the mongol rally | Off The Rhumb Line

August 4, 2013
by Chris 1 Comment

The Chickens At Play

Saturday August 3

Lake Issy-Kul is the 2nd largest alpine lake in the world, (after Lake Titicaca in Peru) and sits in a basin of the northern Tian Shan Mountains. At roughly 170 KM long and 70 KM wide, the lake is mildly saline, extremely deep, and never freezes. It has been an oasis for centuries.

After making the turn off from Bishkek towards the lake on Friday, the scenery quickly changed from agricultural to the brown rolling hills that are so reminiscent of the coastal range of northern California in the summer. These quickly gave way to more substantive peaks as we drive through a fabulous mountain gorge with a swift moving river running alongside the road. Once through the gorge, the valley opened up and the 7,000 meter high snow capped Tian Shan mountain peaks climbing up into the clouds came into view off in the distance.

Will and Tommy steered us to the open field they camped in last year up along the north side of the lake. Camp gear was dumped, and some of the guys went and fetched take out – Will’s favorite – Shashleek!! (sp?) The rest of us set up camp, drank beer and watched a local herd moooo-ve their way through our site (one was very interested in will’s tent) while a blazing orange sun set behind the mountains. A great way to end the day !

I Woke up yesterday morning to sun rays shining out from the clouds. For the first time since Odessa, we have a day off – No driving! Time to play!

Don, Stefano, Pietro and Tommy walk into town. The rest of us hang out to enjoy the wonderful breeze and cool waters the shoreline on our remote beach has to offer us, until we are run off by the cops that came trolling along. We’re told we can stay if we pay them 2000 som, (roughly $40 US).

We choose to break camp than pay the money they are asking us for to stay – which sounds to us more like a bribe than it being illegal to camp. Don takes us into town to an amazing restaurant he’d found with the guys then we head up the coast to find a new beach/camp site.

Sarita has A TON of filming she needs to get done and The Adventurists have been hounding her and Sarah for footage. First up, Caroline and Pietro, who’ve bee sparring on the bus, have matched up for a space hop contest! Both put on the must have fashion item of the season, dixie chickens hats! With goggles, and Pietro, wearing Don’s traditional Mongolian warrior wrestling outfit, the 2 of them line up at the starting line – Ready, set, GO! Pietro grabs his space hop (NOT hopping) and runs for the finish line. CHEATER! Caroline yells Foul (or FOWL – in this case). In the rematch, Pietro complies with the rules this time, but Caroline hits a cow pie in her hop and Pietro is the winner – He must do a victory run into the water, and caroline owes him a hot breakfast and coffee delivered to his tent in the morning.

Pietro, Stefano, Don, and I enjoy a loose game of soccer with the space hop while Sarita continues some filming with Sarah and Caroline on bits for the Adventurists speech.

Cocktail hour arrives, and the beach has some new visitors.
There is a young boy, about 8, on his donkey riding through the beach, who garners our attention, as well as a couple of herdsman who come to say hello.

2 cars drive up to the beachfront with a huge family of maybe 15-20. A myriad of kids piles out, instantly running for the water while the adults set up grilling. They look like a wonderful group. We all had the urge to photograph them but did not want to appear intrusive on this family gathering. Stefano, in his wonderfully disarming way, goes to them to ask permission. Not only does he get the photos he (we all) wanted, in the process they offer him some of their food! This is the way a real professional photographer works We are in awe. A short while later, Sarah pulls out some of the plastic inflatable world globes we’ve brought along. As I approach the group this little girl, maybe all of 3 years old, spies me coming and her eyes get HUUUGE and she makes a beeline waddle right for me with her arms stretched wide open. She is intent on getting to me first and securing her prize!

