3rd to 4th of May 2011
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I was too late for covering a distance of 600km in the daytime. I knew already in the morning but after doing my homepage stuff I packed my things and started towards Aktobe.
The first 100km a perfect road to Makat but shortly before I reached this village I was on gravel with potholes. After 2 trials to get the right track out of the village I asked a bus driver: “just straight ahead and then you will hit the asphalt road”.
What I found after 5km hardcore offroad, crossing gas and oil pipelines was a spray of asphalt on some earth which looked like concrete. Would have been perfect if there wouldn’t have been all these potholes in which you could have sunk half of the motorbike.
Because all trucks and cars (every half hour to one hour you see one if you are lucky) face the same problem everyone searches for his own way. That means you will find always 1,2,3 or more tracks through the steppe more or less in parallel. So you have to try to find the optimum way through this “system” of tracks.
After approx. 20km in this mess I heard a shushing noise on my chain. I lost 2 screws of my carrier system for my aluminum boxes. I fixed the carrier with 2 other screws but this was only a provisional solution. No choice, I had to go back to Makat. In front of a magazine I found a couple of guys and one of them brought me to a turnery for heavy machinery. They handmade 2 screws for me: turning, screwing the thread, making the hexagon on top…wow.
Already 4pm I had to stay in Makat and I found a “hotel”. A lazy receptionist brought me to the room and I made a step back when I had a look into the room. Dirt and cigarette buds on the floor, an empty vodka bottle on a small night table…no toilet seat, no shower…and also no common shower area in the “hotel”.
I met 3 Kazakh guys in front of this nice establishment who invited me to “dinner”. No restaurant in town we went to a shashlik stand with some tables. Only thing they had was chicken shashlik so I had to eat it. These 3 Kazakh stayed also in the hotel and were there for an undercover mission in co-operation with the local police and some big guys from Astana. Later those guys picked up my 3 guys for a briefing in the evening…you should have seen them, all heavy guys with sun glasses like in a film; that would have been a photo.
After I got my water for the next day I went back to the shashlik booth and the owner and his wife waved me to the back of the bar and they gesticulated to me that the other guys in the front were already drunken and would soon start to fight. Well 30 min later they did and I heard glass breaking.
I stayed there with beer and Mohammed, Murat the bus driver and a friendly guy from Uzbekistan who was responsible for the shashlik on the open fire.
The next morning I got up early and with the sun slightly above the horizon my spirit came back. I took some photos took a deep breath and started into the earth road adventure. For the coming 500km the mix was a 50/50 of offroad and acceptable gravel or asphalt. After 8.5h I reached Aktobe which I think is record time. The people I met told me something about 10h or more.
In Aktobe I found an expensive hotel. The prices are amazing in Kazakhstan: as soon as you have infrastructure they make you pay. I had a pot of tea in Atyrau for 2000 Tenge which equals to 9 Euro!!! I asked them 2 times if this is correct and I checked also the menu once more.
Today I got some new bolts for my motorbike because the handmade ones are too soft and I am afraid that the hexagons will be destroyed after a couple of times pulling them tight.
My early start...last signs of civilisation, looking back
Raststätte in Kazakhstan :-)
Some flowers trying hard
Back to civilization
The first 100km a perfect road to Makat but shortly before I reached this village I was on gravel with potholes. After 2 trials to get the right track out of the village I asked a bus driver: “just straight ahead and then you will hit the asphalt road”.
What I found after 5km hardcore offroad, crossing gas and oil pipelines was a spray of asphalt on some earth which looked like concrete. Would have been perfect if there wouldn’t have been all these potholes in which you could have sunk half of the motorbike.
Because all trucks and cars (every half hour to one hour you see one if you are lucky) face the same problem everyone searches for his own way. That means you will find always 1,2,3 or more tracks through the steppe more or less in parallel. So you have to try to find the optimum way through this “system” of tracks.
After approx. 20km in this mess I heard a shushing noise on my chain. I lost 2 screws of my carrier system for my aluminum boxes. I fixed the carrier with 2 other screws but this was only a provisional solution. No choice, I had to go back to Makat. In front of a magazine I found a couple of guys and one of them brought me to a turnery for heavy machinery. They handmade 2 screws for me: turning, screwing the thread, making the hexagon on top…wow.
Already 4pm I had to stay in Makat and I found a “hotel”. A lazy receptionist brought me to the room and I made a step back when I had a look into the room. Dirt and cigarette buds on the floor, an empty vodka bottle on a small night table…no toilet seat, no shower…and also no common shower area in the “hotel”.
I met 3 Kazakh guys in front of this nice establishment who invited me to “dinner”. No restaurant in town we went to a shashlik stand with some tables. Only thing they had was chicken shashlik so I had to eat it. These 3 Kazakh stayed also in the hotel and were there for an undercover mission in co-operation with the local police and some big guys from Astana. Later those guys picked up my 3 guys for a briefing in the evening…you should have seen them, all heavy guys with sun glasses like in a film; that would have been a photo.
After I got my water for the next day I went back to the shashlik booth and the owner and his wife waved me to the back of the bar and they gesticulated to me that the other guys in the front were already drunken and would soon start to fight. Well 30 min later they did and I heard glass breaking.
I stayed there with beer and Mohammed, Murat the bus driver and a friendly guy from Uzbekistan who was responsible for the shashlik on the open fire.
The next morning I got up early and with the sun slightly above the horizon my spirit came back. I took some photos took a deep breath and started into the earth road adventure. For the coming 500km the mix was a 50/50 of offroad and acceptable gravel or asphalt. After 8.5h I reached Aktobe which I think is record time. The people I met told me something about 10h or more.
In Aktobe I found an expensive hotel. The prices are amazing in Kazakhstan: as soon as you have infrastructure they make you pay. I had a pot of tea in Atyrau for 2000 Tenge which equals to 9 Euro!!! I asked them 2 times if this is correct and I checked also the menu once more.
Today I got some new bolts for my motorbike because the handmade ones are too soft and I am afraid that the hexagons will be destroyed after a couple of times pulling them tight.
My early start...last signs of civilisation, looking back
Raststätte in Kazakhstan :-)
Some flowers trying hard
Back to civilization
