Kazakhstan to Russia

The Kazak border was straight forward, but featured one very moody guard who seemed furious we couldn’t speak Russian and was also more protective of his pen than anyone I have ever met. I considered trying to steal it to anger him more but thought better of it. His colleague, who spoke good English, was much more fun and spoke to us at length about road quality, where to stop, and football. We had budgeted a week for Kazakhstan but he had told us our route should take 2-3 days. We didn’t believe him…

Once through (another free crossing!) we headed straight for a petrol station, where we were surprised to find reasonable roads and 92 still readily available. Kazakhstan is a fairly basic place out here in the sticks; we were headed for Shymkent, but all that was to be found on the way were tiny one horse towns where shops were hard to identify. The signs were all in Cyrillic too so Shaun’s job translating our map using our phrase book.

We ended up finding a nice spot off the main road to set up camp with On Corsa 4 Mongolia. About 20 minutes in with the sun setting, a Daweoo pulled up and three big Kazakhs with gold teeth jumped out. Uhho. They spent about 10 minutes wandering around smiling, shaking our hands and accepting the offer of cigarettes (a good thing to carry for such purposes, even though we don’t smoke). Eventually, with some gesturing and phrase book research,we figured out they wanted us to come with them. We had no idea where it was leading but meh, it’ll all be alright, right?

We packed up both cars and followed the Daewoo into the darkness for about 5KM. Thousands of crickets were on the road and lord knows how many I had killed by the time we pulled up at a small house surrounded by a high wall. You might call it a compound…

Jakah, the lead Kazak, turned out to be the owner of this place and instructed the others to lay these big thick carpets out on the gravel courtyard – were they preparing the killing floor? We were instructed to sit and a feast of local bread, lamb and rice was served, along with the vodka. It ended up a pretty fun night – it’s amazing how much you can discuss using a phrase book. However that night we did receive some bad news; the Londoners, our friends from Istanbul, had had a major road accident near Tashkent. Pulling a U-turn they were broadsided and the Renault flipped. One of the girls was badly injured and air lifted home, but we hear they are recovering well. Our thoughts are with you guys.

As the booze dried up and sleep beckoned, they fashioned the most comfortable bed you can imagine out of more carpets. 6 of us slept out there in the gravel courtyard but it was more comfortable than many hotels I’ve stayed in! We had breakfast with Jakka and his colleagues, who it turns out were customs officers from the border, and were escorted back to the road with promises to stay in touch. Another example of just how decent people can be wherever you are.

We hit Shymkent to pick up Kent Fabian from the train station around 10am. Due to a visa error, he had made it through the border but his team mate – and car - had been turned back, and wouldn’t be in Kazakhstan for 5 days. The plan was to have Kent ride with us to Almaty and hang out for a bit waiting for him to catch up, so we hit the road.

The journey to Almaty was uneventful and on better tarmac than we expected, especially as we got closer to the city. We arrived at night – as always! – and found a great little hotel by a mini replica of the Eiffel Tower. Almaty is a fun city, quite developed with a fair bit of western influence and featuring cash points that accept our cards - bonus. That night we hit the town and had one of the most hilarious nights of the trip. Too much happened, so the highlights:

- Tim and Matt sprinting from a Karaoke bar to ditch two girls interested in their wallets

- Three of us ending up in a Latin club. In Kazakhstan.

- All of us ending up alone, somehow, shouting ‘Eiffel Tower’ at taxi drivers, none of which spoke a word of English. Eventually they would find it and explain here, it’s called the ‘Francerzich Dome’. Riiiiight.

As expected, the following morning we were in no shape to go anywhere and decided to spend another day in Almaty. We also had to kill some time to allow Kent’s team mate to catch up. In the end we spent three days in this fine city and enjoyed it immensely – it was nice to be in civilization again.

We headed off without Kent on the Saturday. In Talldy-Kurgan we bumped into a Danish team with two Suzuki Wagon Rs having some suspension work, and decided to get our cars lifted too. The Corsa got some Vectra springs in about 20 minutes….ours ended up with Nissan Primera springs on the back after an hour of trying various combinations. For $50 the result was fantastic – she now sat higher laden than she had previously been empty! Result.

With our Hyundai Land Cruiser we headed for Semey, stopping to camp in a farmers field about 300KM from our destination. We weren’t sure, but the guys had a feeling the mountain range in the distance was China….either way it was a fantastic place to stop and the light in the early morning was stunning.

Turns out the border guard was right and we were on track for the Russian border within 2 days, well ahead of schedule. The road did turn to absolute trash about 100KM outside Semey though, and driving becoming very tactical. To avoid potholes and sheer cliffs, you simply drive on whichever part of the 50ft wide stretch of road is the smoothest. Everyone does it, so you weave constantly with oncoming traffic at 40MPH or so….quite a lot of fun. As with eastern Turkey, every now and then we would hit a major pot hole, hear an almighty bang and assume game over, but she just kept on going. What a car.

Semey is a dump. End of discussion. Industrial, run down and with beggars everywhere, we decided not to stay and headed straight for the border – about 6 other teams we bumped into seemed to have the same idea. We hit the Kazak exit point around 7pm, where the guard refused to even acknowledge us. 15 or so rally cars were waiting and it was clear (or so we thought) we would all be here for the night, but we eventually got let through around 11pm. Unfortunately, On Corsa 4 Mongolia were three days early for their visas, and there was no getting around it like with Uzbekistan – they would have to go back. Sadly we had to say goodbye to the last of our original convoy.

Russia

We had to wait at the Russian gate for ages listening to the radio for a few hours with a stark choice - suffocate with the windows up, thousands of bugs and mosquitos attacking the outside of our car, or put them down and be eaten alive. We went with the former. Finally at around 1am, Dolph Lungren (or at least his Russian cousin) allowed us through to do our paperwork on the Russian side. Of course by this point we had a flat battery, and we had to push it across the border. Slick.

I then met a stern, soviet lady who stared at both my passport and me for at least 6 minutes, and then my favourite guard of the rally, who clearly loved his job. He decided to make me redo my customs form no less than 3 times because my crosses were not neat enough in the ‘no’ box…all part of the fun of borders right? We made it through at 3am.

We had met the Siberian Tigers in their Felicia (complete with hammocks hanging on both sides) in Semey and hooked up with them for the drive through Russia. We headed for Barnaul and then Brysk, where we hit the local market and stocked up on supplies. After Kazakhstan, this part of Russia felt very developed. The roads were good, houses started to look like houses again, and the stores were filled with modern produce – worlds away from the basic odds and ends of Kazak stores. We could get beef in sealed packets (sans flies), chicken and good beer – time for a BBQ!

The drive from Brysk towards Tashanta felt a lot like British Columbia. We followed the river for a few hundred kilometres and stopped at an idyllic spot just off the road amongst the trees for our BBQ. A quick dip in the (bloody freezing but refreshing) lake as a thunderstorm rolled in was a welcome chance to freshen up…we had not showered since Almaty. After some serious food and beer we set off for the border. In the end we drove till early the next morning, pulling up at the Russian gates around 4am. A few other Mongol cars were there already and we decided to catch a few hours sleep in the car rather than set up camp. We had made it to Mongolia!

Next - Mongolia Beckons…



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