Kazakhstan

The longest we have stayed in the car, over 30 hours. We got caught up in the mother of all storms after leaving the border, so decided to pull over into a farm field and pitch tents for the night. The field was knee deep in mud, and the mossie situation was a joke, so we abandoned the camping idea, and agian decided our only options was to drive on. Both cars left the field caked in thick black mud, which made the first few hundred metres back on the road interesting.

Team Kangakhann then lost their exhaust, it snapped. We pulled into a closed truck stop to undertake some repairs (fencing wire.....) then carried on. Must say Ian's car sounds a lot better with a blowing exhaust pipe..

The storm then hit us, with fork and sheet lighening all round, which helped us see the road a bit i guess. WombatsKhan hit a couple of large holes testing the bash plate and our nerves. We carried on slowly for another few miles then decided thats was it. We found a truck stop, and made this our home from home. Both teams sleeping in the cars, upright - we slept surprisingly well.

We awake and set off around 8am on the 28th and head off, expecting to take two days to drive to Astana.

For lunch we pull over and make a sandwich and watch all the trucks go by, the very trucks we had spent ages overtaking before pulling over......In the late afternoon we pull over at what looks like a ramp for repairing trucks and cars, deciding to put both machines onto the ramp for a quick look underneath.

On the horizion we watch a heardsman tend his cows from horseback. It is a stunning place, hard but beautiful. The horizon goes on forever and the sky is black, blue and white with 'The Simpsons' clouds.

The heardsman slowly heads our way, after he sees Ian and Neil racing the cars back and forth through a large puddle to try and clean the mud off (thats what we said anyway). Finally the heardsman walks over and offers us a ride on his horse. Jo sort have gets pushed forward by the 3 of us, and the local chap picks her up and throws her on the horse. Many photo's later, and an offer of two cows for Jo we get her back...

The heardsman was purely interested in what we were doing, he didnt want anything from us. He spoke Kazak expecting us to understand. Again sign language got us through. He left we a single cigerate that we offerred.

The drive to Astana ends in the evening of the 28th July, the very day we made the hotel booking. Planning or just good luck - who knows.

I'm off now to see how Ian got on with the car repairs, we will then sample the local food and wine. Or next leg is across Kazakhstan to the Russian border, we expect this to take 3 or 4 days.