Update Map
Having a bit of a mare!
Hello from Kyrgyzstan!
Last time we wrote we were relaxing at a campsite. It was so good there, we decided to spend another couple of nights – we had got so settled, it was quite weird when we finally came to leave, almost like leaving home all over again! There were hugs and kisses from Ruslan’s family and a gift of a huge jar of pure (as in it’s got bits of bees in it) honey from the beekeeper down the hill - it’s lush. We don’t know if they were sad to see us go or happy to get their view back once Mario had gone!
While there we met some more great guests. There was Max and his fiancée from Shymkent. He is an air traffic controller who spoke excellent English and was most interested in our trip. He said we were his heroes, but we think that may have got lost in translation! We then met Robert, a teacher from Ireland who had travelled extensively making the most of his summer holidays. On this trip he’d been travelling alone around most of The ‘Stans, including Afghanistan and he’d also been to Iran. He had some great stories and was easy company while we shared some beers and gin. We both have huge respect for anyone who takes on such a journey on their own, we don’t know how they can do it.
We then had about 300KM to drive to get to Kyrgyzstan, and about a week to do it – so we were planning on plodding along and wasting time. However, we then got a text from our agents who are sorting the China journey – due to the unfortunate recent accidents in Tibet, China have tightened procedures on the visas and they now need to be in force at least 20 days before entry. This meant we had to get to Bishkek ASAP to get our application in at the Chinese Embassy to buy us enough time. So, change of plan, Bishkek here we come!
The border crossing was harmless enough, usual scenario of no concept of queuing, people pushing in even when we were dealing with an official, but we’re getting used to that now. We were even brave enough to refuse to pay bribes to the guards on the gate - just turning the engine off and repeatedly asking “What For?” while the traffic builds up behind, works quite well. The Kyrgyz side was really quite relaxed and friendly, an officer put his hat on Bry (but wouldn’t let us take photos), one tried to kidnap Douglas (our mascot from the Isle of Man) and the blokes in charge all seemed to be in T-shirts and jeans. When we tried to buy insurance, we were just laughed at. They basically said “You’re not in Kazakhstan now, you don’t need it”! We then drove onto Bishkek and found a lovely guesthouse who agreed we could sleep in Mario in their secure car park for 3 nights.
Next morning it was off bright and early to the Chinese Embassy with all our various paperwork to sort the visa. When we got there and saw the crowd at the gates we thought they must have been late opening – how wrong we were! Basically another scrum to get in, with what appeared to be a 2 out / 1 in policy. We worked out there was a small woman at the front with a handwritten list of names that you had to add yourself to, to get in. This would have been fine, if she crossed peoples’ names off when they went in, or bothered to check who was going in was actually who was on the list.
For 2 hours we were entertained by people pushing, shoving, screaming and crying. We saw one bloke try to get in three times under different peoples’ names! About 5 minutes before they were due to close, we managed to work our way to the front and get inside. We were there for less than a minute and were told our papers were wrong and our standard passport photos weren’t to their standard. They wouldn’t give us any explanation, they just said “Bye Bye”. We had read horror stories about Chinese Embassies and how it’s easier to employ a local agent to do the process, but apparently Bishkek is meant to be one of the easier ones. Not in our experience, or the other Western travellers we met there, who were also turned away.
So it was back to the city centre and the office of a certain Miss Liu, the Chinese Visa fixer in Bishkek. She sent us to a local photographers who took new shots of us and then spent 15 minutes manipulating them on Photoshop to meet the criteria. We both look like we’ve been airbrushed! You can’t wear white clothes or have too much skin showing in the photos. Bry was wearing a white T-shirt and Caroline a strappy dress. Luckily Caroline had her emergency/ cover-up/ going into a mosque shirt in the rucksack (thanks to Emma’s FatFace vouchers) so this was used - by both of us! Bry may have lost a bit of weight on this trip, but getting into a ladies size 10 shirt, in a hurry, in 37 degree heat was quite an effort. We were all laughing so much, including the photographer, it took a while before Bry could do a straight face for the camera. Then it was back to Miss Liu for new forms, a US$300 payment and hopefully, hopefully, hopefully a Chinese Visa to pick up on Wednesday 27th – our Tenth Wedding Anniversary!
