Yes, we’d been warned the roads in Northern Kazakhstan were bad but nothing could have prepared us. Pot holes were more like meteorite craters and impossible to avoid without going off into the fields. With a sleep deprived Jimmy at the wheel, running only on a boiled egg,  we headed for Semey, our final stop [...]

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Monday, August 12th.
We had arrived Sunday afternoon and after exploring less expensive hotels settled on the Kazhol, which was just fine. It was a good to chalk off another border but sad to be there as we lost Charles who had to return to London, as planned, to pursue academics.
 We had planned to stay a [...]

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Original plans to visit lake Issy Kol in northern Krygyztan have been abandoned after it was discovered that the Russian-Mongolian border closes on the weekends. Where they go is anyone’s guess. Now, however, the intrepid few must dash the length of Kazakhstan to arrive at the border by close of business hours this Friday.

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Kazakh border, originally uploaded by desertaxi.
Team Desertaxi arriving at the border…

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Kyrgyz Mountains, originally uploaded by desertaxi.

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Yurts, Kyrgyzstan, originally uploaded by desertaxi.

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Swimming in Lake Toktogul, Kyrgyzstan, originally uploaded by desertaxi.

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We spent most of the 7th sightseeing in Samarkand the beautiful but unfortunately also the beleaguered. Beleaguered by tourists in sensible shoes and 3/4 length trousers, we took the decision to move on to the Kyrgyz border via Tashkent and Andijan. We were reliably informed that Tashkent had little to offer the casual visitor and [...]

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Max and Ed in recently acquired Soviet fighter pilot hats, originally uploaded by desertaxi.

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Ed has called in to report a good and interesting rest day in Bukhara with locals full of the explosions that happened on 10 July (www.wikio.com/video/314149) .  The official report is apparently economical with the truth. (search on ‘explosion bukhara’ and see the local blogs).  They have now moved to Samarqand and are in a hotel [...]

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Bukhara from the Minaret of death, originally uploaded by desertaxi.

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We know them first hand. But here’s how we got to that. The taxi does not like 50C temperatures (that would be 135 degrees) in the Karokum Desert -and neither do we, so we decided to drive across our second desert at night.  That would be a 646 kilometer journey which was supposed to take [...]

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Walker behind the wheel, originally uploaded by desertaxi.

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The long wait for the sun to rise and the border to open was whiled away exchanging cups of Earl Grey for our first of many cups of Iranian brew with the locals. Once the chief of border control had had his cup of tea the gates slowly trundled open, and so with hasty goodbyes [...]

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It seemed like an ordinary border crossing  when the Iranian Customs official holding our Carnet de Passage, that lists all our vehicle numbers, came out to inspect our Taxi. After all we were not worried, we had  crossed twenty two borders without a problem. We opened the bonnet, he knelt down and said "The chassis [...]

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The boys have been swimming in the Caspain Sea and will spend tonight in Quchan 100km south of Turkmenistan where Jimmy awaits.  Jimmy awaits with a surprise. Apparently his visa is a tourist visa not a transit visa.  He has been told he has to have an official escort.  How will the boys react?

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