All posts by Walter

Caucasus, Crimea, Kalmyk, Kazakhstan, Khwarezm, Russia, Sibirsky Extreme, Ukraine, Uzbekistan

Route Thoughts

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Tashkent:  09.05.09

(note track maps now updated in the Trip Data section)

One of the principles behind choosing the overall route was where possible I was going to try routes that I felt were lesser travelled or untravelled by western motorcycle travellers … in doing that, documenting them will expand the knowledge base on sites like Horizons Unlimited.  I also had the chance to explore some regions that have had a long standing interest to me, like the North Caucasus, Kalmykia et al.  So this is a chance to review some of those routes as alternatives for those planning on heading out on the great trek east, to Mongolia, Vladivostok, Magadan or wherever.

Lets start with the Balkans.

Its a bit out of the way for most people heading east thru Ukraine, but our experience in the Balkans was very good.  Inexpensive food, accomodation, great biking roads, plenty of good fuel and a real sense of adventure going thru places like Albania give the Balkans a real thumbs up from me.  Sure there are a couple of highlights heading thru Czech Republic and Slovakia, but in general its all over very quickly and its all very tame.  The Balkans was better preparation for conditions in the CIS, while still remaining very close to EU countries in case of problems.  Borders were no problems at all … very quick, and the only  point I would make is definately take a green card from your insurance company.

Crimea:

Certainly more interesting that the Ukraine in general.  Ukraine lasks the diversity of Russia and for me is just one of the countries I push thru on my way to Russia, tolerating the overzealous cops and border officials as par for the course.  (in terms of dodgy cops and border officials, recent years has seen a marked improvement on the Russian side, while the Ukraine is still dodgy as you like … such that Russia is notably more transparent, open, efficient and less corrupt than Ukraine)  Perhaps the main areas of interest in Ukraine are the Carpathian mountains in the east and Crimea in the south.  I missed the Ukrainian Carpathians (having seen them in Romania) and the interesting scenery and ethnic history of Crimea definately helped break up the Ukraine.  Travelling that way also allowed me to head pretty much directly into the Caucasus once I entered Russia.  Also found a cracking bike mechanic in Yalta … that alone could be a reason to have Crimea on a route east.  Any teething problems can be nipped in the bud there at Valera’s place.

North Caucasus:

This has largely been avoided by western bikers, partly because of a lack of knowledge about what is there and to a lesser degree a fear about safety.  I hope this blog has shown how much interesting peoples and cultures can be found between Adegeya in the west and Dagestan in the east.  On top of that you have Europe’s highest mountain range.  Considering how dull a long ride across Russia can be if you stick to the main routes I personally thing taking in interesting regions like the North Caucasus should be compulsory.  The last thing you want from Russia is an endless chore of just eating up miles for the sake of getting across the country … one of the most interesting counties in the world in terms of both peoples and geography.  If I could only recommend one thing from this trip so far, its to go to the North Caucasus, with a bit of knowledge about the region and you will get a hell of a lot out of it.

The Beyneu Route:

The two main routes to  central asia for western motorcyclists are to go via Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan or to go down Kazakhstan thru Aktube to Chimkent.  There are plenty of reasons to look for alternatives, such as the Beyneu route I took.  (a) the ferry from Baku to Turkmenistan has no schedule.  Its not unheard of to wait 3-4 days for the ferry, spend a day or more on the ferry and then wait in harbour at Turkmenistan end for another 2 days before unloading.  On top of all that uncertainty, Turkmenistan may give you a 5 day transit visa, and may insist on a tourist visa.  The Tourist visa requires you to be escorted thru the country at great expense.  in any case, the visas are not that easy to get, and the only thing worth seeing in the country is the Darvarza burning crater, I can think of 100 reasons not to travel thru Turkmenistan.

(b) travelling via Aktyubinsk (Aktube) means you miss the highlights of Uzbekistan.  You wont see Khiva, Bukhara or Samarkand.  You wont see Khwarezm or the Karakalpaks.  Of the 5 central asian republics, 3 are countries I reckon you definately want to see … Uzbekistan for the culture and food, and Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan for the mountains and mountain roads.  Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are (in my book) “missable”.

