April 23 Qyzylorda (KZ)

Vandaag genoten we van een welverdiende rustdag in een goed hotel in Qyzylorda. Updaten blog, geld wisselen, platte rust, lokale markt bezoeken, ..........

Today we enjoyed our day of rest in a nice hotel. Updating blog, changing money, resting, visiting local market, .......

Bancontact, met Carl als zonnescherm / ATM with Carl as a sunscreen

BBQ op de lokale markt / BBQ on local market 

Eindelijk, na 4 dagen in Kazakstan vonden we onze "KZ" sticker om op onze motoren te plakken.

Finaly, after 4 days in Kazakhstan we found our "KZ" sticker for on our bikes.

April 22 Aralsk - Qyzylorda (KZ)

Voor het vertrek vanuit Aralsk, eerst nog even Carl's gebarsten zijkoffer oplappen. 

Fixing the pannier.

De uitgedroogde vlaktes waar vroeger het Aralmeer was.

The dried-up Aral lake

Een monument niet ver van "Baykonur cosmodrome" wordt blijkaar gebruikt voor het nemen van huwelijks foto's. De (dronken) aanwezigen hadden meer oog voor onze motoren dan voor het pas gehuwde stel.

Now we know why Kazakh people are extremely friendly...they are all drunk all day!!

De zware bagage maakt het niet altijd even makelijk om door het losse zand te rijden.

Stuck while taking a short-cut

Ergens in "the middel of nowhere"

Somewhere in the middle of nowhere

Toen we onze rekening vroegen, nam de vrouw haar telraam. 

When we asked our bill, the lady took her abacus. 



Het laatste stuk weg naar Qyzylorda was in zeer slechte staat. Carl bleef miraculeus overeind, maar Johan beet nog een keer in het zand. De slechte weg kon de pret niet bederven en rond 20h bereikten we moe Qyzylorda, waar we beslisten om de volgende dag een rustdag in te lassen. 

Temperary roads next to the new road constructions are in pretty bad shape. we had fun nevertheless and managed to get to Qyzylorda around 8pm. Next day we planned to take a day off from riding.



April 21 Aktobe - Aralsk (KZ)

The ride from Aktobe to Aralsk went very smooth for the first 300km. A brand new highway as flat as a billiards table. When we left from Aktobe the weather was very cold and wet. Desperately looking for a hot cup of coffee we tried to take a short-cut through the heavy mud, with the following result.


Carl's eerste "buiklanding", gelukkig zonder veel erg. Een barst in de linker zijkoffer, maar met "duc tape" komt dat wel in orde.



Op zoek naar een warme kop koffie kwamen we in "Qandyaghash" terecht.

Luckily nothing serious, so we could quickly taste the local delicacies. From the three of us, Johan is the only one who can speak a bit of Russian. Seeing he only knows the word 'chicken' in Russian, we have been eating chicken for the past week. Not to bad, the only down side is that we start walking a bit funny flapping our arm uncontrollably.



 Twee gangen menu ergens onderweg. Heerlijke "borsjt" soep, gevolgd door kip met puree.





Korte rustpauze na een heerlijke maaltijd.

Back on the road we came to the ... desert. The weather immediately turned to warm and dry.
Riding through the desert had a kind of mystic feeling. Vast emptiness except 3 idiots on bikes.

ROADKILL

Lange eindeloze wegen, met af en toe wat koeien, paarden of kamelen.

Ideal time to compare the power of the bikes. Yamaha vs BMW. Acceleration is similar, but Peter on his BMW was a bit faster when it came to top speed. His bike however is not so heavily loaded, which might be an explanation. A big difference however is fuel consumption and the range with 1 gasoline tank. Peter can take 33L compared to 23L for the Yamaha's. A difference of around 350km. Luckily Johan and Carl brought a small jerry-can for some additional fuel because there are no gas stations available.

Bijtanken in het midden van de woestijn. De 23L benzine tank i soms niet voldoende om de afstand tussen 2 "dorpen" te overbruggen.

Onderweg werden we getracteerd op een beker kamelen melk. De man en zijn familie waren heel vriendelijk en blij ons te ontmoeten.

Kazakhstan is connecting it's main cities with new roads, but parts are not finalised yet. So we came to the last 100km riding through some very rough conditions. We decided to flip a coin and let faith decide if we should continue riding or camp along the road

Ook Johan belande voor de eerste keer in het zand bij het nemen van de vele hindernissen.

Finally we made it to Aralsk to book into the local Hilton. This is the last time we rely on faith to determine where we sleep.



Let op de banzaisticker

Het hotel in Aralsk was aan renovatie toe, vooral de badkamers. 



April 20: Uralsk-Aktobe

We left from Uralsk to Aktobe. A ride of around 470km. To our surprise the road was impeccable. A brand new wide, clean and flat road just like the German autobahn minus the antisocial Mercedes and BMW drivers. But there were considerable less gas stations, the asphalt was not that technical advanced and we did not see any road marking. In fact is was just a plain road, but in pretty good shape. Unfortunately it only lasted for 300km, and the remaining part of the trip compensated for the easy ride we had before. We had some flash-backs from when we entered Ukraine. The 'road' varied from bumps, holes gravel, concrete and/or complete lack of any hard surface to ride on. Johan's lap-top did not survive the ride (R.I.P)
Nevertheless we enjoyed the rough terrain and it was a real test for the bikes. These bikes where made for these conditions and they handled perfectly.

