31 Jul A new day in Kaz
A new day in Kazakhstan July 27
We all had a restful night in Atryau courtesy of my Marriott points–a welcome respite after the 36 hour stretch we spent in the bus without a break. Wait, it really was 36 hours? We got in at Luhansk and didn’t get out except for gas stations and at the lovely Kazakhstan border until we arrived at 10:00 at Atryau. No wonder we slept so well!
Had a leisurely morning: Chris walked around taking pictures, Stefano and Pietro did as well, Sarita did a ton of video editing, and the rest of us just reveled in the comparative luxury of lying around in our rooms.
We met up with some other ralliers, including the nice Hungarian guys, that others have shares our troubles with Kaz. One team was robbed at gunpoint along the road we took into Atryau yesterday and were hoping to convoy after that. None had found the same border troubles, so perhaps that was just our bad luck to have the greedy customs guard on the job for our entry.
We stopped in at a grocery store to stock up for our wild camping the next week, then set off in the direction of Aktobe around 2:00pm, rested and ready for the long days in the desert ahead.
July 28 we had a decent campsite next to the Makat town landfill. We made slow progress with the road conditions ranging from ancient pavement to dirt ruts to craters like the road had been mortar shelled. The desert sunset and moonrise was stunning, and we had a nice night despite being next to the landfill.
Grinding day across a serious contender for the world’s worst road. In fact, no one actually uses the road, but instead take their chances on multiplying dirt tracks that surround the main road. Everyone from tiny Russian Ladas to huge petrol trucks prefer these rutted tracks to the crater-covered asphalt road.
Top speed in Kaz desert= 33 kph.