Day 18

Borislav, the Russian Reporter we had hoped would join us, unfortunately wasn't able to rendez-vous. The team were a little slow after the previous night. We were able to use the Garmin hand held unit to navigate to the M32. Samara had some most interesting sights, including domed churches, retro style trams, statues and squares. The town merited more time than we had, disappointingly we had to move on quickly. 10 kilometres later, we had the fuel stop, where we knew we needed to fill the jerry cans for the first time. The remote wilderness of the stans was beckoning. A coffee stop shortly after provided breakfast for those that missed the fine breakfast in the hotel. We continued on the M32, which may have been straight as you looked it, for miles & miles, however as you drove on it, it was as bumpy as anything!! After 4 hours, we were pulled over at a police check point, however this proved to be only mild curiosity and we were waved on almost immediately. The Discoveries were reading external temperatures in the high 20's. Air conditioning essential.

Everyone got a bit cautious as we approached the Russian border. Not sure what to expect. The Russian side, seemed straightforward. One after another we progressed through the various levels of paperwork. The guards didn't engage Elanor but as they gave the vehicle a cursory check over they asked Andy 3 times if we were carrying guns or drugs. We were hopeful in getting through in a short amount of time.

There were a few hundred yards of no-man's-land and then we hit the Kazakh border. The first sign that we would have a more pleasant experience was when snake appeared on the road and the border guard joined us in watching it and allowed us to photograph it. I believe it was poisonous but wasn't able to identify it. Ian did a sterling job in explaining our mission to the guards who seemed genuinely interested. The Kazakh forms included an English translation, unlike the Russian version. The guards enjoyed interacting with us, a diminutive guard sat with Ian to translate some of the documents. Elanor sat next to Ian with the phrasebook, which was of limited use as it was Russian and the Kazakh language is different. However we had some fun as one of the guards borrowed it and addressed Elanor in heavily accented English "You are good looking" with a smile, he promtply followed it, a few pages later, with "I am very drunk!" We all laughed a lot. A lady with a different uniform (Blue) came out and seemed to be in charge. We asked her to sign a handprint which she did with a smile. The other guards happily chatted with us about football and recommended hotels for us in the next two towns while the remaining documents were filled in. Another of the guards signed the handprint and added the names of all the guards who had helped us in the fingers. We thought we had got through, the time had added up to several hours, mainly on the Kazakh side, however it soon became obvious that we had to stop again and buy insurance. Chris made everyone cheese and salami on bread to keep our flagging spirits going.

When we were finally ready to leave after more than 4 hours, we were tired. The roadworks and loose chippings we then hit, made life even more difficult as the drivers had to decide whether to stay on the main carriageway or drive on the hard shoulder. The chippings made a lot of noise and caused at least one of us to worry about our windscreens. Long gaps were held.

The route onward to Uralsk was largely uneventful, although we passed a swimming spot, which looked so cool and refreshing to our dusty eyes, however, we were on a mission to find lodgings. We used the police checkpoints for our own ends, the worm turned, as a checkpoint guard that we stopped and asked for directions gave us a tip for a good hotel. The police seemed confused that we had stopped voluntarily. The hotel was a good bet though. "The Tahiti", did not have palm trees and hula girls, however, it had hot food, hot showers, beds and floor space and we were grateful.

Some local children were attracted by the hubbub and came to join us. They filled in a colourful handprint for us despite initially being shy.