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Saturday 10 May - Astrakhan to Ganyushkino (Kazakhstan), 140 km
A grey morning. To a square by the Caspian Sea for a reception; I got interviewed for TV in French We all received a bag with a nice picture of Astrakhan and a calendar, and some little girls danced for us. It started to rain. On the way out of town I had a puncture in the back tyre and the guys changed the wheel for a spare from the blue van.
The terrain today was all water; water on either side of us, often crossing bridges over rivers. Loads of frogs singing. I saw two kinds; one about 4”long, yellowish with dark spots all over, and a bigger one with a bright green line down the middle of its back and crossways stripes on its back legs.
We pedaled 80 km in the rain - it was quite windy too - to the border. The Russians held us up, letting 10 people through at a time; the Kazakh border officials did almost nothing, there were forms to fill in and they photographed us and it took hours till 7.30 pm to get away. Left with a group in heavy rain
with a strong headwind.
It got dark and I had to follow the light of other peoples’ lights as I don’t have a front lamp. Quite nerve-racking, with the same landscape with water on both sides Fortunately the road surface was quite good. Finally stopped by police cars and some of our trucks, and were escorted into a small town by a river with very bumpy roads. Our accommodation was a gym, newly painted and smelling of paint. A team made sandwiches and we fell into “bed” in our sleeping bags about midnight. There were a few washbasins at the gym, and earth toilets at the end of the garden - several buildings, some smellier than others.
Sunday 11 May - Ganyushkino to Aqqistaw, 164 km
Breakfast at the gym was pasta and chilli; I had a grapefruit and some bread and cheese. More rain today, but cleared up in the afternoon. At first the same watery landscape, with herds of horses which galloped away fromus along the spits of land in the river; later we came to dry steppe, now almost desert, with low plants, no bushes or trees, and patches of bare sand. Herds of cows, beautiful horses,
huge two-humped camels, occasional flocks od brown sheep, and a few goats. A wonderful day watching these animals. The cows tend to stay near the road and often wander across it. The herds of horses gallop away in a panic, sometimes wheeling round and crossing the road. Most of the camels are phlegmatic, but a few run away.
We were escorted by police all day, as in Russia. At the lunch stop I had to mend an inner tube and put it back in my wheel and return the exchange wheel to the van - fortunately I had lots of help with this. Towards the end of this very long day I had a puncture in my front tyre - my 4th in a week ! Pierre Orset lent me a replacement inner tube.
When we arrived in a very poor village with mud streets we found we had another gym to sleep in, not a hotel as we had expected. Worse, after an hour the water in the washbasins stopped. Dinner in a rtestaurant, not bad, with milky tea afterwards - very nice! Loads of children came and watched us and followed us around. There was a tiny shop and I bought a bottle of water. Spent the evening mending 5 holes in 3 inner tubes. Gave Pierre back his tube.
Monday 12 May - Aqqistaw to Atiraw, 88 km
The police wouldn’t let us out of the school compound to go to breakfast at 7 as planned - it took till 7.45 with the help of our Kazakh interpreter Andrei to get out. Good breakfast - 2 fried eggs each, bread and cheese and jam, yoghurt and milk tea. Got some tea in my bike bottle.
Set off along the muddy streets with police escort. The road was quite good, some poor surfaces and holes but mainly quite reasonable. Not many animals on the steppe today, a bit boring. Arrived nice and early - crossing the river into Asia at the end - to find we are in two hotels, both excellent, in this large town with many modern buildings.
Our hotel was back over the bridge in Europe! Changed some money at the hotel into tengue. Found I had a very nice single room, what joy! Had a shower, did loads of washing, we have no more hotels till 22 May. Went to the big supermarket across the road for some supplies - small tins of beans, cheese, fruit and juice. Back in the hotel had a drink with the others on my floor - Christine had bought some cognac - before dinner. Alas, it was crab salad, soup with lumps of meat, and some sort of hamburger and rice. I didn’t eat much of that.
Put the TV on in the room after dinner - awful news, earthquake in China, cyclone in Burma, stabbings in London. Wish I hadn’t heard.
Tuesday 13 May - Atiraw to Makkat, 138 km
Got up a bit late because I had forgotten to change the time on my phone. We are now about 4 hours ahead I think. Had last shower for goodness knows how long. Excellent breakfast. Bike had a flat front tyre, changed the tube - one of my repairs was leaking green slime. (Did I mention the inner tubes were filled with slime which automatically plugs small punctures.)
It started to rain soon after we set off, and rained on and off till we stopped for lunch. Rained on our picnic, then rained all afternoon. Boring countryside, few animals, occasional trains, vehicles racing along parallel tracks trying to get past our cavalcade which blocks the road. Excellent road till we turned off for Makkat - then it got worse and worse, holes and long troughs where the surface was thrown up by lorries, deteriorating into mud and holes the last 10 km or so. Several people fell off in the slippery mud. The village road was just mud - very slippery.
We were greeted with the local specialties - sort of doughnuts (basically fried flour, no salt or sugar) and camel milk. Camel milk has a strong taste and is slightly bitter, but I think one could get used to it. We were to sleep in the village restaurant-cum-function suite, the bicycles were stored in a disused supermarket.
We hosed down the bikes and washed them as best we could in muddy puddles. The restaurant is a bit dilapidated but I found a quiet corner at the back and wiped the floor clean before putting my mattress down to sleep. There are two toilets (functional so far) and two washbasins with a trickle of water. Not too bad. Good dinner.
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