The Silk Route Beckons...

Just when I thought that my travelling days were behind me, an opportunity presented itself that was simply impossible to resist! I have joined an overland expedition that is following the ancient Silk Road trading route between Europe and China. I will be starting in Istanbul, Turkey at the beginning of June and travelling east through Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and finally China. After crossing the mainland of China through Kasghar, Turpan, Dunhuang, Chengdu and Xian, I will reach Beijing on the last day of September. In total the trip will take 16 weeks, maybe even more if I can extend my time in China!

I will be travelling with Oasis Overland again as part of a group. Alongside 12 or so other people, I will be making my home on a big yellow truck. The truck has been purposely adapted to become an overlanding truck. This means the truck carries camping equipment, tents, cooking hobs, saucepans, alot of fresh and dried food, hundreds of litres of fresh drinking water, fuel and enough spare parts to rebuild an engine. It means the truck can well and truely go off the beaten track into places most people do not even realise exsist! I will be staying in some very basic hostels en route, however I will also be doing alot of campling. It is not camping at campsites though, this will be bush camping. Bush camping means no facilities, just pulling up at the side of the road, bush camping involves digging your own toilet. As you can imagine, these types of trips do not suit everyone. This is an exploratory trip, it is the first time Oasis has run this trip, it means the itineries and timings are subject to last minute changes depending on what happens on the road. It could be that some borders take alot longer to cross than thought, the weather conditions may have made the intended roads impassable or the road stopped exsisting 10 years ago. Not knowing what to expect, makes the prospect of the trip even more exciting to me!