Putting that all together, and the route through Beyneu should be the main route.  The route of first instance !  I would recommend it.  The Kazakh side is pretty dull, but you do get to take in all the interesting bits of Uzbekistan without going out of your way.  And it is a route that is reasonably well used by Russian and Kazakh bikers!

Sibirsky Extreme, Uzbekistan

Bukhara and Samarkand

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Tashkent, 05.05.09

After the long ride into Bukhara, Andrei, myself and the other 4 Russian bikers from Samara meet up for a late hotel breakfast before heading into downtown Bukhara by Taxi.  The plan was to spend most of the day seeing the sights. Like Khiva the previous day, Bukhara had its heyday when the Moslem world was at its peak.  It was the only conquered city that Genghis Khan bothered entering after capturing it, such was its fabled beauty.  (Usually he just allowed his troops to pillage and plunder the enemy city).  But enter Bukhara he did and was said to be struck with awe upon seeing the Kalyan Minaret.  It still stands today and the square in which is stands is a stunning sight.  We decided that despite motorcycles (nor any other vehicles) not being allowed into the square, we had to chance it, come back with the bikes and try to shoot off a couple of shots before we got chased out of the square.

It was after 5pm when we finally had done our sightseeing, returned to the hotel, showered and continued our ride south east.  I had been heading south-east since Atyrau, over a week ago.  We only got 200 km done before it was getting dark with threatening rain, thunder and lightning.  Rather than get soaking wet in the dark, we decided to pull into a chaikhana, get some food and a room for the night.  The room was free, we just paid for the food (mostly shashlik), but as usual, there was no running water.  6 of us and a lot of riding gear slept on the floor of that dusty room!

We all woke early on the morning of the 5th May, packed up the gear and were moving by 7:30 am. I had hit the end of the long ride south east.  From our overnight camp, we were going to be heading north east, through Shakhrisabz, Samarkand and Tashkent.  As we approached Shakhrisabz there was something else I hadnt seen for a long time … mountains.  Since leaving Elbrus weeks ago I had been riding across flat plains, endlessly, broken only by the short descent down the cliffs that market the end of the Ustyurt Plateau.  Here between Samarkand and Shakhrisabz was the far western end of the Tien Shan.

We stopped in Shakhrisabz to visit an old Mosque from the 13th century which has a tomb which purports to house (or previously housed) the body of Tamerlane.   (see photos section) Samarkand also purports to hold his body so not sure which is which.  More research needed.  Tamerlane (Amir Temur) was an central asian warlord who falsely claimed descent from Genghis in order to legitimise his claims to greatness.  As powerful he became in his realm, he never amassed enough power to threaten Europe or China the way other steppe warlords like Genghis or Attilla did.  Accordingly, he really doesnt add up to a hill of beans in my book!  But the Uzbeks think he was pretty cool, probably since he was one of them.

Andrei and I left the others in Shakrisabz and headed into the hills.  Here poppies grew wild beside the highway and in the fields… it was a subtle reminder that we were less than 2 hours away from Northern Afghanistan – the worlds biggest source of poppies.   We had to cross a pass up at 1660 metres to get to Samarkand.  On the way we passed a number of nice looking chaikhanas.  Since we hadnt had breakfast, we decided to stop off for some food and some tea.  We found a great place halfway up the mountain, ordered some shashlik for breakfast, and waited for the others.  By the time the others arrived, we were sprawled out in the sun and fresh mountain air, eating the best shashlik of the trip, and drinking tea while a waterfall behind us provided the background music.  It was about as idyllic as it gets.

After brunch, we crossed the pass, and headed to Urgut.  It was a town Max (the central asian guru) had recomended to us, but Max was no longer with us, and we were unable to raise him by telephone.  So we headed to Urgut with no idea what Max wanted us to see there.  We took a side road up to 1300 metres high up in the mountains above Urgut, but didnt see anything out of the ordinary so left to head back down the mountain and on to Samarkand.  I did notice that in this region there are a lot of non Uzbek looking faces.  I assumed they were Tajiks and this was confirmed in Samarkand, a city with a large Tajik population.  Pretty much all the nationalities I have run into since the North Caucasus (with the exception of the Russians of course) have been Turkic or Mongolic or a mixture of these two main bloodlines that have dominated central asia since history began recording such things.  But the Tajiks are different.  They are not Turko-Mongolic but are closely related to the Afghans and look less oriental as a consequence.

