The Adventure Begins in Kazakhstan

We joined up with The Fighting Trousers and the Amboriginals to navigate the crazy roads to Kazakhstan after crossing a quick and painless border. That is, unless you count the two hours sitting in a queue of transport trucks and local families before finally getting to the booth. We didn’t pay a bribe and didn’t have any hassles..it was smooth sailing for the Social Media Syndicate!

At the Rus-Kaz border. 21 cars ahead if us. What is your guess on timing?

The roads have these nutty ruts that are so deep and well worn that if you get into them, the car can steer itself down the road. The problem is, if you do get into the ruts path, our little Nissan Almera bottoms out because it sits so low. It’s like driving in a stressful video game where you avoid potholes and oncoming traffic while balancing atop a high and skinny ridge, and if you happen to drop off, you will cause some serious damage to the under-carriage.

We didn’t make it as far as we would have liked, so we set up camp  well before our planned destination among the herds of camels, cows and horses grazing in the fields.

We were early to rise to make it to Atyrau, the main city of the country thriving on the rich oil reserves surrounding it. We picked up supplies at the shopping mall, ate a wonderful English breakfast, bought our Kazakhstan sim cards and filled up our car gas tank as well as our camping fuel so that we could eat something more than canned meat and Nutella sandwiches.

The fighting Trousers, We're parting ways

We said goodbye to our convoy buddies who were staying in town for one last night of luxury.

We left the busy city of Atyrau complete with T.G.I. Fridays and made our way east. In less than 100 km from town, the roads disappeared in the town of Makat. As we took wrong turn after wrong turn, the locals directed us with a wave in the right direction. When we came to a factory, it looked like a dead end. We asked more than one person “where is the road to Aqtobe?” We shouted “Aqtobe? Aqtobe?” They all pointed towards the same field. A pothole-filled, car-swallowing cavernous expanse of dirt and clay. We steered the car in it’s direction and hoped for the best.

The dust built up on the car and the “Tweet our Dust” tag line literally came true as we sent a twit pic from the middle of the dry field.

Sherry and Deb fending off the dust!

We managed to travel 40 km in two hours, dodging pothole and avoiding ruts. When the sun started setting we had to find a place to camp. We followed a long dirt track out to the middle of the desert wasteland, getting off the view from the road to avoid any robberies or muggings.

Then it was dinner time. A civilized meal of pasta and tomato sauce, fresh bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar accompanied by cheap $1 local warm beer.

It was early to bed because tomorrow is a 450km day of rough and dusty roads to the next town!

We’ve got a lot of catching up to do as we’re two days behind schedule and we only have three weeks until our Russian Visa expires. We have a few more days in Kazakhstan, 2 more countries to cross and another entry back into Kazakhstan before we have to re enter Russia before our final push to Mongolia…with less than 3 weeks to do it!

Hope we make it!

This post for ThePlanetD brought to you on behalf of Social Media Atlantic Canada!