Archive for the 'Desert' Category

Shymkent to Taraz… the long way

Friday, August 21st, 2009

a "room" with a view - camping Kazakhstan

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…)

Kazakhstan Deserts Atyrau to Shymkent

Sunday, August 16th, 2009

Camping before Makat - Kazakhstan

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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