SuzyBlue goes east 2019: Kasachstan/Uzbekistan part 1: endless desert and not much more....; 12.-18.06.

... soon after we wake up we can see the main land already......yeppeaaa; but no rush with packing as it will still take a couple of hours until we reach Aktau. But shortly before lunch time there is the captain's message that we will disembark soon. Hääää? For a couple of weeks the ferry does not disembark in Aktau anymore but in Kuryk, some 90 kilometers south of Aktau. A fact we could not have known. Well, that sounds nice. But again no hurry; enough time to have lunch before leaving the boat. Even landed it will take some time until we can drive off. 

The customs officer come directly onto the ferry to stamp the passports and give us the necessary vehicle documents to go on at the customs checkpoint. After another 1-2 hours we finally can leave the ferry and drive directly to the shiny new customs building. As we do not exactly know what to do I just walk to any of the officers behind a desk waving with my passport. He friendly shows me where to start the procedure. I was fast enough to miss the other officer who directed my friends to a huge scanner. They had to unpack the tank bags, the small personal items and the tent rolls. Luckily they just forgot about me ;-) After paying the fee for having used the port's facilities (?) I could go on the the customs officer. There is quite a line of truck drivers waiting. But I'm waved through right to the start of the line. Hmmm... poor truck drivers. But they don't seem to care about it. Probably not the first time they experienced tourists being priviliged. The rest is quick and easy. Only to drive out of the port we have to wait again as the same officers that had come onto the ferry have to check the bikes and open the gate. After another couple of minutes they let us through.... and now we are officially in Kazachztan. woohoooo....

STOP!!! Not that fast. Shortly after the customs checkpoint there are some guys waiting who want to sell us an insurance for the bikes. It is not officially mandatory but in case of an accident  or getting into a police control we might have problems. As the insurance costs just about US$5 for 15 days and the Kazach police is famous for ripping off tourists (for nothing) we buy the insurance. After that it's a 90km drive to Aktau. The scenery has changed completely: steppe, desert, endless vastness.... and some (real) camels;-)

The temperature rises hour for hour. We are happy to find a decent hotel straight away. The next day just relaxing, walking to the city to buy a SIM-card and for a walk at the Caspian Sea. We expect quite "hard" days as the roads might be not that good and we have to cover long distances before reaching Uzbekistan. Straight roads for hours....that means you have to find ideas to prevent falling off the bike sleeping ;-) except for the parts where the potholes keep you awake. The first leg leads us to Beineu. We split it in two parts, as it is 470km and there is cave monasterie to explore and the scenery should be quite interesting as well.
The road to Beineu is really nice except the part to the cave monastery: loose gravel, some huge rocks and lots of sand.....phhhh.... not what I like with my fully loaded SuzyBlue but I guess I better get used to it as it won't be the last time that I'll have to drive such "bad" roads the next months ;-) actually the gravel road and the scenery (so-called "valley of the round stones") is worth the effort. Not the cave monastery which finally is just one little room hidden in the sandy rock.

Again we find a nice little hotel in Beineu and prepare everything for the border crossing to Uzbekistan the next day. I check SuzyBlue a bit more accurate than usual and find that the exhaust is not holding to the frame anymore. WOW.... that's bad as we know that the road will be really bumpy for at least some hundred kilometres.
On the app "IOverlander" I find a mechanic and bring SuzyBlue there. With the picture I've taken and the word "problema"  - as I don't speak any Russian - he immediately understands what's to do. He directs me to his neighbour who apparantely is the specialist for welding in the village. Checking my "problem" he starts to fix it without saying a word. Just a couple of minutes later he's finished the repair. I'm quite curious how long that will last with the expected bad roads laying ahead. But it looks good - as far as I can judge it - and costs me only $ 5. With all the luggage SuzyBlue defenitely has sometimes to "suffer" more than is good for her. 

