After Khiva, Pixie leaves the city behind, and the road takes her through the Cotton Fields — the second level of chapter one, Uzbekistan. The clay walls and minarets fall away. Ahead lies a white sea of cotton stretching to the horizon, a sun-bleached sky and a long, dusty road.
Three districts in one run
Just like Khiva, the level is made of several places that hand over to each other while you run:
- The cotton gin — white mountains of cotton, stacked bales, pipes and a conveyor, and a convoy of bale carts you can run right up onto.
- The fields — endless rows, irrigation ditches across the lanes, concrete flumes on embankments and a plank walkway along the top.
- The road — cotton trucks on the verge, a teahouse with its wooden daybeds, a railway crossing.
Each district leads into the next through its own gateway — the gin gates, the bridge over the canal, the level crossing — so you always see the change coming.
What's new on the road
The big difference from Khiva is real forks in the route. Every so often the track offers a choice: stay on the ground or climb up — onto the bales, the flume, a low trailer bed — or break left or right. Each fork is signposted early, and the braver line pays off.
Irrigation ditches cut across all three lanes at once. Jump them anywhere or take the little plank bridge — your call. Miss, and you get a splash and a brief stumble, nothing more: Pixie never gets hurt in this game.
The difficulty climbs gently. The first few hundred metres ease you in; after that, the fields get busier and faster than the streets of Khiva.
The finale: “The Sluices”
The Cotton Fields end with a challenge of their own. A water truck rolls along the road, sluice gates wait on the canal ahead, and the lanes flood one after another. A lane is either fully under water or completely dry, so the trick is to read the water ahead and switch lanes in time.
What's next
The next stop on the route is Moynaq, and then Kazakhstan. In the meantime, have a look in the shop — there's something to wear for the fields.
