Day 76

I leave Aralsk early, to miss the worst of the head wind and the heat of the sun. I am heading for Kazali about 110kms away. I feel if I get most of the ride completed by lunch time that I should miss the worst of the weather that comes in the afternoon. The morning is perfect. Windless, smooth and flat. Too my right is where the sea used to be, now just dunes. At lunch I stop in a lay by with a Belorussian lorry driver and his wife. They offer me biscuits and green gunpowder tea, which is delicious!


I make Kazali by late afternoon. The town has few hotels, but plenty of home stays. I luckily find a very pleasant one with 3 boys who are very interested in my cycling and want to show me their bikes! The evening is pleasant, I sleep well!

My hosts!

Day 75

O my flippity gosh. This has to be one of the most breath taking things that I have seen.

Unsurprisingly I woke late. I noticed that my rear tyre was flat. I must have picked up a slow puncture coming into town. So I fixed it and then headed into town. Aralsk itself is a fairly ordinary small to mid sized Kazakh town. It is not the bleak desolate outpost that many commentators will have you believe. Money has been pumped in to try and resurrect the town. It has a nice new town square with a stage for cultural performances. The train station is very smart and the area surrounding it has a nice new hotel (that I wish I had spotted before booking into mine!). Murials portraying fishing life are everywhere. Even my salad was shaped like a fish! It was not until I reached the actual port did it hit me. The sea has gone. Completely gone. There is no sea anymore, just dust and a derelict fishing industry dotted with broken cranes and a harbour littered with with remains of fishing boats, stuck in the mud akin to a fossilised memory of what they once were. I walked around what was once the sea and gazed back at what was once the shore. The sea in now 60kms away as the crow flies. There is a museum dedicated to the environmental mess that is the Aral Sea in an old fishing boat next to the harbour. Inside it has many paintings of young healthy happy fisher folk always working under the sun and always smiling. And then a map showing how the Aral Sea has contracted in the last 40 years.


Not fields or desert but this is where the Aral Sea once was. It is now 60kms over the horizon.

What's left of the fishing fleet. The scrap metal merchants have harvested the top section, leaving the hulls buried in the mud.

 My fish shaped tuna salad!

Day 74

It wasn't a cafe, but a private house. The owners looked most confused at this sweaty foreigner turning up asking for food and water. The sweaty foreigner was a little concerned as he only had about 2 litres of water left and 120kms of desert in front of him. I peddled on but was rather worried. I would have to heavily ration, or hope that I could get fluids from a passing lorry or car driver.

Fortunately the worrying was in vain. After about 2 hours I saw a small village hall and a small house next to it. In the house an old babushka operated an informal store selling drinks and snacks. Very relieved I rested, drank and bought half the store! I headed out with more confidence.

But today was tiring. About 50kms from Aralsk I started to feel very tired. I stopped at the most God awful shit covered roadside picnic spot imaginable for some rest and a drink. My break was short lived as a rather drunk a little annoyingly over friendly lorry driver pulled up and tried to make friends. I thought sod this and hit the road.

I didn't last long, after 20 kms the headwind was killing me and I was utterly exhausted. I noticed a big road sign that had shade behind it and stopped, sat in the shade and then snoozed for about an hour. I woke hoping that things would be better. They were not.

Still exhausted I pressed on. The sun may have been a little lower but the wind was not. I got to about 15kms from Aralsk and found another cafe. I ducked in, ate a rather horrible meal and drank 3 litres of ice tea. The sugar felt so good! I left the cafe to find a massive dust cloud sweeping over everything. This area of Kazakhstan is famous for this phenomenon.

The final 15kms were torture. The wind relentless. I would pass camels and what I thought was the shore of the former Aral Sea until I finally made the edge of Aralsk. With a turn of 90 degrees to get onto the road that leads into the town the wind was now a cross wind and my moral was high. I had finally made it! I zoomed into town with energy suddenly restored, found a hotel and most importantly a shop that sold beer! The evening was spent lazily in my room and enjoying the dripping bath tap that was the nearest thing I had to a shower for 4 days.