A brief diversion again … a common error is comfuse Turkic with Turkish.  Turkish refers to people from Turkey.  Turkic refers to a bunch of related peoples that stretches from Yakutsk region in the North and east to Turkey in the west.  Turkic peoples are believed to originate in western Mongolia, and in the Altai region of Russia.  Todays “Turkish” people are the just the western turkic peoples who took over Asia minor, and interbred with the middle eastern and european peoples living there, thus taking on their less Asiatic appearance.  But the Turkic homeland is right next door to the Mongol homeland.

Samarkand is one of those places that looks great in the photos but Max had warned me not to expect too much.  The sights are not located together and there is no “old city” such as there is in Bukhara and Khiva.  I made my mind up that I was just going to see the world famous “Registan” and hit the road to Tashkent.  Max had a number of biking buddies in Tashkent and I had more luggage rack problems.  The location of the problems in the luggage rack makes it crystal clear to me they came from the lifting of the bike by the luggage rack.  The side bags themselves have been no problem at all since Zhenya the Kalmyk Biker sorted them out properly in Elista over a week ago, but now both sides of the rack have broken, in the same sort of place, just days apart.  Considering one side bag is twice as heavy as the other, (the bag that goes on the  fuel tank side is packed lighter) it clearly isnt from the bags.  In any case, I would try and fix the rack properly in Tashkent.

We found the Registan easily enough, but our attempts to gain entry by dodgy means were foiled by a sharp eyed Uzbek Babushka.  Time was running short in any case, and Andrei and I just thought “stuff it”, and hit the road out of Samarkand, north east to Tashkent, arriving on the outskirts of Tashkent just before dusk.  We grabbed a kilogram of freshly picked strawberries from some old uzbek ladies selling them at the side of the road, then telephoned Zhenya, our biking contact in Tashkent (courtesy of Max) and waited for him to come and lead us thru the streets of Tashkent.  Zhenya had a big garage at his place where we could store the 5 extra bikes and had arranged an apartment for us 5 minutes away.

We caught up with Max at Zhenya’s.  Max had arrived 24 hours earlier and had managed to find a metal worker to manufacture an all new rear sprocket which he fitted while we queued to jam the 5 bikes (plus Max’s, plus Zhenya’s 2 bikes) into Zhenya’s garage before taxiing back to the apartment Zhenya had teed up.

Russia and the FSU is great like that.  If you really need a part (like a sprocket) they can just make one within 24 hours, almost anywhere.

Karakalpak, Khwarezm, Sibirsky Extreme, Uzbekistan

Khwarezm

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03.05.09, Bukhara

Max had insisted on a strict schedule. Three alarms went off around 5:30 as we prepared for a big day on the road. Our Kungrad host brought us breakfast and bottled water as we prepped the 3 BMWs in his dusty “back yard”. By 7:45 we were on the road. By 9am we had left Karakapakia and entered Khwarezm. Khwarezm is the lush green oversized oasis created by the Amu Darya river splintering into a bunch of different branches that over centuries have acted as irrigation canals. This Oasis in the desert is 300 km long and 100 km wide and is densely populated with several large cities crammed into it. Its also green. I hadnt seen grass or trees since the Ural river and Atyrau 1000 km ago. It made a nice change and a refreshing burst of colour to see rice paddies, poplar trees lining the highway, as they do so often in central asia

Khwarezm also plays a key part in the whole Genghis Khan story, that this trip (and frankly any trip to Central Asia) bumps into again and again. It was the then Shah of Khwarezm that brought Genghis into Central Asia. In those days Khwarezm was an enormous empire, covering most of central asia and much of Iran as well. It was one of the richest Muslim states in a time when the muslims and Chinese were really the only “wealthy” or even “educated”people on earth. The Shah didnt so much as ask Genghis to pop by next time he was in the area; rather he captured a Mongol trade caravan and then executed the 3 ambassadors Genghis had personally selected and sent to investigate the seizure. Genghis responded as only he knew how, and took on an army over twice the size of the Mongols’ 100,000 strong force.