                               

Jürgen and I start early in the morning; Ruben and Katja- the German couple - stay another day. The road to the border (about 80km) is under construction right now: deep sand passages give me a hard time. Not only because my skills in driving in sand are not good but with the oncoming traffic there's loads of dust and I see absolutely nothing. Worse than in thick mist as I should drive as fast as possible in the sand to keep me and SuzyBlue upright. It's really scary but I give my best. It'slike "shut your eyes and just drive".... after that sandy section we look like after a sandstorm - but I'm a bit proud that I managed to get through :-)

Reaching the border we have to pass the waiting people again. Something I had already read in many blogs. Well, nothing we can do about it and to be honest, I'm quite happy that we don't have to wait for hours as the others.
Checking out of Kazachstan is quick and easy and we drive on to the Uzbekistan side.
We are quite sure that this will take defenitely longer now as there are bad stories about the Uzbekistan customs: unpacking the complete luggage, controlling of all drugs, etc.
It is a bit chaotic as we are redirected to different officers again and again but otherwise no stress at all. They are really friendly - we hear "welcome to Uzbekistan" a couple of times - and they always find an officer who speaks at least some words English. Typing the vehicles datas into the system takes quite some time as the systems seems to run really slow. Finally we have just to open one side bag and the drug dog runs around our bikes one time. That's it, we can leave. But stop. We need the papers that proofe that we legally imported the bikes and that we are registered. But no matter who I ask for it, they all tell me: no, no, not necessary. An officer is able to tell us in a few words that the system is not able to print something right now. Wow, that's not good. I don't want to think about how the checking out of Uzbekistan will be. But waiting is not possible, they sort of "force" us out of the customs area.
I had thought that the road on the Kazachstan side was bad. But what we have to endure the next 350km is just horrible: the first 100km gravel and again lots of sand - and of course oncoming traffic and after we finally reach tarmac again it's full of potholes as big as half a car.  Full concentration all the time. Well, at least we don't miss anything spectacular: flat, endless desert and steppe again.

While we're having a breakfast break two German biker stop by and we have a nice chat and a cup of coffee together. We'll meet them a couple of times the next days. 

There is not only nothing special to see but there is also no fuel station until the next village. Distances over 400km without a fuel station is quite common here. There are gas stations as most of the Uzbekian cars run with gas but there is almost no fuel or diesel available in Uzbekistan. So you fill up, including the reserve canister whenever you find a station or fuel from the black market. No matter which one the quality is quite bad  - 80 octan is standard- and it is too expensive in comparison to the other countries. I'm happy that I have mounted a special filter at the tank that filters the fuel right while filling it in. I'm not always sure about the quality of the fuel we get.

We reach the first city Kungard really tired and decide to stay at the hotel for two days as we want to visit the famous "ship graveyard" at the former south-end of lake Aral the next day. 

There are just some boat wrecks left and everything is prepared for the tourists. Therefor it is not possible anymore to "park" directly in front of the rusty boats. Would have been a nice photo spot ;-)
But anyway. Really "impressing" to see "live" how much this former 66'000skm huge lake has shrunked within 30 years. In 2010 there was just 12'000skm left and the shore is going back about 200meters every year. It is not one huge lake anymore but it's parted in some smaller leftovers. 10'000s have lost their jobs and their basis for living as there used to be a prospering fish industry and boatyards. But it is not only the changing of the climate that causes that terrible lost of water but also the Uzbekistan agriculture: huge cotton and rice monocultures - where the people is even forced to help harvesting it - use more water than the sources can produce. They start to think about maybe change to other, less water intensive products but I guess that will take too long to save lake Aral.

As Jürgen wants to ride another direction we both travel solo again. But there are quite some bikers on the road right now so I guess I'll meet sooner or later somebody to have a nice chat or ride a day or two together. The next couple of days my "programm" is already fixed: I will visit the famous historic cities Khiva, Bukhara and Samarkand before riding the last long loop to Osh in Kyrgystan.
But more to that in my next blog :-)