The adults watch curiously, but then are very welcoming. I don’t know how much they understood, but I pointed on the globe where Chicago is, and where the bus has travelled. More kids emerge from the beach, and Sarah is blowing up more globes for me to hand out as each kid eagerly wants one of their own. From our vantage point by the bus, It was wonderful watching the kids and adults now playing a myriad of ball sports with the globes, interacting with each other, and running around. What joy they had.

Just before dusk sets in, one of the women comes over and motions if they can all come over and have a photo with us in front of the bus. Many handshakes and smiles were exchanged and many photos snapped. It was a heartwarming moment, 2 groups on the beach, from very different customs and languages, but clearly a bond forged. They were warm wonderful people and these are the moments that have come to make this trip so special for me. They left shortly thereafter, and we settled in with setting up our tents for the night.

The next morning’s view:

Sarita has some more filming adventures for us.
Sarah, Caroline, and I make our sand angels on the beach, and then the entire group is under Sarita’s choreographic direction as we perform our mustache and beards section for The Adventurists speech. Just a few dance moves, but it is funny trying to get the 9 of us “together”!

Kyrgystan has been a wonderful respite, but we now head back to Kazakhstan for the night, and then off to Russia and Mongolia for the next part of our Journey. One likely without any internet, but certainly one full of wonderous adventures which I’ll write about and share when I can, so please hang in there!

August 3, 2013
by Chris Leave a comment

On The Road Again…

Thursday August 1

After our few too many hours of rest in Kyzylorda yesterday morning, we had a very long way to go to reach the Kyrgyzstan border. We’ve had enough of the desert and have our hearts set on reaching the beautiful Lake Issyk-Kul up in the Tian Shan Mountains.

The fabulous 4 lane paved roads we’d finally found reverted back to the 2 lane remedial dirt, and the further south we headed the more crowded they became. We passed families splashing around in the rivers, construction workers hard at it in the stifling heat, and cattle patrolling the newly paved but unopened roads.

By sunset, the dirt rising up from the road had mixed with the low level fog that had settled in the farm fields, and the sun had that orangey gold glow as it set in the distance behind us.

We passed through the outskirts of Shymkent around 10:30pm. There was a pervasive and overwhelming smell of burning plastic mixed in with the dirt. The streets were full of more cars and people than we’d seen in quite some time. We rolled right past the car dealerships, billboards, mosques, and roadside cafes to continue on to the serenity we craved.

I woke around midnight to a wonderful cool crisp breeze wafting through the bus as we drove through some low rolling smokey hills. A golden orange crescent moon was on the rise to my right, and the Big Dipper brightly shined down on my left. Roadside apple stands, swaged with loosely strung bare bulbs across their tops, dotted the landscape. Each stand seemed to have either a young boy or an old woman sitting not too far away, waiting for someone to stop on this quiet stretch of road so late at night. I savored the moment as long as I could before drifting back off to sleep.

Early the next morning I woke to Stefano’s camera shutter snapping away. I imagined all the cool photos he was taking, but I could not crack my eyes open long enough to look, much less grab my camera for some of my own.

We arrived at the Kazakhstan border around 10:30am. No shakedown or drug sniffing dogs this time, thankfully, just your average confusion as they were unorganized and non-communicative.

Aaaah…Kyrgyzstan!
I say hello to the official behind the window as I hand him my passport. He looks right at me and asks me how I am (WOW – English!!) When I say “wonderful” he looks at me with surprise and delight, leans back in his chair and flashes me a huge grin and a hearty belly laugh! (Now THAT is a welcome!)

While we wait for the bus to be cleared, the belly laughing guard has come outside to meet us all and Pietro is showing him how to tie some knots. Meanwhile, one of the customs agents has come over to us girls and is doing his best to flirt with us, telling us all how bee-oo-ti-ful & charming we are! He wants to know which ones of us are not married and sarah does her best to make a love connection for him, to no avail. (I later read in the guidebook that kidnapping of fair maidens for brides is still common here – Yikes!!)

