From Kazakhstan we took the border crossing to Uzbekistan. The road after the crossing was the worst we’ve ever experienced. This photo shows the new road which was still in construction. But we illegally crossed from the old, broken road to this one because the old one was so crazy. Before we tried to go next to the broken road through the dirt and dust but that worked not as good as well. On iOverlander there are reports of travelers going ten kilometers per hour on 250km of distance. We could go much faster but still it was crazy. I got really mad about this. And it’s weird: on an off-road track I don’t mind going slow, but on this road… The potholes were so deep, big and there were so many. And there were trucks. A lot. They had to go really slow, nearly stopping. If the locals go like that, you know about the conditions of a road. We’ve never seen so many cars broken at the side of the road. At some point I started just acceleration and braking hard because I just wanted to pass this road. Didn’t make sense but… fuck it!

But of course the locals knew how to pack their stuff.

We skipped the Aral Sea because we didn’t want to make the detour and went to visit an old sand stone fortress.

It looked interesting how the sand stone “melted” over the years.

Some proper sight-seeing in Buchara.

I liked these wooden pillars.

Buchara is a crazy tourist town.

Racki got a new haircut.

We met again friends we got to know before in Georgia and had a great time together.

Together we did some maintenance on their bikes and we crafted some custom made spare parts. On the road we learn a lot about repairing and crafting.

These little vans are the most common cars in Uzbekistan. They are like ants. Thousands and everywhere.

We found an amazing camp spot.

And parked as accurate as ever.

Met a lot of super friendly people.

Racki crafted jewelry and other stuff.

We had our signature meal: selfmade Pampe (kind of spread) with Lavash (thin bread/ wraps).

We went there primarily because we wanted to try the climbing crag there but the crag was just a small rock and the routes were nothing like the climbing routes I did before. The stone was loose, the distances between the bolts were huge and the positioning of the bolts did mostly not make any sense for me. When falling these bolts would not really do there job. I did not really enjoy climbing there. It was more a practicing rock for alpinism.

But the scenery!

It was super beautiful and we went for a nice hike/ mountaineering tour.

At one point we had to climb a few meters high, very steep slope (not on the photo). The rock was loose and sometimes crumpling under our hands an shoes. I was not used to this and did not feel so good about it. Under the slope were a few rocks and then a hundreds of meters long steep snow and ice covered slope. A nice place to fall, roll and slide like shit… But despite my worries, we made it easily. Still it was kind of a near death experience for me. Racki did it in proper Racki-style and did not fear anything.

The view and the colors!

At the summit.

🥳

🐎 Here is this tour in Komoot.

One of my favorite photos from Kazakhstan. But before:

From Georgia, we entered Russia with our transit visa we got in Armenia. The crossing went well, but very bureaucratic: the language barrier made the process of filling the customs papers for our car more difficult and so we needed three trials until everything was fine. Some travelers got pretty crazy in this process. After the border we went to a rock climbing area right next to the main road. The approach to the climbing routes was crazy steep and the routes themselves were super difficult. I was not very happy in that area because I did not feel very good about being in Russia.

We took the direct route to Kazakhstan and visited some Buddhist temples. But all of them were closed.

The military checkpoints in Russia were very friendly and we made a lot of jokes about mainly football and German beer. Only one Russian soldier was grumpy but not more than the ordinary Georgian 😁 But still I did not feel so good about being in Russia because of the relationship between the German  and Russian government and the war in Ukraine. In the end it was like so often: regardless of the governments, the people are super friendly and helpful. But I still thought that I would not like to meet a Russian soldier who’s friend or family member got killed in Ukraine and now had to deal with us,  German tourists.

This was a  floating bridge which was constantly pushed to the side by the river. On one end of it they installed a couple of outboard motors to keep it in place.

We crossed the border to Kazakhstan and entered the steppe!

The temperature rose to more than 40 degrees Celsius and sometimes we liked to continue driving just to have the comfort of Rosinante’s air conditioning.

Driving through the steppe was a crazy experience. Sometimes there was no turn, bend or corner for hundreds of kilometers. Driving became pretty boring because the distances were huge. My favorite thing to watch were the camels.

One day we witnessed the funeral of my grandfather who had died in Germany when we were still in Armenia. Although participating online was better than not participating at all, it was weird.

After so much heat in the steppe we wanted to have a swim and went to Aktau, a coastal coty at the Caspian Sea. There we went to an old amusement park and took a ride in a carousel. These carousels and attractions! I guess some would use them as a test of courage.

After having dinner we met a group of Kazakh celebrating a birthday and had a great time with them dancing to all kinds of music.

The stone formations in the Ustyurt National Preserve area were amazing!

They look like the back of Godzilla sleeping in the steppe.

There were some plants. But only very little ones.

And these rabbits.

Normally we do a lot of hiking, climbing and physical activities but in the heat of the steppe there was not much to do. So we decided to just take a walk around and run back.

While running, we scared a little gerbil-like animal which immediately run to a hole in the ground to take cover. Unfortunately his ass was a bit to big and he got stuck in the hole 🥳 He tried hard to push himself in but did not succeed. He tried to go reverse but had no chance. So we helped him a bit and gave him a push.

The vastness of our first offroad track in the steppe.

Sometimes it was like a video game in which you have to pick the best track.

A lot, lot, lot of dust! I loved it and it always reminds me on Mad Max.

Bit the dust could get pretty nasty on and inside of Rosinante.

The first version of our automatic washing machine.