We started the day with not much hope of reaching Aktobe, as we ran into the worst roads in Kazakhstan. Up to this point, the roads have been ok, paved, with just a few potholes. So we average a good speed of 80-90 km per hour when we are moving. But the road fell apart after our camp, and it was as bad or worse as anything in the Russian Far east. They do the same thing here that they do in Mongolia, which is to branch off into the desert if the road gets bad.
Which turned out to be a problem this time.
Cory branched to the left, Petar to the right, and I stayed in the middle on the main road. So I could see them both, but the main road was the worst, so I started to fall behind. It just happened that the road went Petars way, so I ended up on the same side as him for a bit. After about 10 or 15 minutes keeping Cory in sight, we ended up stopping, as Petar got stuck a bit in some mud. After pushing him out without much problem, we couldn't see Cory. So we drove and drove, but couldn't find him. We made the decision to stop, and since Petar was running low on fuel, I turned back, since we both agreed that Cory would stop, or come back if he was ahead and didn't see us. My worry was that he had a mechanical problem or had fallen. So I went back at least 20 minutes over the terrain we had just covered, but couldn't see him.
Returning to the point I had left Petar, I turned off the main route and took the route Cory would have taken (it runs parallel to the main road, but there were some large bushes, and I was concerned I may have missed him if he had fallen). This route went almost all the way back to the point I had left Petar, so when I saw him alone, with no Cory, I started to get worried. This likely meant that Cory was still somewhere behind us, and it had been at least 45 minutes to an hour since we had seen him. The problem was I couldn't get back to the main road, but I could see Petar. So I said "Stay There", and again retraced my route back to the main road. This again, took about 20 minutes till I could get back on it, and by the time I had returned to the point I left Petar, he was gone.
So now, I am sitting on a bridge in the middle of Kazakhstan, with neither of my riding partners, and no idea where they are.
Flagging down a car, I inquired in broken Russian, "have you seen a motorcycle" and pointed in the direction we had come from. "Nyet" was the answer. They left, and I was preparing to sit there till someone showed up, a truck coming from the other direction slowed down, and they motioned that they had seen a motorcycle over the next hill. "Ad-een, I said..one?". "Nyet", they replied... "Dva....Two!" Great news. So up and over the hill I went, where I saw both bikes parked at a Cafe.
It seems Cory had indeed taken the same route I did, and had the same problem, his section of road didn't join up with the main road for a long way. So he kept driving till it did, which just happened to be over the hill. Not seeing us, he sat down to wait. The problem was, so did we, just on the other side of the hill.
Once we had figured out what had happened, all was well, and we were together again.
The terrible road kept going for at least another 120 km like this, however we started to see signs of construction. We came upon a section of road that was finished... beautiful, freshly paved... and closed. All the access points were blocked off. So we continued on the crap road that was vibrating our bikes apart, all the while driving beside this beautiful, freshly completed road. After about 60 km of this, one of my Panniers bounced off on a particularly deep section, and after we put it back on, and collected my gear which was strewn all over the road, we discreetly circumvented the block, and drove up onto the new road. We didn't know how long we would be able to drive on it, but it had to be better then what we were on. So we did, for about 15 km, waving at the odd road construction guy, who didn't seem too concerned we were on the closed road. They just waved back. We then came to the end of the new construction, which was a huge earthen berm across the road, so we drove down into the ditch, came up on the other side, and continued on, this time on the new open road.
It had taken us from 10:30 am to 6:00 pm to cover slightly more than 200 km, and we had over 250 km left to Actobe, which was our destination when we set out that morning. So, we high tailed it on the now excellent stretch of highway, and with the sun setting on the horizon, pulled into Aktobe that evening.
514 km Today
My trip would be much happier if youda let me on that new road! LOL! Your story was quite good - I was also worried. Had I not known better, I may have panicked a bit. I think it's hilarious that you guys were on opposite sides of the hill, waiting for each other. What good friends! If only you had GPS on each other!
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