You can guess who won … Genghis Khan is a household name, but the Shah of Khwarezm is not, and he died a hunted man, from exhaustion and cold on a nameless Caspian sea Island, after he had earlier fled to Urgench (now todays Konye-urgench).

Max took us to the best preserved old city in Khwarezm, Khiva, where we stopped for 5 hours for lunch and sightseeing … I will let the pictures tell the story.  Max left early. He needed to get to Tashkent and sort out his sprocket, while Andrei and I enjoyed Khiva.

We hit the road a 5pm and rode for 5 hours to get to Bukhara, where we met up with some of Andrei’s biker friends from Samara, who had started a couple of days before us.  We met up at 11pm at the hotel Max recommended but it was full, so we found another place on the outskirts of town and got 3 rooms for the night.

It was the longest day on the road so far and racked up well over 700 kms. I am now over 64 degrees east, and have racked up almost 11,500 kms.

Karakalpak, Kazakhstan, Sibirsky Extreme, Uzbekistan

The Karakalpaks

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Karakalpakia, 02.05.09

As promised, yesterday evening the two Russian bikers, Max and Andrei, turned up in Beyneu. Mad Max is technically a Kazakhstani, hails from Uralsk in the far North West of Kazakhstan, but is a Russian. Speaking of Uralsk, its a city I went through 15 years ago and I remember it as its on the Ural river, the river that marks the border between Europe and Asia. In the North, its marked by the Ural mountains, further south its marked by the Ural River. Atyrau, which I passed through a few days ago, is another city that straddles the Ural river. Uralsk and Atyrau, both in Kazakhstan, are evidence that Istanbul’s claim to be the only city to span two continents, to be a Turkish fantasy. Both Aralsk and Atyrau have monuments to Europe and Asia on both sides of their bridges.

Max turned up on his 1995 vintage BMW G650 Funduro, and Andrei, a Russian from Samara, on a similar vintage BMW R1100GS. Max is a veteran of touring around central asia, and Alyosha assured me he knows all the good petrol stations, cafes, hotels etc en route. Petrol Stations?? Apparently yes. Both Max and Alyosha told me many Uzbek fuel stations (especially out in the sticks) dilute their fuel with anything from urine to straight water. After a dinner of plov and beer, Max, andrei and I deecided we would travel the 400 km to Kungrad (Konghirat in some transliterations) together and work it out form there. We were all going to Tashkent, but I wanted to go to the Karakalpak town of Muynak, on the former shore of the Aral Sea. But one thing was for sure, the route was the same for the first 400 km, so we will do that distance and think about it after that.

We left at 7:30 the next morning, topping all the fuel tanks in Beyneu, and the 10 litres of reserves each carried by both Max and Andrei. It was about 60km by gravel road to the last Kazakh town of Akjigit, where we would again top up the tanks (only 3 litres each) with 80 octane fuel. Uzbekistan is not flush with petrol like Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan are. There would be no fuel for almost 400 km, at the Uzbek town of Kungrad.  (Uzbekistan has ‘gas’ but no oil, and many cars, particularly in the north west, run on LPG … every fuel station has LPG or gasoline as they call it, but ‘benzin’ or proper petrol, is very hard to find in the north west.  Bukhara, Samarkand, Tashkent etc fuel is no problem)

The border opens at 9am and we timed it such that we arrived at 5 mins past 9. The border was probably the most primative border crossing I have seen in years, and it was in the middle of nowhere, but the uzbek side was still full of money changers, chaikhanas and photocopy wagons (many doncuments need to be photocopied before they will be accepted by the Uzbek officials. I think we did well and were through by soon after 11 … a mere 2 hours. Max recommended a chaikhana that he always used when he crossed at this border and we were served chai by the Korean lady who ran it. Uzbekistan (and to a lesser extent Kazakhstan) has a huge Korean population. This goes back to Stalin’s times. To avoid any potential conflicts of interest, he moved the Korean population within the USSR’s borders from near the Korean border areas to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

