John & Mick's BIG AdventureNorthern boys...
Day 21 – 647 kms! (7346 kms total)
Thursday was a days rest in Aqtobe, where we spent most of the day traipsing round looking for Internet cafe’s with enough capacity to upload photos.
We ended up back at our hotel in their ‘business centre’ hogging one PC to do as many as possible – a tedious task, but the gallery is a little more populated now..
Friday – Had breakfast before we left Aqtobe, and found our way out of town through light traffic, though signposts were rare.
We have been told by a number of people that the road south to Shymkent is diabolical, (worse than those to date), and should be avoided. Also that there are bandits along the way, and not much petrol.
After previous days journeying on bad roads, 6-800km more of it was enough to put us off, so we have changed our route to go north on the newly-built roads, up to Qostanay, and then south-eastwards through Astana, (the new capital), to Almaty.
We kicked off on smooth roads but, 300 km into our journey we were diverted off the road, where they were doing road building!! Fair enough, as 10km later we were back on newly surfaced asphalt, running like a dream, but 5km later the road gave up and we were back on dirt, gravel or rocks, depending what we could find alongside the main road.
So much for new roads. A strong wind blew up sand all around us and coupled with passing lorries made it hard to see and breath. Aeons later we emerged back on the main road, only to find the quality was still crap and left us running at a maximum 50kmh to allow time to see and avoid the holes in the road.
The day was running out and we hadn’t eaten, (bar a few biscuits), since breakfast. We gave up on our goal of Qostanay and stopped 100km short at a small town near Tobyi. Asking a chap leaving a petrol station, we were led to a hotel beside the bus station and the chap took Mick inside and explained to the landlady we needed a room. A bargain at 1500Tenge (six quid) and we were then shown parking at the main car park round the corner, with 24 hour security.
These secure parking centres are used by the locals. They drive to the car park and then get a bus the rest of the way home. If they took the car home it would not be there in the morning. Its a bit of a “Mad Max” culture. The car park has high steel fences and a watch tower along with dogs and we have no doubt, guns.
Found food at a café across the road and we are all settled for recuperation.
Fuel standards have dropped again and 92 octane is top of the menu at about 30p a litre. We expect better as bigger towns come along. Mick’s front brake is still holding up, but more through not using it than anything. Fork seals continue to weep and hopefully will last until China where new ones should be arriving. Johns front tyre continues to be misshapen due to low pressure and lack of air points.
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