We have since spent 2 days enjoying Bishkek. There’s not much to see or do, which suits us fine! We’ve been enjoying the sun, parks, air conditioned malls, huge Osh Bazaar and yet another musical fountain. It’s been nice but also a bit strange being in a big city again, everything you could want, but also you could be in any big city in the world. After a month of literally having to search for the local shop as they have no signs outside, to now find huge supermarkets that sell Stella, was a welcome change but the novelty soon wears off. It’s much more fun “in the sticks”, we drove into one village and saw 2 boys outside a house waving us over – sure enough it was the local shop. Why pay for expensive electric signage when you can get the kids to do it?!
Also, the village shops are proper Open All Hours style, not self-service. We just have to point at stuff we think we recognise and hope for the best. So far, rather than normal milk, we’ve managed to buy about 3 different types of yoghurt, condensed milk and cream – it makes breakfast very exciting! We’ve been eating various types of kebabs and local “meats” and drinking kymys (fermented mare’s milk – hence the very witty title!) which smells of formaldehyde. It reminds Bry of dissecting rats in biology and Caroline of when she observed a post-mortem! Goes down well though.
So now we have to kill time until Wednesday. We’re planning on driving out of the city for a few days and then coming back in. We’re going to come back to the same guesthouse, but as it’ll be our anniversary, we’ve booked a room - how very decadent! Well it has been a month since we last didn’t sleep in Mario.
So we’ve got everything crossed that the visa goes through OK and we’ll update when we can!
Kazakhstan Continues
Things have improved since our last update, as we have mainly been on a brand new road – yay!! Only one real diversion of 30km on sandy tracks with a load of artics chugging along at 15kph, while the construction trucks bombed about at 50kph weaving in and out of us, chucking up blinding dust! The new road has been fun as a lot of the fuel stations are not yet complete and most of the road signage is missing. This has meant a few trips into random towns searching out fuel, which has been nice as we’ve met more locals and seen how they live their daily lives. However, even the local roads aren’t immune from the incessant roadworks. We were leaving one town, following Caroline’s carefully drawn map back to the main road, only to find that the bridge we had used an hour earlier was now closed and no diversion signposted!
We did go to Aral but we didn’t get to the Ship Cemetery as the road was too rough and salty for Mario. Aral itself was very hot and dusty meaning we only had a quick look round the market, scrounged some water off the local carwash and moved on. We did want to visit Kyzylorda which was the previous, previous capital of Kazakhstan (the capital seems to change along with their President). However, this part of the main road was dual carriageway, only there was a contraflow in place with no obvious means of getting off – and again no road signs.
Sunday was a fantastic day as we actually managed to find 2 separate places we wanted to visit – we felt like proper tourists rather than two idiots bumbling their way through random towns! Our first stop was Fortress Sauran, the remains of14th century Silk Road city, which was very interesting although the lack of any visitor information meant we weren’t quite sure what we were looking at. Our second stop was the Yasaui Mausoleum in Turkistan, described as the country’s greatest architectural monument and most important pilgrimage site. This had beautiful mosaics on the rear outside but the front has remained unfinished since 1405 when the bloke who was building it died. It’s still got scaffolding poles sticking out the front. Inside there were a series of small rooms, a lot of which were just bare white tiles. However, one room was used as a mosque where we stopped to listen to a boy of about 8 singing his prayers, which was quite enthralling.
Sunday was also great as it was the first day in Kazakhstan where we haven’t been stopped by the police, we filled up our water using a farmer’s massive pump, we bought a huge melon at the roadside only yards from where it had grown and after many days of looking we finally managed to buy some glue for Mario’s drooping lino! In Kazakhstan they call glue ‘clay’, who knew?!
Monday the police got their revenge. We were overtaking along with all the other traffic, but only we were stopped and told to pay US$433 at a bank to get our driving licence back, or US$200 on the spot. Unfortunately for them, we couldn’t get into our safe due to the door jamming, so managed to pay them off with US$50 and 50Euros notes which Caroline’s Mum had sewn into a curtain hem for emergencies! Thanks Mum!