Kazakhstan people are extremely friendly. When we enter the villages, it's like the circus has arrived. Cars honking their horns, people waving and wanting to talk to us. "Where are you from and where are you going?" are the standard questions.
When we tell them we're on our way to Japan many people get the post Chernobyl syndrome. All the men are warring us that our penises will stop working, but we'll take our chances and are determined to go to Japan.

Complete shaken to bits we arrived at our hotel in Aktobe. A nice warm meal and recharging the batteries for tomorrow. We will have to drive around 650km to get to Aralsk. With the road conditioning we will not be able to do this in one day, so probably we will do our first night camping somewhere along the road.

April 19: Saratov - Uralsk (KZ)

Routier in Kazaktan

In the middle of nowhere we found a local restaurant run by a very interesting couple. The chef was a real beauty. Her 2 remaining gold front teeth looked better than the food she served. If this style cooking will continue, Carl will not be recognisable after this trip. We asked sabayon for desert but it was unfortunately not on the menu. After sharing some interesting stories ????????????? we headed to the border with Kazakhstan.

Grenspost Rusland - Border control Kazakstan

Passport control and customs went surprisingly very smooth. One kazakh custom officer wanted to impress us with his driving skills, but unfortunately his legs were 10cm too short to stop the bike properly.

Kazakse douanier op Yamaha Ténéré 

Kazakse douanier bijna onder Yamaha Ténéré

Verzekeringsmakelaar / Insurance company

That was the end of a thorough customs control and a feared cavity search.The gate never opened so quickly and suddenly we are in Kazakhstan.

:

Binnenrijden Kazakstan

Facts and figures after 10 days / Cijfers na 10 dagen

-          Gereden / Driven: +/-4000km

-          Tankbeurten / Gasoline refills: 20

-          Getankt / Refilled: 270, 57 liter (3 motorbikes)

-          Min. temperatuur : 1°C

-          Max. temperatuur: 14°C

-          Gereden in regen / Driven in rain: 20h

-          Gereden in smeltende sneeuw / Driven in melting snow: 1h

-          Boetes / Fines: 2

-          Verwittigingen / Warnings: 1

-          Landen / Countries: 6

-          Grensovergangen / Bordercrosses: 5

-          Wachturen grensovergangen / Time wasted at borders: 7h

-          Alcohol verbruik / consumption: Can’t remember  

April 18: Saratov (RUS)

We received some good news from Belgium where our fellow bikers arrived safe and sound back home at the headquarters bar 'De Kroon'.

De 5 vrienden die met ons meegereden waren van Antwerpen tot in Krakov (PL), zijn ondertussen terug thuis. Hun “Mini-Banzaitour” zit erop.

We took 1 day off from riding to change the oil of the bikes, do some laundry and stock up on some supplies before we entered into Kazakhstan.

Another fine example of the friendly Russian hospitality is our new friend Ilya. He showed us around Saratov, arranged our hotel and gave us GPS roadmaps for Russia and Kazakhstan. Thanks again for your kindness Ilya.

Ilia die ons de dag ervoor ook geholpen heeft om een hotel te vinden, brengt ons naar “Lodkahaus”, een officiële Yamaha dealer in Saratov. Alwaar we goed ontvangen worden en alle hulp krijgen om de olie en oliefilter van de Ténérés te vervangen.

Saratov is de laatste grote stad in Rusland voor we Kazakstan binnen zullen rijden. We hebben nu ongeveer 4000km gereden sinds we vertrokken zijn vanuit het AMC in Stabroek. De teller van Carl zijn Ténéré staat op iets meer dan 7000km en die van Johan net over de 6000km. We besluiten om een rustdag in te lassen om beide Yamaha’s een onderhoudsbeurt te geven, wat kleren te wassen en inkopen te doen voor we het “onbekende Kazakstan” binnen zullen rijden.

In the morning we drove to the local Yamaha dealer. Each bike 3.6L oil + new oilfilter and were good to go for another 10.000km.

De rest van de namiddag wandelen we wat rond in Saratov en bezoeken een MC Donalds restaurant om onze blog te kunnen bijwerken (Wifi).

Volgariver and pigon shit

Saratov

Checking the road

April 17: Voronezh – Saratov (RUS)

 Thanks again to Alexander and his wife for their hospitality!!!!

Alexander guided us out of Voronez and of we went on our way to Saratov. 

Tonight three of Russia finest law enforcement agents will treat themselves to a deluxe bottle of wodka at our expense. Apparently the city speed limit in Russia is not 102 but only 60km/h. Who could know!?! 3000 roubles and off we went again to get pulled over a second time for riding 132 in a 90 zone. These officers where not that thirsty and let us off with a warning.
Every km the roads are getting worse but that does not seem to bother our bikes to much. The suspension is getting a ride for it's money.

After driving 3 days in Russia you can really get a sense of how huge this country is. Endless fields as far as the eye can see, straight roads for miles. It takes us at least 45 minutes to get from one village to the other with nothing in between. Sometimes we see people walking next to the road and wonder where the hell they're going? We ride an average of 120km/h and have not seen anything 20 minutes before and 20 minutes after these person. The same applies for bus stops next to the road. We see people waiting but do not see any busses between these cities?

Anyway, we're almost at the border with Kazakhstan, and before driving into the wilderness, we will stock up on some supplies,do some laundry and it is also time to change the oil from the bikes so we will look for the Yamaha dealer in Saratov.