Wet 'n' Windy

Day 22 – 564 kms (7911 kms total)

Drawing back the curtains revealed dark clouds, hanging over the apartments in the town depositing their contents steadily in the puddles of the streets below.
However, loaded up and dressed in all our finest waterproofs & full electric jacket liners and gloves, we were ready to deal with the elements.
Old grave
First application of the brakes showed the road was slippery as Micks rear wheel slewed kerb-wards.
Rudnyy was the first main town and following signs for Kostanay, to avoid the town centre, we seemed to be on to a winner til we found ourselves in a dead end street. We found our way back to the route and shortly reached Kostanay where we stopped for a coffee, just as the heavens opened again.
From the centre of town, there are no signs for Astana, but the GPS led us back to the main road again.

From there to Auliekol, where there were quite a few pine woods, where camping would have been ideal, but not to be.
Johns heated kit, failed to work, which he found to be a faulty earth connection. We stopped to fix and at the same time, re-fixed a loose bulb in Mick’s front left indicator which had worked loose.
The road was long and boring again and heading east, we were hit by a storm with a strong southerly wind. For about 40km – very hard.
Stopped for borscht and coffee somewhere and as usual became the star attractions. We managed to skirt a couple more storms, but still had to re-don the wet gear as it was quite threatening.
Not much of a view
250km before Astana, the road gave way to roadworks and once again forced onto the dirt. 12 km later, we rejoined the road, which was still under construction as we dodged the tractors, diggers and lorries until the road restarted just before Altbasar.
It was 6pm (another hour lost to time zones) and so we headed into town during a heavy downpour found a dubious hotel and called it a day. They only had a single room, at 1500 Tenge, but put an extra bed in for us and then charged double.
Beds squeaked badly and there was no running water in the room – the spare shower was downstairs on other side of billiard room. At least parking was free. Food in the restaurant was tolerable.

Mick’s rear left indicator has dropped off, shaken by the roads, & is hanging loose and needs re-bolting in the morning.
The bikes are also overdue an oil change!

The next installment is here

Posted on 11. June 2007 by John Shales

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