April 2, 2026 10.01PM

Tomorrow, April 3rd, it begins again in earnest, this fourth summer and final year of the walk. I’ve already walked  240 kilometres since returning to Kazakhstan on a new visa, but that was just a leg stretch, a warm up for what is to come. In some sense, all the 10,000 kilometres of the walk so far have been a warm up. Here in Qulsary, aided by Serik and his father, I have scavenged, pieced, and welded together a makeshift cart in order that I might carry enough food and, most especially, water for the 1600 kilometres of Uzbekistan that lie ahead.

Beginning with the Ustyurt Plateau and the Kyzylkum Desert, I will have, at most, 30 days to cross this harsh tract, for a self-mutilating daily distance of between 55 and 60 kilometres, and I hardly know what to expect but I am comforted by the knowledge that I can do it. I don’t know where this certainty comes from, but I am grateful for it. I’ll likely dip back into Kazakhstan in the West, then some combination of Kyrgyrstan, Tajikistan, China, and Pakistan should bring me to the Indian border. Afghanistan is out, the borders are closed amid renewed fighting with Pakistan.