The guards are all busy signing the bus, and are extremely jealous when we tell them we are heading to Issyk-Kul, (an 8 hour drive away) as they want to come with us! After I’ve changed money and checked out the lunch options at the myriad of tents outside the official border control area, I head back to the bus to find that our flirty customs agent is on board. Sarah say’s he’s left his post, via car, to come have photos with us! No photos outside as he is still “on duty”! Before leaving, he asks for a photo with just me, and then gives me his phone number and puts his hand to his head with the sign for me to call him – yeah, will do, right away! We are just across the border, but are already in love with this country – this has definitely been our best & most entertaining border crossing experience yet.

Abandoned Ships & Cosmonauts!

August 3, 2013 by Chris 1 Comment

Tuesday July 30

With our Immigration Card ordeal over with, we are off in search of the Aralsk harbor and the lost Aral Sea.

Years of Russian irrigation starved the Aral Sea of much needed water. It has been nearly 40 years since the sea receded, strangling a fishing town of its livelihood and a harbor for its ships. There is apparently now a huge International surge underway to try and revitalize and restore this part of the Aral Sea back to it’s former glory via a series of dams, dykes and channels. Currently the “sea” sits about 23km offshore from the town of Aralsk and there is hope that in a few years the sea may return. In the meantime, there are a handful of boats in “dry dock” that stand as a memorial to the once former bustling harbor / fishing town. There is a more formal “Ships Graveyard” further up & around the western coastline, but we do not have the time to schedule this guided day trip. Being a sailor, it is hard to see such an empty harbor devoid of life, fortunately, we also have fun with some of the local kids and the “other” current inhabitants of the harbor.

Our journey south away from the blistering 50 deg celsius (120 degF?) heat toward hopefully cooler mountain weather (still a day or two away) continues.

Next up – a quick drive through the town of Baykonur, and views across the valley to the more famous Baykonur Cosmodrome. (This is a great link to a NY Times Article on the town and the Cosmodrome’s history!)

This nearly 7K square kilometer area is the site of the Russian manned space program, and where the Soviet’s space race & Yuri Gagarin’s famous launch as the world’s first human into space occurred in 1961.

Post the Soviet breakup / Kazakhstan’s independence, the Russians now have to lease this site and the town from Kazakhstan (scheduled til 2050). NASA is also now paying to use this site to launch our astronauts into space to the ISS, since our manned space program is no longer funded for US based launches.

For a NASA/space buff like me, getting a tour of this place would be an amazing life experience. Unfortunately, despite it’s near desolate remote location, I have read that they are INCREDIBLY hard to come by, are very expensive, and require months of advance preparation/paperwork / approval from the Russian Space Agency. So we settle for the views along the road of the satellite arrays and a drive through the part of the town that lies outside the gates. We considered trying Sarah’s, “But we’ve driven all this way in an American school bus. We’re from America. You have to see our bus, you have to let us in…” but decided this may not, in fact, work on these guards.

The part of town we can drive through is as dilapidated as so much of the rest of the countryside we have seen. However, like the rest of the Kaz people we have met in this part of the country, they are very friendly and wave enthusiastically back at us as we pass them.

August 3, 2013
by Chris 3 Comments

Hey…Immigration Man…

Tuesday July 30

So, despite mailing my passport off to the UK months ago for the 30 day Kazakhstan Visa, and being given the twice over at the border control, if you plan to stay in Kaz for longer than 5 days, you must ALSO find yourself an immigration officer, in country, to stamp the immigration card you are given at the border. Blow off being “registered”, and you are potentially subjecting yourself to huge fines, and/or imprisonment! (numerous rally stories are swirling around about this unfortunate reality.) So, one would think this would be an easy process, eh? Maybe even one they are used to performing for foreigners? Ah….more fun and games for Team Dixie Chickens!

The Marriott in Atyrau assured us this would be a piece of cake – except the local immigration office is closed on weekends. They would be happy to do it on Monday, if we chose to “extend” our reservations! As we headed off into the desert on Saturday afternoon, we figured we’d take another stab at it when we arrived in Aktobe.

