Day 65: Aral’sk (In the glorious nation of Kazakhstan) – 7028km

 It looked like this for most of the way across Kazakhstan. Though the condition of the road was marginally better at times.

We did have a rather memorable time though, despite the 23 days of head wind, heat, sun, no shelter and wierd road surfaces. Most of the people we met were extraordinarlily nice to us. I guess they don’t have a lot of tourists in these parts.

I purchased two spare wheels in a bazaar in Taraz. We then had another day of moderate conditions and nice scenery to Shymkent. From Shymkent it became clear that my vision of riding along a beautiful river valley of the Sirdariya was terribly flawed. It was hot dry desert all the way, and we only saw the river two or three times.

I was hit by a truck the day after Shymkent, which dampened my spirits a little. I had a painfully bruised arm, and the Kevlar in my seat sustained some minor but worrying looking damage.

The drivers here were just as dangerous as those of Kyrgyzstan. The truck hit me because he couldn’t be bothered slowing down half a second when overtaking me, while another vehicle was coming from the opposite direction.

On a different occasion I managed to take a picture of two cars overtaking a truck at the same time, one on each side, one in the gravel verge, all of them going fast around a corner, towards me.

We reached Aral’sk early on day 65, so took a few hours rest. Aralsk was once a fishing town, but thanks to the shrinking of the Aral sea it is now surrounded by more desert. Fishing boats sitting on dry land remind us of its former status.

Having camped almost every day since Taraz we took the luxury of a former “intourist” hotel. Complete with the soviet backward facing toilet bowl and once-functioning air conditioner.