to get it in one day. 31USD for a three day wait. They were very clear with me that the transit visa would only be valid for 5 days. No more and no less. I've heard of people getting 7 days from other embassies. I left Istanbul with the plan to return to pick up the visa but no word ever came back from Ashgabad on my visa so I guess it was refused. I think it was because of the travel restrictions announced for independance day celebrations in October. I have since met people that got a transit visa no problems for October from the Tehran embassy so dont really know. I think you can get a LOI for the transit visa beforehand and then they issue the visa in one day (ask stantours). A tricky one. If I did this all again then I would arrange a full tourist visa, guide etc etc before hand, it is worth the bother.

Kazakstan: Got mine from Baku. Easy. I asked nicely and they issued it in 30 mins, should be a same day service. 40USD for 1 month single entry. Tried to register my visa in Aktau but the immigration police said "nyet" and told me to go away. No need to register in Aktau then, not sure about other ports though.
Got my second Kazakh visa from Tashkent.
Embassy open 9-12 everyday. Need a photocopy of your passport and Uzbek visa. 65USD for same day service. Less if you can wait longer.
23, Ckekov Street
+99871 156165423

Chinese: Got mine from Tashkent, easy.
Open 9-12 Mon, Wed and Fri
79, Akademik Yahyo
Gulomoy Street
+99871 1338088
Next to the Turkish Embassy in the Embassy district.
80USD for a same day service, 50USD if you can wait a few days.
On the application form I listed every (eastern) Chinese city I could think of, asked for 60 days and got 60 days no problems. Was tempted to ask for 90 days but didn't want to push it.
Get there early as it gets busy and have fun filling out the application form, it's only in Chinese and Russian.

Caspian Boats

I took the boat from Baku to Aktau but I think this applies to all the boats between Baku, Aktau and Turkmenbashi.

Tha Aktau port is about 1 km north of the parliment building, right after the train tracks..ask directions. The ticket office is just past a security gate opposite the Lenin mosaic.

There is no timetable for these boats they come and go when ready but I believe the Baku->Turkmenbashi boat is alot more regular than the Baku->Aktau boat. Expect about one departure a week for the Baku->Aktau boat. You can't buy a ticket until the day of departure. Go to the port daily until they confirm the departute date and when you can buy a ticket. Do not mention your bike or let them see your bike until you have a ticket. They tried to charge me for my bike at the same rate they charge for trucks i.e. 1.8m bike = 1.8m truck = expensive!! I had a very heated arguement with them about this and it nearly ended in a fight but I still paid over the odds. Once you have your ticket go back to your hotel, get your bike and then cycle right past the ticket office to customs where no one will care about your bike.
Passenger ticket should be 60 USD. Boat should take 18 hrs but be prepared for it to take over 2 days and take plenty of food. My boat had a restaurant but I wouldn't count on every boat having one. When I got on the boat they wanted more money from me for a bed. I told them that I wasn't paying another penny to anyone and then they just showed me to a berth so the bed is included in the price. Don't be fooled by them. If you are a women travelling alone ask to be put up with the female staff, it can get abit heated onboard with all the testostorone and vodka.

Info from Samarkand to Kashgar going via Tajikistan

Leaving the centre of Samarkand you soon come to a junction where Penjikent is signposted. We followed this road for about 55km until we thought we'd come to the border. Unfortunately we ended up 30km away sort of south of the border. We definately didn't miss a signed junction but we must have missed an unmarked turning. I would just recommend you ask a local and keep your eyes open.

Once over the border Penjikent is not too far away and you'll find the bazarre quite easily on the left side of the road. We changed some currency into Tajik Somani here, it's a way easier currency than the Uzbek junk. (sorry I can't remember the rate). From Penjikent the road is a mixture of qualities the good thing to remember is that the section from Penjikent to Dushanbe is the worst of the entire trip, once that's over it's plain sailing. We were using the Ryse Know How map, which was adequate, however, we also had a copy of the Pamir Map, which helped us know exactly where we were as the detail is better (providing you can read Cyrillic).

Don't think I'm bragging but just as a way of giving you an idea how long it could take we woke up 30km away from the Uzbek/Tajik border and we still managed to get 130km into Tajikistan. We made our camp just down the road past the turning for Kojand. The next day we rode over the pass and into Dushanbe. So it's possible to get in in two day's, remember you're supposed to do the OVIR within 3 day's of entering the country, though in practise I don't think the authorities will cause you problems if you forget.
We just felt that it was best to try to do everything by the book so they wouldn't have a chance to fine us.