Monday did bring some nicer surprises – mountains, proper size trees, cooler temperatures and less dust! We managed to find a campsite we’d read about, right next to the Aksu-Zhabagly Nature Reserve. In fact last night there was evidence of a big bear passing right by Mario (thankfully we weren’t in a tent) and wolves could be heard too. The road to the camp was a bit tricky, but well worth it. We’ve now been here for 5 nights and planning on moving on tomorrow towards Taraz. We’ve mainly been relaxing, reading and the odd walk to the village for supplies. We did take the opportunity to sort a few jobs on Mario, including emptying the “garage” to get rid of all the dust and improve the door seals – much to the amusement / bemusement of the campsite owner, Ruslan. Caroline has spent 2 days abusing the onsite washing machine.
Ruslan and his extended family are lovely and have looked after us very well. All the other guests have been great including a lovely Kazak couple who were just leaving and gave us two beers, 3 French lads with whom we shared our own beers and 2 Kazak families who flash mobbed us one evening and were most entertaining! One of the mothers, Zarina, spoke excellent English and even wrote us a good luck and best wishes note which will make it home to one of Caroline’s scrapbooks!
It’s been great just relaxing after a tough couple of weeks on the road – we were both so relieved to find such a beautiful place to stay for a week, we had a little blub! It’s amazing what a change of scenery and some clean sheets can do! We’ve recharged our batteries and are now looking forward to hitting the road again. Soon we will be in Kyrgyzstan where hopefully we will also have some downtime before what will be a manic month crossing China.
TTFN
These are the days which must happen to you.
We are now just outside Aktobe, Northern Kazakhstan, just about to head South East towards Kyrgyzstan - bit of a convoluted route, but all our research suggested this would be the best roads across the country. If these are the best, we'd hate to see the worst!
Many of the roads can't even be described as roads, just multiple dust tracks over a very bumpy desert. In 2 days we did 100km!
As if driving in the heat and the continual concentration on 3 metres ahead wasn't enough, we were then faced with with having to clean all the powder from ourselves and inside of Mario - it just gets sucked in everywhere! One evening we spent 4 hours wiping everything down, bashing out the furnishings and trying to block all the vents. As the road conditions have been so bad, we're trying to carry as little water as possible (less weight), but then we don't even have the luxury of a nice long shower to get the dust off!
Just as we think we're over the worse, our radiator top hose springs a leak - it's obviously been rubbing against the air filter box. A 2hour temporary roadside fix (silicon sealant, gaffer tape, jubilee clips) and we move on to the next city to sort a permanent solution.
So, its been a tough few days, more lows than highs, but as Bry's tattoo says, "These are the days which must happen to you". We're learning to take the rough with the smooth, for example, when we found a garage to sort the hose, they couldn't be more helpful. They were ringing around to see if the could get a replacement part (over £100), taking us into their office to use Google Translate, ringing friends "who speak English" - although they rarely understand the accent! - and then agreed to repair it by cutting out the worn section and inserting a metal pipe - proper job done, should be fine. We were there for 3 hours, they charged us £10, even topped our water tanks up and refused to accept a tip. Everyone we have spoken to has been really welcoming and friendly.
We've been here a week now and have been pulled by the police everyday so far. Normally it's a quick papers check, a firm handshake and a "Good Luck", but Bry did spend 35 minutes in the back of a police car playing dumb tourist, trying to avoid a 18,250 Tenge (£60) fine for allegedly not stopping at a zebra crossing. They eventually gave up and let him go! Another time we were pulled for only having our sidelights on (lunchtime, bright sunny day). As the officer took Bry back to his car mentioning a fine, they caught the other copper taking a pee at the side of the road. They both thought this was hilarious and the embarrassed copper told his colleague to let Bry go!
We have managed to wild camp most nights - the huge wilderness is ideal for it. Just drive off the road a bit, behind a stand of trees, rise in the ground or whatever and no-one bothers you. Waking up to the sweet smelling heather and seeing the wildlife (great gerbils, steppe eagles, camels) is a wonderful feeling. On two nights we stayed at truck stops - not quite such nice surroundings, but safe and only £1.50 a night.
