Adventure Journeys

Beyond the Guidebook

Uzbekistan is most often visited along the famous Golden Road: Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva. It is a magnificent route, and for good reason. But the country extends far beyond it, into ranges and valleys and steppe corridors that receive only a handful of visitors each year. Mosaique adventure journeys are designed for travellers who want to go further, physically and experientially, into the landscapes that most people never reach.

The Nuratau Mountains rise sharply from the Kyzylkum desert north of Samarkand, their slopes covered in ancient walnut forests and dotted with villages where traditions of weaving and horse-keeping remain unchanged for generations. We offer multi-day treks through these ranges, staying with local families in stone houses where the view from the window has looked the same for five hundred years. The walking is moderate to challenging, the altitude manageable, and the sense of remoteness absolute.

For those drawn to the archaeological wilderness, we arrange expeditions to the lost kingdoms of ancient Khorezm. Scattered across the desert plains of Karakalpakstan, dozens of mud-brick fortress ruins survive in varying states of preservation, accessible only by 4WD across unmarked desert tracks. Our expert local guides know which routes are passable in each season and which ruins repay the effort most. The experience of arriving at Toprak-Kala or Koy-Krylgan-Kala as the sun descends, with no one else in sight for fifty kilometres, is one that is very difficult to describe and very easy to remember.

We also offer itineraries along the Amu Darya, the ancient Oxus River that forms Uzbekistan's border with Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. Travelling this river corridor by local boat and 4WD, passing through Nukus and the eerily beautiful ruins near the receding Aral Sea, is a journey through one of the most geographically dramatic regions in the world.

All our adventure journeys are private and designed around your fitness level and curiosity. We never leave logistics to chance: vehicles are maintained, guides are licensed, and accommodation is confirmed before departure. The adventure is in the landscape, not in the uncertainty.

The best journeys are the ones that take you somewhere you were not sure you could reach. Central Asia has been offering that feeling to travellers for two thousand years.