We did our OVIR through Zafar as I mentioned in my blog. If you go into 22 Pushkin St some of the staff will very likely not know what you want. You will need to leave Zafar a passport photo and $35 to get the OVIR. I know a good few people who got through without this stamp, but in our mind it was better to have it than to worry about the fine.

Incidentally you may well find people registering in Khorog and Murghab, if you get the OVIR stamp through Zafar stay well away from the offices in these towns as they'll just try and charge you again.
Oh yeah, if you stay in the hotels in Dushanbe for three day's or more you'll need to pay 20 somani for OVIR.

The road out of Dushanbe is pretty straightforward however, you will come to a junction after about 25km's there is a left turn which from memory sweeps upwards to the left. Don't take that junction, you turn to you left and go into a small town where there's a roundabout. I can't remember how many turnings there are but I'm pretty sure you take the second going anti clockwise. We were unsure but after looking a bit stupid for a while some local pointed us in the right direction.

There's approximately 100km of tarmac before it starts to get bad, then it's patchy up most of the Karborobot Pass, though the top bit is good. The decent down is good but watch out for children lower down. I hit one after two boys tried to make me fall off with a rope, scared the little bugger to death.

We managed Dushanbe to Khorog in 4 day's, but we were travelling light, I have only about 16 pounds on my bike. We stayed in a truck stop in Khorog which was 8 somani a night but if you can afford it I would stay elsewhere. There are homestay's in Khorog but we didn't find that one. In Murghab you can't miss them, but bargain them down because that way you don't let the price creep up and up for future travellers. The bazarre in Khorog is ok, better than in Murghab where there is very little vegetables.

You can make it to Karakul in a day quite easily, there are two homestays there and we stayed at the first, you should be able to get her down to seven dollars a night.

We made it to the Tajik border in about three hours. Here the road is a bit corrugated but it's up hill so you aren't trying to go too fast.
You will get searched fully at the Tajik border, they are looking for Rubies and probably drugs. We had cash hidden and thank God they didn't see it but the search was very thorough.
From the top of the pass by the Tajik border it's downhill to the Kyrgyz checkpoint. Watch out for the Kyrgy border guard, he keeps pestering cyclists for free gifts and the more people who give him things the more he thinks it's his right to ask.

It's an easy ride to Sary Tash of about 30km's, you'll find it nice to see green fields.

At Sary Tash there's a few basic shops, try to have some Kyrgyz currency before you get here, get it in Khorog as the banks in Murghab don't have any. Otherwise one shop takes Tajik Somani but all you can buy is chocolate and the odd can of sardines.

The road to China is a dirt road an if it's hot it's quite hard as it's particularly dry in spots. You'll notice dirt roads beside the main gravel road these are much easier to ride along. It's 70km to the Kyrgy border but before you get to it you get back to tarmac. Once you're on tarmac it's plain sailing all the way to Kashgar.

You can't check out of Kyrgyzstan until 8.30am local Kyrgy time, once through the Kyrgy checkpoint you have about 6km to the Chinese border. People told us that because China is all on Beijing time we'd only have a short time to cross the border. The truth is if you're at the Kyrgyz border when it opens you won't have a problem, even if you're going slow. I did hear the Chinese border is closed on weekends though, but this might be more crap you hear from scare mongerers.

We changed 20 US dollars easily at the border with a shopkeeper and amazingly he gave us 7.45 Yuan to the dollar which is better than the hotel rate of 7.4 and only slightly worse than the Bank of China rate of 7.49.

Once across the border I would recommend getting some food and water as it's pretty dry to Kashgar. As a point of reference it took us one full day plus two hours to get in. There was only really one small town on the way which sold any food and it's about 250km from the border.

We are in the Seman Hotel on Seman Road in the centre of Kashgar. We are staying in the dorm downstairs which has no A/C but because it's the basement that doesn't matter. 20 yuan a night plus 20 yuan room deposit and 10 yuan key deposit. Double rooms cost 60 yuan.
We have our bikes in the dorm.
Kashgar has a good bike shop but I've yet to get there, I'll post some info on my blog about it tomorrow. Kashi also has ATM'S and can change travellers cheques despite what people say. You can also change damaged US dollar notes although at a worse exchange rate, try the bank first then the hotels.

Anyone needing warm clothes can buy them at an outdoor store just a couple of minutes walk from the Giant store. If you walk out of the bike shop turn to your right and walk maybe 100m, immediately across the road there's a small outdoor store. (Bargain hard).

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WILL ADD MORE AT LATER DATE.