We also managed to buy some Uzbek currency, the Sum. Uzbekistan is a long way behind Kazakhstan in terms of economic development and bankomats are not at all common here. (I am told there is one in the country, in Tashkent.)  In any case, we were 500 odd km from the nearest city and over 1000 from Tashkent. There are about 2500 Sum to the EUR, and the largest note is 1000 sum. Any money you carry is therefore effectively in 40 EUR cent pieces. I changed enough money to last me 4 days or so and felt I needed a backpack to carry it.

While it may lack in terms of economic development in comparison to old sparring partner Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan makes up for it in terms of culture. Khiva, Bukhara and Samarkand are old silk road cities with well preserved historical sections, and Uzbek food is both tasty and well known in the former USSR. There are hundreds of Uzbek restaurants in Moscow, but I have never seen a Kazakh restaurant there.

By the time we left the chaikhana it was midday. We still had well over 350 km to cover to get to the nearest fuel, over a boring straight flat road. We had decided over our chai that Andrei and Max would join me in going to Muynak, and I would stay with them till Tashkent. So first step was to get to Kungrad and Muynak. But not before the Uzbek police pulled us over at the first town to pay the Uzbek ecological tax!

60 km before Kungrad, Max spotted a possible shortcut to Muynak. It was not marked on any of our maps, but Max had a hunch that the side road would get us to Muynaq. We asked a passing uzbek motorcyclist if he could confirm any of this, but the guy just kept nodding. He was either illiterate, stupid or both. We had a vote. Max and I were in favour of giving it a go so we took the turn. 40 km later we came to the edge of the Ustyurt Plateau. All day we had been between 120 and 150 m above sea level on a completely flat plain hundreds of kilometers long, but once we hit the end of the plateau, it dropped like a cliff, 100 metres lower. this cliff extended as far as the eye could see in both directions. It was a really dramatic sight. Soon after the cliffs, the road petered out. We had to go in a different direction anyway and began looking for tracks. Muynak was 55 km away in a straight line and as the largest population centre within about 100 km, there had to be a track there.

Muynak is a Karakalpak town that was once on the edge of the Aral sea. The sea is now over 150 km away, thanks to a failed soviet development plan. The two great rivers that drain the Pamir and Tien Shan mountains, the Amy Darya and Syr Darya, (known to the ancients as the Oxus and the Jaxartes) fed the Aral sea with fresh water. The soviets diverted most of the water to develop a cotton industry in Uzbekistan and at times no fresh water reaches this sea in the middle of the desert. Not surprisingly, since about 1960, the sea has shrunk dramatically, the salt levels in the remaining water have become so salty that fish can no longer survive in it.

For centuries, the Karakalpaks have lived on the south shore of the Aral sea, fishing and living off the sea. Now that is all history and the Karakalpaks have become among the poorest people in Central Asia. The Karakalpaks (literally Black Hats) are notably more mongolic / oriental than the average Uzbeks, and despite having their own autonomous republic, they are a minority here – most of the people who live in Karakalpakia are Khoresmian Uzbeks. Karakalpaks are closer to the Kyrgyz and the Tuvans than they are to the Uzbeks. I wanted to see Muynak as it is a proper Karakalpak town and its also the home to the Aral Sea fishing fleet, now rusting ship hulks in the desert.

Max, using his central asian experience and intuition, found the track and we headed off for the 50 km thru a no-mans land that was once at the bottom of a sea (only 50 years ago). It was a challlenging track and Max’s chain came loose (as I have seen happen on F650s before – Andy P, diring the 2007 Pyreknees Up) jamming into his engine housing. A bit of brute force and the chain was back on, but his cheap chinese rear sprocket had a unpleasant kink in it that was constantly threatening to derail his chain again. We limped the last 25 km into Muynak, passing a few Karakalpak villages on the way before catching up with the rusting ships.

