Kazakhstan Welcomes the Bikepackers

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Day 82, 21st August

Nalymovo - Makuchino - Zotino

We’ve been sleeping twelve-hour nights because the days are getting shorter. The day was spent going along quieter, straight roads. Good weather, the wind behind us. We drank lots of coffee, ate at cafes, and near the last police checkpoint (where they wanted to see our Kazakh transit visas) a few miles before the border, we drank lots of beer before cycling off to find a place to camp. On the way, I had another problem with my front rack which I managed to repair while Toby cooked *gretchka. It had been a good day, we’d done 60 miles, it was sunny as I retired to my tent to sleep. In the night I awoke to total and complete silence - and the brightest stars that I’d ever seen up in the heavens.

*Gretchka - know in the west as Buckwheat, is one of the staple grain diets of the Russians. For cyclists it’s easy to transport and very energy-rich, loads of carbs. I took veggie stock cubes and assorted curry powders to spice it up a bit.

Total Miles: 4677.88 Todays Miles: 61.05 Average speed: 15.0 Time on bike: 4:03


Day 83, 22nd August

Zotino - Mamliotka (KAZAKHSTAN) - Petropavlovsk

It was raining as we awoke, so we waited for a short while to pack our tents - wet, then set out again on quiet roads towards the border. It’s interesting to note that before the break-up of the Soviet Union, this road was the busy Trans-Siberian road, used by hundreds of trucks daily and for military movement. Nowadays, roughly 150 miles of this road lie in the Republic of Kazakhstan due to the dis-integration of the USSR. Russia has built a so called “by-pass” to the north so it can avoid crossing Kazakh territory, but, we weren’t taking that one - we were going to cross KAZ!

After a few miles, we approached a long line of trucks, and soon afterwards saw that the line ended at a collection of buildings surrounded by mud which was the actual border station. Before we crossed we ate at a nearby café, then went through the minor beauracracy. The Russians took our passports, removed our departure cards, stamped them, and then were allowed to pass a big concrete sign…

… the big sign said, “Респувликя Κазакстан” on one side and “РОССИЯ” on the other side. It was probably the only thing standing there until 1991! The Kazakh border guard looked oriental and wore a large hat, he asked if we were carrying narcotics. There was no problem and no stamp was made on our Kazakh transit visa. Just after the border, Scott changed some dollars and we were able to have our now customary beer in a new country before carrying on past more lines of stranded trucks waiting to cross in the other direction.

The road was quiet and pretty muddy on the way to Petropavlovsk, a city that appeared on the horizon and looked pretty grotty and industrial in the dark clouds. At a petrol station Scott was amazed to find someone he could speak Spanish with! We entered the city along bumpy roads through suburbs which consisted of brightly painted wooden houses. There was a general feeling now that we were in a place that was quite different from Russia, a new country almost entirely within Asia with a population that looks Chinese, although this area is predominantly Russian, I think?

In the centre we asked a woman for directions to a hotel and she took us to what seemed to be the only hotel in town - a huge Soviet-style block that looked four-star on a trendy pedestrianised street. After negotiations at the desk on where to put our bikes, it turned out that we could have a four-bedroom room for $4 per person per night - we snapped it up! The young porter guy was helpful above and beyond the call of duty, lugging our bags around enough so that he deserved the $3 tip I thought. There was a cheap café on the floor below us where we could buy cold beers. I had a lavender bath later and washed my clothes in the water - interesting smell! Later on we ate at an expensive café, well, to our standards anyway, went back and got drunk before crashing out at 1am.

Total Miles: 4725.84 Todays Miles: 47.95 Average speed: 12.2 Time on bike: 3:55

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Photos

Kazakh Border
The Kazakh border guards were very friendly and quite amused at 3 cyclists turning up at their remote outpost with perfectly good 3-day transit visas!

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeed!!!!!!!!
Something at the roadside that put a big smile on Toby's face - and the rest of us actually too!

Hmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!
Something that only cost a few dollars in Kazakhstan that put an even bigger smile on Toby's face - can you guess what it is? (answer in next blog entry!)

A word from our sponsor...
We would like to, at this point, thank our sponsor (BEER) for getting us this far without serious illness or raging arguments. "Try "IRBIS" Kazakstans premium Grog!"