There’s always one bad apple!
26 JulWe woke up to the sound of sheep, and not that far away. There was a man on horse back in the distance herding them. Another quick pack up as we noticed he was heading towards us, and off to Astrakhan. It looked really nice, with lots of rivers and water. It’s actually on the delta of the Volga river, hence all the water. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to stop, and we pushed on for Kazakhstan. Later I realized I’d misread the schedule (it prints on two pages, and I’d made a mistake on the join...sorry teammates!), and we were actually one day in front of time. Oh well, we might need that day later. The police stopped us in Astrakhan with Stephen driving, but it was all okay, and they gave us directions to Kazakhstan.
Pontoon bridge on the way to the border
Newsflash: Russian man falls in love with horse
We arrived at the border nice and early, and after an hour wait got through the Russian side without too many dramas. There was about a 10 minute drive across no mans land until Kazakh border control, including crossing a big bridge. The Kazakh staff were strangely non-formal, and it was really hard to work out which little office we had to go to first. It was ore complicated for me as I tried to get the car across. I had to cross the border into Kazakhstan to get some guys in a little portable cabin to fill out the customs form for me. I didn’t have any money to pay them, so I walked back across the border, found Stephen and went back and paid them. The guards didn’t seem fussed as I walked in and out of their country without the proper paperwork. On completion of the rigmarole I found Stephen chatting to the immigration officer. He was sending a text to the officers girlfriend, in English, on his phone. His girlfriend was an interpreter, and he wanted to impress her with his English text!
Learning from our Russian experience, Stephen had converted his Russian Rubles into Kazakh Tenge, so we could buy water etc. We were in high spirits, but the roads were terrible. The front axle was regularly crashing into the chassis, and the rear wheels felt like they were off the ground. We stopped under the shade of a tree in a small village to try and improve things. We’d had a couple of quick packups as we tried to avoid angry farmers, so the car wasn’t well loaded. The spare springs were right at the back of the car, putting maximum load on the rear suspension. Stephen and I lay out the tarpaulin and put all of our possessions on it. Tim fitted the two halves of rubber mallet as front bump stops, wiring them to the chassis. Next he refitted the front springs to the bulbar, but differently to last time, so that the radiator wasn’t restricted. Local kids came around and we chatted to them. They found the horse on the front of the car amusing. We’d just drained the oil, ready to add the thicker mineral oil (we’re hoping this will improve our oil pressure fluctuations), when a man came up and started talking to us. Things were amicable at first, but then he was yelling at us, claiming we were on his land and all sorts of stuff like that. We couldn’t drive away, as we had no oil filter or oil, and we had 4L of sump oil in a tray. Tim and I hurridly tried to get the car ready and clean up the oil, while Stephen distracted the man and threw the remaining items in the car. Finally all packed up, we got in the car...but the man wouldn’t let us leave, holding onto the Russian phrasebook like a child, which Tim was trying to wrestle from his grip. He was so angry he was spitting as he spoke. We were afraid he was trying to stall us until the police arrived, so in the end we gave him 5000 Tenge and drove off. In the mirror I could see him laughing as we left. Most Kazakh’s are really nice, but there is always a bad apple. We had to stop up the road and check we weren’t losing oil. Stephen accidentally tipped the old oil filter up and spilt sump oil on the back seat...what a disaster!
The spot where we worked on the car, prior to the conflict
Things tend to sort themselves out though, 30 minutes up the road we passed a rubbish tip, where we disposed of the old oil etc, and kept clean environmental consciences. Another 30 minutes and we stopped at a town to spend our last 500 Tenge (about 2 pounds) on some cold drinks. The lady was really nice, and gave me a discount so that we managed to get some bread, some drinks, and some egg plant spread. It was 4pm and we still hadn’t eaten today, so the bread went down a treat. Turns out there was a bancomat across the road, and as easy as that, we were back on the right track.
Roadside camels are everywhere, as are eagles.
Tim has taken to wearing orange goggles while driving, as you can see the severity of the potholes better. The goggles are meant to be if we smash a windscreen
The plan was to make Atryau tonight, and we rolled in about 8pm. We found a hotel from the lonely planet, and a nice girl called Assil gave us a discount on a room. They had a private carpark and we finished the work we didn’t get done earlier. The car was riding much better with the load rearranged, and the rubber mallet bump stops seemed to be doing the trip.
Our entry to Atryau
We had dinner at a bar across the road, consisting of various bits of meat with no vegetables! There wasn’t enough food so we ordered twice! After a couple of beers we retired for a well earned rest.
