Day 39

Today we are a bit nervous and we wake up around 2:00. We want to have plenty of time to cross the desert and the border avoiding the heat. When we are getting ready for the departure we have an unexpected surprise. Paul and Clémence (www.allyoucaneast.de, our friends from our lovely stay on the ferry) arrive at our hostel! They tried last night to obtain at the border a visa to enter to Uzbekistan, and as it was not possible they came back to Beyneu. Tià asks how is the road until the border, and they carry poorly news. It seems that the road is under construction, so they just totally destroyed the old one. We were expecting 50 km of off-road AFTER the border, and now Paul says to us that the 90 km to the border are also off-road. That’s really bad for us.

Anyway we start riding with Robin and Pixie, of course they are faster than us, so we’ll meet at the border. We are completely alone on the middle of the desert and it’s still dark when the “no road” starts. It’s bumpy jumpy, but we manage to keep going without major problems, the Bonnie and the driver are doing a great job! It’s just that Tià has to ride really slow, but we have plenty of time.

Also we have to cross some sand-banks, that’s not really funny, but Tià manages to cross them perfectly until the last big one. We are just 20 Km away from the border, and the worst “no road” part is already done. When we see this massive “sand pool” we doubt for a second, but there is not really time to break, so we just keep going. And then, “(sh)it” happens. We fall. It takes just one doubting second with the throttle and we are on the floor. Luckily Tià is fine, the motorbike is lying on the floor and seems fine also, but my ankle is hurting a lot. Anyway, no worries it’s just a food, so we are lucky. A car stops to help us, a guy moves my ankle, so I can see it’s not broken and I’m a bit more calm. I can’t say how many men were on this car, but they are all really nice; they help us to lift the motorbike, and they stop another car to drive me to the border. Then, we left, I’m riding on an old Lada through the desert! The other car is escorting me (just to be sure that I reach the border), but they left Tià alone with the motorbike in the middle of the sand!!!! He has to manage to cross the sand bank alone.

My escort and I reach the border, there Pixie and Robin are waiting for us taking a little nap. When they see me with this men they get worried, what happened?? where is Tià??? I’ll explain everything, and they take care of me until Tià arrives.

Now we have to cross the border it’s around 8:00 in the morning when we start, I’ll just say that we reach Uzbeck land around 11:00. The officials from both sides treat us really well, I get extraVIP treatment for being an injured tourist. It takes us so long because we are the first ones entering this border with an electronic Uzbeck visa, so they don’t really know what to do. We are doing history here!

A nice official from the Kazakhstan border:

Once in Uzbeckistan everything gets crazy, we need an insurance, money and fuel. And we get all of it on a bizarre black market.

Changing money…

After taking some tea, we decide to continue. This is a bizarre place and we don’t want to stay. We’ll be doing checkpoints with our lovely kiwis so they are sure that we arrive fine (and that we have enough benzine). I can’t explain how hard it is to ride injured off-road, every pothole, and every stone hurts as hell, but I have any other option. We manage to cover the around 400 km without any gas station with our “peanut tank” and our canisters (we refill in the middle of nowhere in front of the camels, that’s a new experience!) and we reach Kungirat when the sunset starts.

Trying to get off the bike near Jasliq:

Stop for refill the tank:

What a crazy loooooooong day! After asking around we find a “guesthouse”, it seems to be the only option for us to spend the night. It’s an special place… Robin calls it a “cultural experience”. At least we don’t have to share the rooms with anyone, I’m the only one who gets a proper matres, and we are feeded so it’s good enough (even having a shared hole as a toilet).

It’s time to look at my foot, it’s hard to get rid of the boot, it’s black, swollen and it hurts a lot. However I can stand, so it seems not broken. We just go to sleep and tomorrow we’ll look for a doctor in Nukus.