We had hoped to get to Khiva today, but the “special” stage across the wilds near Muynaq meant we had added a few hours to the day. The sun set as we made our way into Kungrad, and we headed for a simple place Max had stayed at before. It was the second water-less place we had stayed at in a row (Alyosha’s place in Beyneu had no running water). Mobile access has not really existed since we crossed into Uzbekistan. Foreign sim cards are mostly not working out here. Andrei and I are both considering buying Uzbek sim cards tomorrow to keep up with the world.

Kazakhstan, Russia, Sibirsky Extreme

Kazakhstan – Part 1

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29.04.09, Atyrau, Kazakhstan

Today was a really boring day on the road.  Basically I spent 2 hours crossing a border, and 4.5 more hours riding 365 km on some mind numbingly boring roads that can only be descibed at “transit roads”.   There is no other reason to be on them.

I would have gone further but decided to stop in Atyrau, a wealthy Kazakh oil city, as its the last sign of civilisation for several days.

Since the scenery was pretty boring, and the only thing that stopped the roads being boring was the terrible state of them making it impossible to relax or travel at more than 90 km/h … and the 50 km/h constant sidewind blowing in across the Caspian Sea.  I was kept amused by odd thoughts and listening to a mix of Swedish group Kent, Mongolian group ‘Altan Urag’ and Kate Ryan.  Strange mix to say the least.

On a day where the travel is so boring, my mind began wandering and several bizarre thoughts crossed my mind.  The first was … how did I get to be riding a modified X-Challenge?  When I first thought of this trip, the F800 had just been announced and I always assumed I would do it on one of those.  3 things turned it all around in favour of an X Challenge.  (Well 4 really … as I was surprised how heavy the F800 weighed in at – might as well stick with the 1200.)

First .. about this time last year I was following the blog of Niccolo and Cyril – a couple of guys who packed it all in and took off on very short notice from London to Mongolia.  Niccolo (not the tallest man in the world) on a 1200 GSA and Cyril on a Transalp.  At the end of their Blog (eurasian motorcycle adventure link on the right) Niccolo commented “next time I do something like this I will do it on an X Challenge” … or something to that effect.  I had always looked at the X Challenge as a dirt bike and was thinking “What is he talking about? – he must be mad.”  But the thought stuck in my mind because subconciously I was looking out for X-Challenge stories.  Next step was hearing Simon Pavey taking one to Beijing on his transorientale rallye and planning to use on in the 2009 Dakar.  The bike finished easily and reliably and I spoke with Simon on his return from the transorientale, learning he had no mechanical problems.  Third, as I searched for information about the bike, one guys name kept coming up again and again on forums.  A chap out of Holland calling himself “MaxKool” … So I wrote to Max and asked him plenty of questions, and Max had plenty of answers, mostly all positive.  So the decision was made.  A BMW X-Challenge it was.

The other thing I worked out today while puttering along in the wind, on the Kazakh Steppe, was thanks to some information Max gave me.  I worked that even assuming I travel the whole 45,000 km in 5th gear, my one cylinder is going to have to do its funky little thing 108 million times, pretty much faultlessly, to get me to the end of this trip.  That’s a lot of jiggling about.

Other news from today … I am over 50 degrees east now.  I have entered my 24th country.  I clocked up the 9,000th kilometre of the trip today.  The oil leak attended to yesterday morning by Zhenya the Kalmyk Biker is sorted.  The animals out on the steppe are changing – on the Nogai Steppe there were cows and sheep.  On the Kalmyk Steppe there were cows, sheep and horses.  Now on the Kazakh Steppe there are horses and camels!

Some bad news.  The screen on my Eee has a problem.  It was jammed up against a bolt in one of my panniers and I guess the pressure of the bolt against the lid on the laptop has created a leak in the LCD screen.  About 5% of my screen is a black splodge.  I can live with it … but its a pity.  I have been very happy with this little beast.  I should have packed it better.

Nasty surprise when i went down for breakfast at 9:15 am on the 30th … I have moved forward another hour… breakfast closed at 10am.  it was now 10:15 am.   I am 4 hrs ahead of London now.