19.06.19
In the morning I wake up at 4.30am because it's getting daylight, but I'm still a bit tired and stay in bed for another hour. Then I make coffee and the smell wakes Felix up and he crawls out of the tent. We pack everything up first and then have breakfast. We head back to the main road and look for a petrol station because we still have fuel for about 30 km. Relief comes after 20 km and we fill up: Polnje bag, we have learned, means to fill up.
In Ukraine and Russia you have to pay first and then you can fill up. You take the tap you need, put it in the tank and go to the cashier. Then they charge you about what you want and you get the rest back either in cash or, if the amount is too small, you can take another Twix or water.
The road towards the border gets worse and worse until we finally come to a construction site and the road is completely closed. Once again, the road is diverted to a dirt track, which we stay on for a few kilometres. When we are redirected back to the bumpy road, we look for a campsite, but somehow nothing turns up. Either the grass is too high or there is too much rubbish lying around. As we are both not yet tired, we decide to just keep going.
It is only a few kilometres to the Kazakh border, and since the last time we came to the Russian border in the morning, it was rush hour, we try our luck this time in the late afternoon. Since the country is so flat that you can already see on Monday who is coming to visit on Friday, we can see the border from far away.
The border, consisting of a building with only one floor, which looks like a garage, and a small house, from which a young guy immediately jumps towards us. Inschuuurenz, you need....OK, because last time it was a bit complicated, we stop and take out the insurance. About 18 Euros for both, well that's a bargain and you get a mobile phone SIM card for 4 Euros.
At the "garage" there are some people waiting for whatever. When we go there on our motorbikes, we are of course the highlight. They all come up to us and babble wildly. I have no idea what they are talking about, so I point to the card I have stuck on the right suitcase and they all bend down and the chatter gets wilder and wilder until finally the border guards come and take a look. Felix went inside with both passports and I disappeared into the crowd.
One of the border guards says: Visa Russia, I say yes and he says: OK go. Yes, I would like to, but Felix is also besieged by people in the booth and I call out to him: Hey, let's go, but we can't because the guy at the counter has the passports and is now taking a smoke break. He comes out to me and throws eb
20.06.19
A day without motorcyclists, sleeping in and, as the devil would have it, oversleeping breakfast. But luckily my charm helps the little lady at the reception and we still get something to eat. The kitchen staff is overjoyed that two more come half an hour after the end of breakfast, but a smile and a hearty "Spasibo" help to wring a smile out of them and we are served excellently.
Hanging around, doing the laundry, shopping, checking the bike and going out to eat. A day to rest is so good after almost 6000 kilometres.
21.06.19
We continue into the endless expanses of the country. Driving is now like meditation, because it's almost always straight ahead for hundreds of kilometres.
When we have driven almost all morning, we get a little hungry again and stop at one of the numerous cafés, which are not just café houses, but actually restaurants, roadhouses. As always, after the meal, I feel tired and since I don't have any appointments at the moment, we take a break in a small forest and stretch out the hammocks where we nod off for an hour.
22.06.19
Super relaxed, we get back in the saddle. Ride, ride, refuel, ride.
A new record, 481 kilometres and it's evening, by chance we end up in a nature resort on the river where they have once again advertised camping, right, it's bungalows again. That's right, shower, fresh towels and a beer in the evening. Because it's so late again, we cook ourselves a fine risotto with porcini mushrooms that I still have in my luggage and chat a bit before we hit the hay.
Felix has had a strange stomach for two days and is not quite on the ball. Because he looks like the Passion of Christ in the morning, we take it easy and make a café on our little balcony. After a while we have breakfast and pack the mopeds. The start is at 12 noon today, which is different.
We drive the rest of the day and after a failed shopping attempt in a small village, they have some school festival and all the shops are closed, we drive out of town and settle down in a small forest.
As we are cooking we get a natural spectacle of a special kind.
A herd of wild horses comes up to us and grazes right in front of our eyes, what a sight. We can't tear our eyes away, only a sudden mooing pulls us out of the film-like scenario. Some cows are grazing behind us and look at us a bit dorky but are not bothered by us and our motorbikes.
The evening draws to a close, because it is so warm we sleep in the hammock tonight and are sung to by the crows, who must be holding a conference today.
23.06.19
Half frozen we wake up the next morning, what we totally underestimated is the climate in the desert. During the day 40 degrees at night about 8 degrees and the wind blows almost all the time, na also has no mountains or hills, but only flat surface to the curvature of the earth.
To get back to operating temperature we do our morning exercise and have a big pot of tea.
After breakfast we continue on the never-ending straight road towards the east, towards the sun. After a few hundred kilometres we come to a sign that reads:
"In 2017, I don't know how many people died in accidents with camels" hä....Camels, where are camels here? But shortly after we have seen the sign, one traipses across the road with a calmness.
After a few photos, we continue our journey and keep seeing wild horses, cows and now camels.
Now we have arrived on the Silk Road.