After finally meeting with some REAL pavement on Monday morning, the bus tootled right along at speeds we hadn’t seen in days, and we very happily arrived in Aktobe around 3pm, (48 hours after leaving Atyrau – YIKES!)) Shortly after another of the “random” roadside police checks (which were non-existent while we were in the middle of nowhere for 2 days), we pass what we think is a police station, (later reflection has us thinking it was actually a jail). We try our best asking for help with the immigration cards, as we’re sure there is an office in town SOMEWHERE. We are excited when we’re told to follow a guy in his car who will help take us there. After 15 minutes, it is clear we’ve been escorted out of town, and we are heading south. DOH!!

2 hours down the road, we reach the next town and decide to try again. We drive into the town square, befriend someone with much better english who helps us find an “escort” to the police station (as this worked so well for us earlier) where we encounter more joy with the Kaz language barrier.

(their dad drove us to the police station, they loved the crayons!)

We are initially told NO, go away. Pietro, our fine hunky italian journalist, unleashes his best charms on the young cute official. Soon, 3 different police officers emerge, much scurrying back and forth behind closed doors, with Sarah’s passport in hand, and an hour later we are still told NO. Apparently, we need to go to the next town down the road. (Hmmm…a trend..?)

Supposedly, there is an Immigration office in Aralsk. Fortunately, this is in our direction of travel, however, it is quite a number of hours away and tomorrow will mark our Day 5 in-country! Thanks to the LOVELY road conditions we’d encountered over the weekend, the unfortunate reality sinks in that we, in fact, will not make it to Kyrgyzstan before the end of the day tomorrow. We’ll need to pull another all nighter on the road, to make up time for the previous road conditions, and arrive in Aralsk at the crack of dawn to deal with the inevitability of completing this “registration” process.

Arriving in Aralsk at “o dark 30”, we appease Sarah’s axe murderer worries and park the bus just outside of town for an hour or two till daybreak arrives. We head into town around 8am, in search of the now near “mythical” immigration man. We pass a police officer on our way, who hops right on into the bus and shows us the way. The office does not open til 10am, but as we’ve apparently crossed ANOTHER time zone sometime in the past day, (having a hard time keeping track now), this actually works in our favor.

Ahead of schedule, at 9:45am we are waved inside. We are asked to submit 2 copies of each of our passport photo page, visa, and immigration cards. Hmmm… well, a not so quick trip to the local copier next door – a small “window” conveniently carved out of the concrete wall that we pass our documents through … and 400 Tenge later (a meager US $2.50)… the 9 of us are back in business. Sarah, Tommy and I are seated back into the immigration office. The kid (MAYBE, 19/20 yrs old?) who is left in charge to watch us while the officer takes our passports to another room picks up an item from behind the desk and pointing at it, says “Souvenir”. Really? The KID is trying to milk us? Sarah forks over a page of stickers emblazoned with the South Carolina logo – the Palmetto Tree. I think the kid is even less impressed with this than the Dixie Chickens beer koozie we offered up to appease the border guard when we first entered Kazakhstan. The kid then asks about US dollars or Russian Rubles. We all deny having any foreign, non-Tenge, money.

Eventually our officer comes back and we each have to fill out yet another form. Tommy is told he looks just like Osama, then he looks at me and asks if I am Tommy’s mom – SERIOUSLY?! Will is asked if he’s Snowden! This gets more entertaining by the minute – at least the guy seems to have a sense of humor! We rotate through, 3 at a time, and eventually, and only because we think their lunch hour had arrived, our immigration cards are finally stamped and our hours of rigamarole are over, and we are legally on our way!

I read later that night on the Rally Facebook page that another team of 9 posted that they were in/out in 5 minutes with their quick stamp of approval..at the office in… Aktobe! AAAARGH!

