Aral Kazakhstan
P51:We stayed in a hotel in Aqtobe, really run down, but the city was ok, we ate in a nice turkish restaurant. As we had been up for 48 hours we decided to head back for some sleep… Only to realise there was an outside function until 12.30, so i went out for a beer with some guys who were riding motorbikes to china. We slept well afterwards regardless of noise. Next day we ate the crap breakfast and set off, we hit some nice smooth roads until suddenly whilst doing 80 I hit really rough road and almost launched off the ground. From that we hit about 100kms of off road pot holes the size of the car, it took ages and the truck took a beating but survived. We came across another team who got their ambulance stuck, we camped up and they gave us some nice spaghetti and a chat out in the desert. We pitched up the tent and got our heads down. About 5am a truck pull up outside our tent, we kept still as they were looking over our vehicle tapping our gerry cans, luckily we had already used the fuel in the cans. When they left we found they had started cutting the staps to the cans but they realised they were empty and left. At 5.30 am we left to make tracks and moved to aral where the roads got better and our spirits picked up. We had a look around aral and then decided to get to the next city, on the way out I got pulled for not having headlights on, we were sure a fine was on the cards, but then as usual the words chelsea got some laughs and we were all then laughing and shaking hands in the police station, we even had the cop doing kangaroo gestures, dan could not believe I talked myself out of it. We got pulled again 240km’s away and got asked by the rozzers for a souvenier, I gave the bloke some tetley tea and the gold teeth smile and lots of handshakes again. We are now in a run down hotel and just had a nice meal as I have eaten bugger all all day. Tommorow we are heading as quickly as poss to almaty. The truck is going well, scuff plates are dented but still loyal as ever. In total 8 pull overs, 0 fines, 1 souvenier, 1 tip for a police escort, need more pants too.
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