As the heat is getting really uncomfortable, we turn off the main road into the village of Aral to have a look around. We have lunch, which was pretty shitty, look for a supermarket and then leave again after refuelling, because the place is not very nice.
After further, almost agonising hours on the bike, it's time for our siesta once again. At a rest area we lie down in one of the small shelters to escape the midday sun, when another truck pulls up and honks. For God's sake, I think to myself, it's not even possible to have a midday nap here without another crazy Kirghiz coming and wanting a photo.
I sit up and look at the truck, at first I didn't realise it and have to look at the number plate again. No, it's not a fatamorgana, the two in the truck are waving at us with a grin and the number plate is from Dachau.
Peter and Anja, two globetrotters travelling in an 11-tonne truck, invite us into their air-conditioned cabin for a glass of water and a really good espresso. Ahh, that feels good and above all, finally meeting travellers on the road. After a short chat, we agree on a meeting point for the evening so that we can camp together.
Driving straight out in the sweltering heat is suddenly fun, as we now have a destination for the evening. After a few hours of driving we meet them again at the roadside and we look for a nice place to spend the night. The choice falls on a Muslim cemetery on a hill. Away from the road with a panorama that could be sold on postcards. Since the truck is big enough, we can pitch the tents and the motorbikes in the shade of it.
After a few cold beers and a fine dinner, which they cooked for us (and we didn't even have to do the dishes), we talk late into the night and learn a lot about travelling, as they have been on the road for a long time.
24.06.2019
After breakfast, with freshly ground coffee, mind you, we make a plan of where exactly we are going. Since the area is already quite dreary and everything looks the same for hundreds of kilometres, we aim for a destination 500 km away.
We put everything away, quickly use the outdoor shower and off we go.
The day never ends, the temperature rises from minute to minute and we have to be careful not to fall off our moped.
Around noon we stop at a monument to buy something cold to drink when suddenly a group of gardeners stops with a tanker truck full of water. One of the men comes over to us and asks if we need water, saying it's not drinking water but it's perfect for refreshment.
Yes it is, because it is cold and we take a shower in the middle of the car park. After a short chat, we in German, he in Kazakh, I explain where we are going and the guys all nod their heads, laugh and give us the thumbs up.
After this refreshment, we continue to the next stop about 250 kilometres away, because there is a big petrol station and a café where you can have lunch. Bingo, we got a really good one, the food is fresh and tastes great. Afterwards the usual ceremony, you have to go to the toilet, which costs something this time. I'm curious to see if it's the luxury version of the standing plumbs. You pay 50 roubles and get toilet paper too.
Well, the luxury is probably the burning barrel in front of the entrance door that lets the smoke drift into the room and you also have free entertainment because you poop next to each other and can therefore have a great conversation or pass the newspaper.
After this experience, we continue into the endless steppe and shortly before the arranged meeting point, the backdrop of our now well-known truck of Peter and Anja appears. We catch up with them and look for a place where we can camp for the night near the river with wild horses passing by again and again.
26.06.2019
The next day we take it easy and after the obligatory breakfast Arend goes straight to the travel agency next door.
He doesn't get a train ticket because it is already booked up for the next 3 weeks,
ha, the SBB would be happy.
So he has to take the bus again, which already has 20 hours to the next destination, and so our new travel acquaintance leaves us.
We want to explore the city and the boss of the hotel has put a young lady named Samal at our disposal to give us a guided tour. Now that's a courteous service. Thanks to Hotel Zhambyl.
As the lady is a little late, we go for lunch beforehand, so that we can fight the sweltering heat again.
After visiting a church and a mosque, we wanted to change money at the post office. Actually, it's the same as at home: take a number and wait. However, we wait for about half an hour because we have missed it and a little Kasake has somehow managed to get in front of us.
No problem, Samal goes to the counter and explains that we just want to change money. So we take our turn next to the one who is already seated.
What knocks the good official off his feet, however, is when we want to change a hundred euros into Kyrgyz som. "That's a lot of money and it's dangerous to carry that much around," says Alright, we are gangsters - no problem. We take the hint that the money should not be bent and stuff it into our pockets.
After a stroll through various parks with monuments from the past Soviet era and a visit to the Chalet, a hotel that must have taken a Swiss chalet as a model on the Internet, we return to our hotel.
Samal stands in front of us with red cheeks and has a question. She has never ridden a motorbike and would love to sit on it. Well, we're not going to take that lying down. I go with her to the bikes and ask her which one she would like to ride.
The little woman climbs onto my Yami first, but she chooses Felix's Africa Queen, because it is a bit higher than mine when stationary and, as we all know, bigger is better. So she gets my helmet and we put her on the moped, and off we go, Felix taking off with her, while I shoot a video that she really wants to send to her friends.
When they are back, she has a grin on her face that makes her cute round head look even bigger, because it goes all the way behind both ears. She struggles with the helmet because she doesn't know that it is closed at the bottom and I have to give her a hand.
Back in the bar she thanks me a thousand times and all the staff laugh at us and give us the thumbs up. Good Germanzki - we know, we want to make a good impression.
