31 Jul Soul crushing roads of Kazakhstan
Kaz the soul crushing rubble roads July 28.
Lacking the nimbleness of the noble Lada or the soviet sorcery of the giant Kamaz, the Dixie Chicken bus plods along at incredibly slow speeds, switching between the dirt tracks and the cratered 50 year old gravel road. Long, desolate days in the dusty desert. We are all covered in this dust, as is every item on the bus down to the pots and pans.
Two and a half hard days from Atryau to Aktobe. We are promised by Will, the Minister of Roads for Kaz, and Sarita, the tourism chief for the country (Best in World!) that the roads after Aktobe are paved in actual gold. We await this fabled asphalt like eager children.
The people of western Kaz are quite wary and shy of us. At gas stations, our only point of contact, they walk around the bus silently, and only rarely will engage us. However, Will is our best ambassador, able to coax smiles and enthusiastic conversation out of the friendliest, despite that we speak no Kaz, or Russian, and they little to no English. On the plus side, the roads are so crap, there are no police like back in Ukraine and Russia.