We are now heading for the Aral Sea, the sea that is no more, with ship graveyards in the middle of the desert. The roads are meant to be OK from now on, with only small diversions into the desert for roadworks, but we will see!
If back in the real world, Bry would be stocking up on cider, crisps, ibuprofen and wet wipes getting ready for his annual boys weekend away at Cropredy. He'll be thinking of the boys (Kev, Neilo, Big Fish & Little Fish) and hopes they don't miss his stimulating conversation too much!
Thank you for your messages and emails - they've really helped lift our spirits over the last few days - please keep them coming and we will try to reply when we can!
Onwards and upwards!
TTFN
Humps and bumps in Kazakhstan
When we last updated we were just leaving our hotel in Astrakhan and off to the Volga Delta looking for a campsite called Berezhok which we’d researched. For once finding our destination wasn’t a problem, just a matter of dodging a few cows and horses on the way. Berezhok is more of a cluster of holiday chalets than what we would class as a campsite but the very gracious, English speaking owners, Aleona and Ruslan, were exceptional hosts and allowed us to park in front of their garage, fill our water tanks and even plug in our electric hookup! We had a lovely 3 nights there relaxing by the river, albeit having an ongoing battle with the ants, watching the various boats cruise up and down the Volga Delta. We even went for a paddle ourselves although we decided against submerging ourselves into the river water like the locals were. We had our first encounter with a snake (Caroline nearly stepped on it) and we enjoyed the company of the two resident dogs. One of the Russian guests got speaking to us in excellent English and brought over 2 cans of beer as a welcome to his country. He recommended we go back to Astrakhan on the Sunday for Navy Day and even offered to arrange transport with us so we wouldn’t have to take Mario back into the city. Another example of how friendly and hospitable Russians are. However we just decided to stay on the campsite for the 3 days to relax and read our books, before moving on for 2 days exploring the Delta and wild camping. Before we left Aleona and Ruslan sent us a gift of two huge pieces of watermelon which were devoured gratefully.
On leaving the camp we drove to the end of the first Delta ‘finger’ and found ourselves facing a small ferry crossing. We decided against taking Mario over the water and admired the lotus flowers and the cow bus stop instead! Our first wild camp was at the end of another ‘finger’ and we had the company of a family of dogs to keep us entertained. Our second night was spent nearer the border with Kazakhstan and this time a herd of horses were our ‘neigh’bours.
Wednesday we entered Kazakhstan – waking up early to clean the van inside and out for its numerous customs inspections. Just before the border we were a bit surprised to see the road continue over the river on what looked like a floating pontoon. This pontoon was far too unstable to take the weight of Mario so we opted for the ferry crossing instead, £3 well spent!
On reaching the border, needless to say after our experience entering Russia, we were both nervous and apprehensive due to the unknown of what we may be faced with. In reality, leaving Russia was simple, they didn’t even look in the back of Mario so the generator was no issue. We then drove for what seemed like ages through no-mans land and we when we started seeing road signs and junctions we thought we somehow must have missed officially entering Kazakhstan! However eventually a huge gold and white building came into view which was the Kazak passport control – certainly the nicest customs building we’ve seen to date. With the usual formalities done and a quick check over Mario we were on our way!
After sorting our insurance documents Bry noticed a car with a British number plate with lots of Mongol Rally stickers on – we were so excited by this we had to stop and have a chat. The two guys and the girl in the vehicle were actually from Seattle so imagine our surprise when they spoke to us in their American accents! They were soon joined by another British rally car this time containing two Brits. We all had a good chinwag, exchanging stories about various police stops, routes and running repairs. We were most impressed by the journey they were taking, driving from London to Mongolia in 25 days for charity. This made us realise we were doing more of a marathon than a sprint and appreciate Mario for the space and comfort he offers. After us signing their vehicles and exchanging web addresses we all wished each other bon voyage. Guys, if you’re reading this, we look forward to catching up in Seattle!!
