Biysk, Russia
Staying in Biysk tonight. If anyone else is pick up the cat and bone and call +77058916347
Pavlodar Province, Kazakhstan
After a successful trip to the vet The Cat is no longer leaking fluid out of her gearbox and is purring along the (neverending) Kazakh countryside. After leaving Almaty in the south, we've managed to claw our way up to Pavlodar in the north and aim to be prowling around Russia in tip top shape tomorrow morning.@
Issyk - Kulskaya, Kyrgyzstan
So just got to what we thought was the border of Kyrgyzstan to Kazakhstan to discover that its more derelict than a Mongolian Fiat garage. Speaking of which, we're leaking gearbox oil (again) and our sump guard's semi broken. Luckily the next open border is over a day and a half away, so back to Bishkek we go! Let's just hope we make it before we run out of oil and the Cat loses another life.
Issyk - Kulskaya, Kyrgyzstan
Cruising around a massive lake in Kyrgyzstan in a biosphere reserve the size of Switzland, we're looking for a place to sleep when we spot some locals playing volleyball. After realising they were actually amazing we decide to not try and join in but in the meantime get offered a place to sleep in a man's house, who turns out to be a policeman! We managed to gather this from the relentless stream of photos he insisted on showing us involving him, in uniform, with some massive guns. Kind of put us on guard. But after a nice meal and breakfast he turned out to be very pleasent. Score.
Chuyskaya, Kyrgyzstan
After waking surrounded by yurts, watching a 5 year old ride a fully grown horse, and feeling slightly cold for the first time in 3 weeks, we headed over tor ashuu pass, which is probably one of the most amazing bits of scenery weve ever seen. Imagine miles and miles of hair pin ascent up to views of a beautiful plane, before plunging down a never ending mountain valley, with sheer drops and sketchy overtakes galore!
Talas, Kyrgyzstan
We're in Kyrgyzstan! And its beautiful here. Just had a very relaxing/hygiene impoving swim in the most stunning lake in the mountains. Sorry we haven't updated more recently...we've had highs and lows over the past couple of days: had an awesome night out in Shymkent, followed by an attempted mugging, a scuffle and a visit to a Kazak police station; had a short little excursion around the biggest market you've ever seen in your life, followed by an irrational purchase of a traditional Kazak dress and a new phone to replace the one that Dan lost the night before; had a great night camping last night after team Genghis Carnage joined the convoy, followed by a small redecoration of the nearby landscape and a realisation that we'd had a strength-of-car competition involving a baseball bat. But we're now flying through Kyrgyzstan solo, it's really hot and we have no idea where we are.
Kyzylorda, Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan is quality. Fact. We got lost trying to leave Actobe but stumbled upon a mechanic who drew a map more detailed than google could ever do. Camped by the side of the road last night and had multiple Kazaks stop to come and join our party (of only 2 cars now). One was even the mayor of the adjacent town! Or that was what we thought - he didn't speak any english and my Kazak's a little rusty. We stopped at a cafe in the disguise of someone's house for lunch today. No idea what it was we ate, but after a game of charades think it might of been sheep. Luckily there was no horse milk this time. Although we did accidently start eating out of the 'tea bowls' = slightly awkward. Now on the way to Aralsk on roads that are literally in the middle of nowhere. We decided to see just how fast the catmobile actually is. Turns out pretty rapid with a 0 to 60 time of 28 seconds!
Atyrau, Kazakhstan
Yekkaasmesh...we have just entered Kazakhstan. And got immediately stopped by many a cow in the middle of the road. The car is now running like a dream after its fix and after getting stopped by the police and then being let off in russia, playing chess on the chess board we've spray painted onto the bonnet, finding we're on a completely different road to the one we wanted, some helpful russians, seeing a dog in a sidecart of a motorbike and saying no to giving the border guards an 'English present' we have made it to Kazakhstan. It's sa nice!
Volgogradskaya oblast, Russia
We got ourselves into the beautiful Russian city of Volgograd, previously known as Stalingrad, last night. We stayed in a cheap and dirty hotel whose curtains fell off, shower flooded and had a car park we were told to be 'dangerous'. Meeting up with a load of other teams we made it to club Amsterdam and what a nice place it was too. With alot of nice Russian women. After a taxi driver who spoke no english, a 17 teen year old and her mum, a kebab shop bar, many 'Do you speak english?' chat up lines, a squad of wingmen, flaming hair, pole dancers, vodka, a team getting spiked and ending up in a gutter, ordering Russian food with no idea what it was and now a leaking car we are sat in a mechanics garage/shack as 3 mechanics who don't speak any english are hammering away with crowbars. For the mechanics amongst you we are leaking gearbox fluid (we think) Problem is we can't communicate.
Donets'k, Ukraine
Sitting at a beach just before the Russian border in Ukraine. After getting completely lost in ukraine cities with their cyrilic alphabet we've managed to find team xpats and a sea side spot with a sun set. Good.
