Kazakhstan

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Now we've got to the border for Uzbekistan. I'm writing this after an hour of queuing and I'm expecting a lot lot more.

I met the others yesterday at a supermarket where we stocked up for the journey ahead, it was also an opportunity to grab any treats that we might not have so much access to over the coming few days. Yoghurt drink for me as I'd had a massive dairy craving on the boat. With a car full of essentials we started the mammoth journey to the Uzbek border. It was immediately evident that it was going to take longer than originally expected, the roads in Kazakhstan are designed to destroy cars it seems. After half an hour, one of the bolts holding a brake calliper on had worked it's way loose. Having decided not to bodge this one, we headed back to Aktau to try and get it fixed. On the way back one of the roof rack bars cracked too, so we were hoping to get that fixed too. A slow drive later we were searching the streets for a garage open at 8:00PM. To our luck and amazement we found one with a few guys working late. In an instant they found the correct bolt, welded our roof rack back together and we were joking around exchanging photos. Despite our best efforts they refused to take any payment for their life saving help. A bottle of whiskey as a gift was not so hastily refused though.

We then made as much progress as we could that night before it got dark and we cooked and had a snooze. Today was a similar story only without the breakdowns. We drove solidly to make the Uzbekistan border on the worst roads ever. We met a guy from Norfolk attempting to cycle round the world in a year, he looked like the roads has taken their toll in him as much as our car.

4 hours later we are through the Kazakhstan border and just waiting in no mans land to get into Uzbekistan.

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