Photo of the week: Bread seller, Kamchik Pass, Uzbekistan

Photo of the week – every picture tells a story…

A chance encounter and a split second to take this shot – one of my personal favourites because it was a case of being ‘in the right place, at the right’ time.

Whilst travelling the Silk Road in Uzbekistan we needed to get from Kokand in the Fergana Valley to Tashkent, but our truck was not allowed to drive on the road over the Chatkal Range, part of the Tien-Shan mountains.

To get to Tashkent you need to go over the Kamchik Pass using the dangerous A373. There had been a few recent incidents where several people had been killed because their buses had crashed, so authorities were restricting vehicles like buses. This included our truck, so it had to take a different route through Tajikistan.

We had to go by taxi… a white knuckle ride over the mountains at high speed sitting in the front of a taxi with your knees nearly up to your chin because your foot well is full of bags of rice – an experience not easily forgotten!

During this roller-coaster ride the driver stops by the roadside and gets out… I don’t know why.

I glance out of the open window and there is the bread seller… she smiles, holds up her bread, and instinctively I take the photograph.

Then we’re off again… the moment has passed!