We then drove for 4 hours on the worst roads yet! As a rule the roads are so bad people just drive down the middle and it’s a game of chicken to swerve into a pothole and avoid a head-on! Where the roads are even worse people just drive along the sandy ‘hard shoulder’ on whichever side suits. As you can imagine this is very tiring and very stressful, not only for us but for Mario too. Thankfully Mario is holding up but the pack of pasta we had in the cupboards made a number of escapes ending up in the sink more than once!
After yesterday’s journey and a pleasant evening watching the sun set on the ‘steppe’, we slept well albeit being woken up at 1 o’clock by horses outside the van, although this gave us another opportunity to stargaze! And when we woke up this morning we were surrounded by camels!
We are currently in Atyrau heading for Oktyabrsk and understand the road from here should be better. There’s even a rumour of a four lane motorway somewhere in Kazakhstan but we’re not holding our breath, we’re just glad we’ve got a month to get to the other side! However, we have so far found the Kazak people to be extremely friendly but also inquisitive as many have asked to climb in the back of Mario just to have a look (including the police).
Bry was pleased to be able to speak to his Mum on her birthday and hope she had a lovely time with Karen, Michelle and all the grandkids!
Don’t forget to check out our Gallery as we’ve uploaded some new photos.
That’s all folks!
Rushing Across Russia
Good morning from Astrakhan, on the border of Europe and Asia!
Since we last updated we decided to continue straight across to Astrakhan and spend a week here before our visa allows us to enter Kazakhstan. This was mainly as we needed a hotel to register our Russian visa within 7 days of entry and there appears to be quite a lot to do in this area.
We have driven over 900 miles in Russia, it's all been extremely flat and we have probably made a total of 10 turns. Up until Volgograd it was quite green farming land and then it suddenly changed to the 'Steppe', barren, arid, sandy but still damn flat!
We stopped off in Volgograd to see the huge 72 metre high Mother Russia statue and their Second World War memorial. When you stand at the bottom of the statue all you can see is up her skirt!
Back on route to Astrakhan we've spent two nights wild camping under the stars, it's nice to recognise the same constellations as at home. As Bry's sister Karen would say 'We're all under the same moon'. At one of the stops Bry had his own personal Fairford Airshow as we watched two Russian fighter jets, MiGs presumably, chasing each other across the sky, dog fight training.
So we are now in a Park Inn Hotel in the middle of Astrakhan. Picking out the tall 13 storey hotel was easy but once again, getting to it proved to be a challenge! We could see the reception and the car park tucked away between the bus and train stations but couldn't work out how to actually drive there! Cue hilarious conversations with bus station officials, Us: 'we want to get to the Park Inn', Them: 'no parking, you go!'. Finally a taxi driver came to our aid and showed us the route, we had to drive through two 'no entry' signs to access the car park, no wonder we were confused!
Astrakhan is an interesting mix of modern shopping malls, beautifully preserved stone buildings, dilapidated wooden private homes but with beautifully carved exteriors and immense new public buildings!
So far we are loving Russia, everyone we speak to is really friendly, the complete opposite to the stereotype we have grown up with. We've been stopped by the police a number of times but these just appear to be random checks. Twice we've been waved on a soon as they've realised we are foreigners and another time they appeared to just want to chat and check out Mario's winch!
Finding water for Mario's 250 litre tank has not been straightforward. The fuel stations don't appear to have water or at least outside taps so we've resorted to going to carwashes and getting the attendant to fill us up with the jet wash! Petrol stations here just sell fuel, it's rare to find one with any sort of shop attached and it's usually payment by cash through a hatch in the wall! This has resulted in many more stops on our journeys, one for fuel, one for drinks and one for water, whereas we've been used to doing it all in one hit.
We are now off to head for the Volga Delta to find somewhere to camp for a week before we can get into Kazakhstan. We know some of the Delta is restricted and you need a permit to get in as it is a Wildlife Reserve and a border area. However, we have not managed to find out exactly where the restrictions come into place so we might just head South and see how far we can get.
Just in case we don't have internet access again for a while, Happy Birthday Mum for the 29th - love you lots x
Until the next time ...