Kazakhstan

08-09 June – Kazakhstan-Kyrgyzstan – ~270 miles

Out of Almaty (with my mobile phone, safely recovered) – a relatively short ride, to visit Charyn Canyon, and then spend the night camping at nearby Temirlik Canyon. The ride to the campsite was several miles over steppe type landscape – totally flat in all directions, allowing one to get up to 50mph or so on packed dirt/gravel tracks… and then sudden very steep dips into ravines. And when we got to the track down to the bottom of the Canyon – where the campsite was located – it was decided by the riding tour guide that it wasn’t worth riding down… he wasn’t particularly keen on riding down/up it again (had gone down to rescue one of the first two riders who’d tried)… and although I was initially keen to give it a go, his actual reluctance was a major clue that maybe it was a heap harder than it looked. Then – going down in a 4-wheel drive vehicle, creeping along – yeah, pretty happy I didn’t ruin my current pristine record.
(I’m currently only one of 2 riders to not have dropped their bikes yet, although most of those “drops” were carpark drops, or in sand… which are very forgivable).

From the campsite – a quick dash back to Kyrgyzstan – with about 20 miles of that being on a temporary gravel/mud road alongside the highway they’re apparently (slowly) rebuilding – to the border. Quickest/easiest border yet – the customs guy gave my panniers a cursory glance/search – then asked to wear my helmet, and took a couple of photos with me.
Into the town of Karakol – preparing for tomorrow – our last day before China, and what promises to be the longest/hardest border crossing yet.

05 June – Kyrgyzstan-Kazakhstan – ~152 miles

A short day, and the first border crossing where we were trusted to do it ourselves. No big group gathering, constant reminders of “keep all the bits of paper they give you” and “right, you’ll need your passport, motorcycle registration, and the bit of paper with the blue stamp from the last time”.
And – it all went smoothly. Buying insurance was rather slow – due to the people involved typing a lot of the requisite information into their system with a single finger. Still – I believe Kyrgyzstan & Kazakhstan are the first places since the Caspian Sea where such paperwork has not been actual “paperwork”… with computers involved. I remember thinking “we’re joking and complaining about all this hand-written bollocks… but I reckon once they are actually doing it into computers, it will take even longer”… and sure enough – yes.

A little bit of paranoia while first riding in Kazakhstan, after being told that if being caught speeding/etc here – the bike could get impounded for a couple of days… and therefore following the locals’ examples when coming across ridiculous speed limits for nothing more than “here’s a bit of downhill road, with some corners – so you should all slow down to 50km/h for 5 kilometres”… but eventually, one gets bored of that.

Arrived safely into Almaty, albeit with a bit of an unscheduled city-tour, as I took a couple of wrong turns… and now checked into our hotel where we stay for an unprecedented 3 nights… while the 3 people who are leaving us here organise bikes-on-planes paperwork, etc. Leaving the rest of us to sample the delights of Almaty, change some air filters, give the bikes a more-than-usual checkover, and probably a massage or two.