D20 Beyneu – Atyrau
Miles All day
We woke feeling refreshed and ready to get back on the road. We were warned the road to border wasn’t very good as it was all dirt and we were to be careful. We set off around 9:30 but not before saying goodbye to Locha and taking a few photos.
We brimmed the tanks, and I’m pleased to say at 28p a litre I was quite happy.
Well they weren’t wrong about the advice on the road. With the rain yesterday and yet more last night the road was thick slippery mud! We had done around 20 miles when disaster stuck…… Simon fell off his bike, he was ok but he had damaged the bike.
I had picked up a card from one of the British expacks in Atyrau, so we decided to give him a call and explain the situation. He understood and was able to make a few phone calls. In the meantime some passers by had stopped to see if they could help.
We flagged down a passing flat bed transit type sized truck. So with a bit of heve-ho we got the bike on the back.
We arrived back at Lochas who was very surprised to see us again. We unloaded the bike and a mechanic had a look at it. We herd back from mark telling us that his friend Shaun had sent a van on its way to pick the bike up to get it back to Atyrau.
It was around midday now Simon wasn’t very happy as I can imagine but there wasn’t much we could do until the van arrived.
When the van did get hear and got the bike loaded it was around 6pm. Simon road in with me along with most of his gear and we set off following the van…. Well trying to follow the van as I was driving a fully even more so now loaded Defender! The van was off well not to worry there was only one road to Atyrau. On the drive back the rain came in yet again and with the road having no run off it soon turned the road into a river! It wasn’t to last long though and soon enough it was clearing up. I was able to witness one of the most amazing sunset’s driving back to Atyrau I had ever seen.
We soon caught the van up as it had to stop for fuel. It wasn’t far from the city and so we then followed it to Shaun’s house.
We arrived around 11pm at Shaun’s house; it was a beautiful Finnish log cabin. Shaun couldn’t have been more welcoming. We got the bike off the van, parked the landy on the drive and had a cold beer put in my hand.
So we were able to unwind drink a few beers and just to have a good old chat about life. It was around 3:30 am when I finally went to bed.
Thursday 7 July 2011
Day 19 13th May 2011
D19 Atyrau – Beyneu
268miles 6hours 11minutes
Waking a little later than planned I and feeling like I could have stayed there a little longer! Still after a fantastic shower I was feeling good. Full English was on offer for breakfast but thinking my stomach couldn’t take this I just opted for some cereal and pancakes.
We were off leaving the city behind us heading out back onto the steppe. Miles passed the scenery didn’t we were in the desert. Even though we were miles from anywhere we were never far from a train line. Its not a desert is hard to explain, with tufts grass all over the place but was just incredibly flat. I must admit I do love this feeling of remoteness I’m getting at the moment.
We stopped at a small group of morsaliams that were in fact very grand and just unbelievably in the middle of know where. I would later on in the trip find out that this was common across Kazakhstan. I t was a relatively easy drive with the roads being considerably better than Russia… well for the time being anyway. After a few hours on the road the rain came in and did it just. It was my first taste of what the rain was like out hear but at least it didn’t last that long but even so it turned the road into a lake. It was early afternoon when we arrived in the small town/village of Beyneu. We had some details of a local man who was expecting us as Walter (a seasoned traveller) had stayed with him before. It was a small yard with a few buses and cars about all being worked on by a couple of mechanics. It was hard to work out whom who was around hear but Locha was such a kind man who was very hospitable. It was a great place…. well I thought it was anyway. There were a couple of girls running around the place who ran the kind of dinner I suppose you could call it. They did local food that was really filling and was so good.
We were put up for the night in a small bunk room which turned out to be one of the best nights sleep I had.
268miles 6hours 11minutes
Waking a little later than planned I and feeling like I could have stayed there a little longer! Still after a fantastic shower I was feeling good. Full English was on offer for breakfast but thinking my stomach couldn’t take this I just opted for some cereal and pancakes.
We were off leaving the city behind us heading out back onto the steppe. Miles passed the scenery didn’t we were in the desert. Even though we were miles from anywhere we were never far from a train line. Its not a desert is hard to explain, with tufts grass all over the place but was just incredibly flat. I must admit I do love this feeling of remoteness I’m getting at the moment.
We stopped at a small group of morsaliams that were in fact very grand and just unbelievably in the middle of know where. I would later on in the trip find out that this was common across Kazakhstan. I t was a relatively easy drive with the roads being considerably better than Russia… well for the time being anyway. After a few hours on the road the rain came in and did it just. It was my first taste of what the rain was like out hear but at least it didn’t last that long but even so it turned the road into a lake. It was early afternoon when we arrived in the small town/village of Beyneu. We had some details of a local man who was expecting us as Walter (a seasoned traveller) had stayed with him before. It was a small yard with a few buses and cars about all being worked on by a couple of mechanics. It was hard to work out whom who was around hear but Locha was such a kind man who was very hospitable. It was a great place…. well I thought it was anyway. There were a couple of girls running around the place who ran the kind of dinner I suppose you could call it. They did local food that was really filling and was so good.
We were put up for the night in a small bunk room which turned out to be one of the best nights sleep I had.
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