July 30, 2013
by Chris Leave a comment

Atyrau to Aktobe

Sunday July 28 –

After arriving in Atyrau at the fabulous Marriott Renaissance friday evening around 10pm – showers were priority #1. Then a re-group at the hotel sports bar for beer and food (in that order). Thankfully, they had an outdoor patio to save us from the ear shattering music inside for the 3 people on the dance floor. The lure of the incredibly comfy beds with multiple pillows had Don exclaiming we would NOT be getting an early start! (YAYE!)

After sleeping in, and catching up on the internet, we headed off into the Kazakhstan desert for Aktobe around 3:30pm

First off, a road detour and a massive traffic jam trying to get out of town on a saturday afternoon. At least we were entertained by the truckers and cars honking and waving at us – including an iced tea truck and one of many “oreonachos” semi’s we would see across the desert . A quick stop for gas had the entire staff with sharpies in hand signing the bus and slapping on a new sticker.

The first 100km or so were paved before unceremoniously quickly devolving into bits of what once might have been some sort of “road” material now sandwiched between the craters and sinkholes. We essentially came to a screeching halt and began our 20km crawl. A quick note to the City of Chicago Dep’t of Transportation – I will NEVER mock you again!!

Getting to see ALL the fabulous sites Kazakhstan has to offer, Night #1 of desert camping began around 8:30pm, setting up camp on the side of the road, next to a local landfill. At least we were treated to a gorgeous sun setting in the distance. Noodles & pasta (courtesy of jet boil) and some jimmy bufffet music, were enjoyed under an a amazing star filled sky.

Today started at 8:30am on the road near MM 429

Yesterday we’d passed/met a frenchman who was bicycling from france to siberia. What an epic endeavor!. He is one of the happiest guys I’ve ever met – he was very much at peace – happy, smiling, waving, just trucking along on his bike, stopping to chat with whoever he meets on the road. Our morale was certainly set for the day when about an hour into our day today, we passed him – again – and had a hard time staying ahead of him!. Beaten by a bicyclist, how humiliating…. he just waved and grinned at us as we went by!

It was a very long day of trying to stay off the hideously cratered main road. We quickly got a clue watching the locals and the semi’s, that the “road” of choice was one of the numerous adjacent dirt roads. It is slightly faster, and smoother, and had us wishing that the bus had the massive tires and suspensions of the multitude of Kamaz trucks that passed us by, quickly disappearing off into the distance out of sight!

Taking photographs out the bus window has become a new art form. I’ve discovered that having even horizon lines are clearly overrated as the bus constantly dips and sways as it rambles along the washboards. I’m going to be quite busy with the “straightening” tool when I get home.

Sarah has renamed kazakhstan “godforsakenstahn”. It may be desolate here in western Kaz, but it is also beautiful in its own way. There are hawks, camels, goats, sheep, cattle, and the occasional herdsman checking on them. There are passenger and freight trains routinely rolling along the tracks that parallel our path. The Dust devils are magnificent to watch as they roll across the landscape, but of course there is a thick layer of dust/sand on EVERYTHING!

There is occasionally a river and some greenery and maybe a tree here or there, and small towns dot the landscape, one of which had a fairly modern petrol station out in the middle of nowhere, where we stocked up on diesel and water. Around 7pm, we were passed by another rally car – Team “Flying Lederhosen” – the car supposedly confiscated at the Ukrainian border! They had quite a story about that, which I will save for a later post

Average speed for the day = a blistering 20km/hour.
12 hours of driving took us from MM 429 to MM 610 – we are only about halfway to Aktobe. The 500 km days may be over, and night #2 of desert camping ensues.

	Leslie Kohler on Lotus Children’s Centre
	Lauren DeJesu on Lotus Children’s Centre
	Greta! on THE FINISH LINE
	Lauren DeJesu on THE FINISH LINE
	leslie kohler on THE FINISH LINE

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