Day 73

I think I did about 100miles today. The morning was cool, the sun less fierce and most importantly NO WIND! As I was riding I spotted a few teenagers picking up litter and burning it. Their village was about 20kms off the main road, and I guess they had been roped into some litter picking either by their school or community. Later I found a nice air conditioned cafe nearish lunch time. It was full of snoozing lorry drivers and sold frozen bottled water! I gulped about 3 litres down. I think on this day I must have drunk about 9litres of water and a further 3 litres of juice and other drinks. This desert is proving to be hot! I camp just before sunset, exhausted but I notice a building about 3km further down the road, I assume it is a cafe.


The litter pickers!

It just goes on and on for bloody ever...!

Rush hour on the Steppe

Day 72

The first proper day riding over nothing. And it is hot, very hot. High 30's all day. And very windy. A strong head wind all day. At about lunch time a minibus full of Russians pull up next to me and share watermelon with me. It was most welcome, as was the Russian hospitality! I complete about 110kms and feel exhausted. I find a track off the main road and head down it and put my tent up. Just as I have finished a car comes the other way down the track. The driver pulls up, jumps out and is curious to see what I am doing. He then leaves and I climb in and sleep.

 Thanks for the watermelon lads!

Obligatory selfie in the middle of nowhere only for someone to turn up!

Day 71

I left Anara's house busy with neighbours popping around to buy beef. The cow had been freshly slaughtered very early in the morning, and people were now leaving with plastic bags stuffed full of meat.

I had a rare tail wind today. The Kilometers were falling away. by the evening I had ridden about 140kms to Karabutak. Karabutak is the last town of any real size for the next 400kms or so. After here the real emptiness of the Steppe begins. Aralsk, the former Aral Sea fishing port waits for me at the other end. Karabutak is not a nice town, dusty, small and rather grim. Its people are friendly however, as Kazakhs often are. People readily give me directions to the only shop that is open. I find a cafe at the edge of town, eat, and graciously accept the offer of a place to sleep in front of the cafe.

Day 70

Ahh Kazakh hospitality! About 50 kms from Aktobe I stopped at a bus shelter to take a rest and take on fluids. At this point a car pulls up and a young woman asks what I am doing. I tell my story, at which point she asks if I would like to stay with her and her family for the night in the near by village. I jump at the chance! Her house is only a few kilometers away, so I follow her car on my bike. I am soon introduced to her family and taken to the sitting room, fed and watered and allowed to rest. In the evening Anara (my host) takes me to a friends house who has a Banya, and after we sit in her car drinking beer and chatting about life in Kazakhstan.

Anara is immensely proud to be Kazakh and describes herself as a patriot. She loves the Steppe and her life in Aktobe, and has a season ticket to watch Aktobe FC. Over the years she has traveled to many countries including numerous European nations, the US and other Asian nations. As a 32 year old Kazakh woman she has taken an unusual life path in that she has no interest in settling down and getting married, she is more than happy running her business and spending her free time drinking beer with her friends and having fun with her 3 boyfriends! At this point I was beginning to feel a little inadequate! She also has a traditional side to her in that each weekend she comes home and spends time with her family where she helps with her mother, who is up at the crack of dawn working around the house. The house is quite large, and has a little bit of land around it where veggies, chickens and a few cows are kept. Space is plentiful as this is the steppe! A small cottage industry operates out of the house and neighbours are forever popping by to purchase eggs and veggies. Tomorrow will be an even bigger day as a cow is to be slaughtered, butchered and sold. On arrival I saw Anara's father sharpening an axe. Initially I thought it was to be used for chopping wood in preparation for the winter. However gas is plentiful here and the house is centrally heated, wood fires are not needed. The axe is to be used during butchery.

We talk long into the night, and respectfully towards Anara's parents do not drink in the house. I sleep well!

Anara and muggins.

Family and neighbours sit down for a chin wag, tea and a bite to eat. Anara's parents are on the left.