The Silk Route 2012 – Highlights & Changes

I’ve been fortunate enough to complete both full editions of the Silk Route that we have run, in 2007 and 2008.  There are some amazing stories from both of those trips and lots of adventure to say the least.  What most stands out is the respect for the people who cycled the whole Asian continent, and even more respect for the Silk Road traders of old who would have spent so many years of their lives on this geographically and culturally daunting route.

Of course during any Tour that TDA runs we ponder how we could improve the Tour, whether by finding different campsites in some spots, or using a side road we discover that has less traffic and is more scenic.  For the Silk Route, we wanted to do something bigger than this, and now we have…

First off we’ve changed the timing of the Tour.  Both full editions of the SR (2010 had us running a shortened edition from Istanbul to Samarqand) were run from late-July until mid-November.  This gave us hot weather at the start of the Tour but by the time we got into the last month we had many days of cold and even some snowy days.  There was certainly beauty in this as many participants’ photos from those years would show, but having freezing hands and wearing multiple layers of bike clothes adds to the fatigue.  By switching the Tour to run late-May till late-September we’ve pretty much eliminated any serious cold weather.  Now not to say there still won’t be some challenges in store climate wise, temperatures in parts of western China and then in Turkmenistan and Iran will be toasty!

Second we’ve changed the direction of the Tour from heading west to heading east.  I’d like to say that we discovered the wind always blows westwards so the Tour will only have tailwinds, however…  China is a very large country and we spend about 8 weeks of the Tour cycling across it.  By doing so at the beginning of the Tour we leave the quick cultural and geographical changes of Central Asia, Iran and Turkey for the latter half of the Tour.  Cycling China is fruitful; with historical, gastronomical, and scenic highlights on most days, but we’ve learned that towards the end of a 4 month cycling expedition it is important to have something new always around the bend to keep the mind focused.  Not to mention that Turkey is the most “western” country on the route and has more amenities to soothe our tired legs.

Thirdly, or I could say lastly.  We have changed the route.  We’re starting in Shanghai, not Beijing.  We want this to be a true trans-continental Tour and there is no better way to do this than by dipping your toes in the East China Sea and 4 months later in the fast moving water of the Bosphorus.  We have then altered our section through Central Asia to include the Pamir Highway in Tajikistan.  This is one of the most mountainous roads in the world and truly a hidden gem.  It adds a big physical challenge to the tour but the reward is the beauty of cycling by 7000-meter peaks and the chance to experience the distinct culture of this region.  The final route change is the decision to head through Iran instead of the Caucasus.  There is nothing wrong with cycling in Georgia or Azerbaijan but the chance to cycle through Iran as a group is too great to pass up.  I’ve been lucky enough to visit Iran a couple of times while scouting our route through the country and the people, despite the problematic leadership of the country, are the most hospitable I have ever come across.  This will be one of the most memorable experiences of the new Silk Route.  Not to mention on entering Turkey we ride by Mt. Ararat; which is startlingly beautiful.

So, after all that, my feeling is that this newly designed Silk Route Tour is going to be an experience not to miss out on.  Join the pioneers and ride this new tour the first year it heads out!

It’s important to also comment that the price of the tour is higher than both Tour d’Afrique and Vuelta Sudamericana.  Part of this is obviously that the new Silk Route is our longest tour. Also a good percentage of the accommodation on the Silk Route is in hotels. However the main reason is that the Silk Route is an extremely complex tour to organize and takes a large amount of time to do so.  There is no other commercial cycling tour company offering a tour in Asia such as ours and this is because it’s not an easy thing to pull off.  We have been able to succeed in this because of our hard earned expertise and knack for adversity.  Take notice though that we are offering a 1000€ early payment discount. This is to encourage participants to commit early so we can better gauge the group size we’ll have and plan for the tour accordingly.