Beyneu, Kazakhstan

Well, today was a blessing and a challenge.  The second biggest surprise of the day was that the road that had been extensively blogged about for its pathetic condition was 98 percent rebuilt and I was able to make the full run to Beyneu in one day of riding.  The remaining 2 percent served as an indicator that the old road was accurately described.  It would have been a two or three day trip before the rebuild.

The first half of the day was relatively cold (42F/5.5C), very foggy and windless.  I entered into the Kazakh oil fields shortly after leaving Aktau and there were hundreds of nodding donkeys, man camps, and oil pipelines abound.  About 60 miles out of the City, the fog broke, the sun shown bright, and it was one of the nicest rides of the trip.  The scenery was reminiscent of the American West, it was truly a ride of splendor.  The second half of trip things changed.  The weather turned very cold and windy, the sky clouded over, and the beautiful scenery morphed into barren desolate wasteland. 

Now the biggest surprise of the trip.  This part of the world is not flush with gas stations.  Over the entire leg, there was just one station and unfortunately it was not in the center.  The distance from this station to the Beyneu is 184 miles.  The range indicator on the bike was showing 179 miles.  A long agonizing ride later, and in full tuck. I rolled into the gas station with the range indicator showing five miles and my back in allot of pain. 

Tomorrow is going to be worse.  I will be heading into Uzbekistan and all reports are that there are no stations until Nukus, 321 miles away, or to put it bluntly, I will be 150 miles short on range.  There are reports that some Uzbeks are selling bottles gas on the side of the road (much like South and Central America), but the gas there has been cut with whatever they had on hand and impurities like sand have made their way into the bottles, and that's only if you can find someone selling.  Knowing that option was plan C, I went to the market, bought four-5 liter water bottles, dumped them out, filled them with gas and lashed them to my panniers.  Now I will see if I can get them though customs. 

Traffic Jam

Lunch Break

The 2 Percent

Route Map

*******

Leg Distance: 291 mi (469 km)
Total Distance Traveled by Motorcycle: 24,415 mi (39,263 km) 

Countries/Territories Visited: USA, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, Canada, Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Gibraltar, France, Monaco, Italy, Vatican City, San Marino, Slovenia, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, Transnistria, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Greece, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan