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Two Humped "Camel" ride - Kazakhstan

After such a chilli border crossing our first objective was to find a nice sheltered place where we could have lunch… It turns out that the road from the Kyrgyzstan Border on the Kazakhstan side was actually really terrible. While riding along Heather startled some dogs which chased after her…. they then gave up.. unfortunately I was coming along behind her and they really wanted a piece of my leg.. one of the dogs was running along trying to grab onto my leg right next to the bike.. I accelerated hard on the rough, wet gravel road to get away only to find my traction went on holidays and I nearly ended up in the ditch on the side of the road with the dogs… it was so lucky that the traction came back and I managed to get away… It was a true brown pants moment.

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After a long night celebrating we woke early with the intention of getting to the Kyrgyzstan boarder early. We didn’t want any problems or long queues to contend with. We had heard that it could take a very long time so we didn’t want to miss the closing time of 8pm…. Thankfully on our high quality (£2) vodka we didn’t have any hang over and felt fresh in the morning.. After packing up and having a big breakfast (again horse sausages and eggs) it was time to make tracks.. for the first time at a border crossing we had got fully prepared with loads of food and water so that we didn’t end up starved and hungry (e.g. Like coming into Russia).. I hope you see the irony in that as the story unfolds…

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a "room" with a view - camping Kazakhstan

If we wanted a relaxing holiday then we probably would have chosen to go a slightly different route to the one we are on. The last few weeks in the desert have been physically trying and mentally exhausting but we have been totally amazed by the hospitality of the people of Kazakhstan, and the scenery of their country. So far the further east we head the more we have been enjoying the experience of motorcycle touring/travelling and the more of an adventure it has become. After being in Europe the distances in this area of the world are so vast by comparison. People don’t even flinch when they say its “6 days drive away”… Starting when we got to Slovenia the number of road side food stalls has steadily increased. Initially just selling fruit and (more…)

Camping before Makat - Kazakhstan

In Atyrau when we filled up with petrol we got some very strange looks from the locals when we said we wanted to make it to Makat for the night. Eventually an English speaker came up and warned us that Makat was not a safe place to be. He said that it was full of drunks, drug addicts and bandits. We decided to take their advice and camped in the Desert about 60km before Makat… We camped near a salt lake and watched the sunset.. At the camp-site the ground was moving… Millions of little bugs all over the ground.. everywhere you looked there would be hundreds of these little bugs.. You couldn’t walk anywhere without stepping on them.. Unfortunately as much as we had tried to find other places to camp they all had these bugs. It had been a long day and we needed to rise early to get some distance behind us…. The next morning we rode into Makat and from what we can tell the advice we got given was 100% correct. The road on both our maps goes straight through the town.. Unfortunately that is not how it is.. There is a turn off that goes back away from the way your going with a yellow sign about 8km before the town.. It bypasses the town.. We didn’t see the sign because it had been bent away.. and 1h:15m later we found someone that gave us accurate directions and got the hell out of the town after being given directions by 4 different people..all of which ended in dead ends in dodgy areas of town..One of them even tried to fleece me of my money. To make matters worse in Makat the roads in town really shouldn’t be called roads.. One of the pot holes was so big that the suspension on heathers bike bottomed out so much that the mud guard hit the Pannier rack and was ripped off being flung off back at James…

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Bikes at Sunset - Kazakhstan

After our stay in Astrakan it was time to head off for Atyrau and the Kazakhstan border… Leaving Astrakan with the maps we had proved to be more difficult than we thought…. how hard can it be to follow some signs right?… well we got lost and ended up riding around for about 45 minutes until we found the right road.. We should really have filled up with more petrol in Astrakan before we left but they all had long lines and we wanted to make it to the border.. We had been told to expect delays of at least 12 hours to cross into Kazakhstan.. It was luckily not the case. We arrived and the line of cars was relatively short (maybe 15 cars).. All up it took about 2 hours which was a huge relief after our 16 hour epic at Sochi. At the border crossing the customs agent who was sorting our customs declaration (the legal paper work required to bring the bikes into Kazakhstan) said it will cost 4000 Russian Roubles for the declaration fee…. that’s about £80.. I did not remember reading about any Kazakhstan customs fee’s so I went to consult the lonely planet book.. I then came back with the book… Luckily the guy didn’t speak or read English.. I pointed out that in the book it said that there was no fee… all of a sudden the guy was a little angry.. although he still wouldn’t give me back my paper work until I paid him a fee.. (more…)