Sorry Mr Putin ...

Day 25 - 371 km ( 7891 km total )

 

A long, bumpy but actually uplifting day into Kazakhstan,

 

- - -

 

The new packing regime seams secure & stable. OK carrying two tyres had added maybe 7kg to the weight,but I had thrown a few things away and been able to get more into the panniers so the weight distribution wasn't too bad.

Ready for off...

 

Back over the Volga, to turn East towards the border.

 

 

About 30 km later there was another river to cross, but this time by pontoon (floating bits of bridge,cabled together)

 

An interesting experience as it was constantly moving around underneath you, especially when traffic came the other way. The metal floor was also quite slippy.

Then another small river, not long after, but with a real bridge this time.

There was then a stretch of the open plains we saw yesterday running up to the border.

The exit from Russia was easy, curteous & fast - after that its just a 7km stretch of no-mans land before you reach the Kazakhstan entry post, where we had to queue for a while.

The entry process was quite easy (no visa for Kazakhstan required at the moment) and the guards were really friendly.

 

Then we were in Kazakhstan, just insurance to buy before we hit this police check pount a few hundred metres down the road. The whole border process both exit & entry only took about 90 minutes, much better than the 3 hours that everyone had advised. Good start to the day.

The policeman did stop me, but only so he could have a go at revving the Tiger, then waved me on my way!

 

 

The next nice surprise was the roads away from the border, actually pretty good. I was beginning to like Kazakhstan, it certainly felt more relaxed than Russia.

 

A local school

 

And petrol station ...

and houses that appeared to be made out of mud blocks

Open straight roads with little traffic ...

 

I'm in Kazakhstan, & I like it :-)

 

Then the road surface deteorated dramatically. Pot holes every few metres, some very big and a continuous line of deformed tarmac, somethimes a foot higher than the rest of the road.

But traffice was light so I was still able to travel at between 50-90 km/h, just needed to concentrate hard and move around the road a lot to avoid the worst bumps. The 21inch front wheel certainly helps on this terrain.

 

 

Occasional monuments dotted the area.

 

And what I presume were cemetaries

Occasional distant views of settlements, very few actually on the road.

 

Most of the journey the view was just like this

 

 

Camels! ... Time for a whole series of 'hump' jokes

A camel train ...

another one of those marker posts we saw yesterday

 

She looked like she was waiting for a bus ... Nothing around for miles!

Cars would suddenly appear, usually behind a long dust cloud

 

and finally after about 5 hours riding, arrived in Atyrau, a thoroughly modern city in the middle of dessrt scrub - oil money I assume as there were a lit of oil related works around.

Overall, so far in tems of people, roads, police, & even scenery I much prefer Kazakhstan to the part of Russia that we went through. Sorry Mr Putin, it just feels nicer.

 

Tomorrow its off to Beyneu near the border with Uzbekistan. No accommodation avaialble online and its only a small place so may be camping or in someones house. So probably no wifi & blog for a couple of days.