July 22, 2014
All by myself: Don't wanna be ALL BY MYSELF!
I left Almaty all by myself again, and a little sad about that because I'd really enjoyed my time with Hera and Remco. But alone I was and so began a sustained period of long cycling days that would surely test my resolve and prove to be make or break for the whole journey. Because of having relatively short visas with fixed dates, and having a very limited number of border crossings that I was sure I could cycle across, I now had to cycle at least 4,200 kilometres in the next 40 days across Kazakhstan and Siberia. It was a bit like the Desert Dash Challenge again, and we all remember what tremendous light work I made of that. Yes, a bit like the Desert Dash Challenge, but eight times as long. And as if eight Desert Dash Challenges wasn't enough, I would immediately then have to cycle across Mongolia in 30 days, where I'd heard the roads would be terrible. I had no idea if that was even possible. But if I did manage it, then I'd immediately have to try and cycle across China in no more than 60 days without time to draw breath in between. And have you seen the size of China by the way?
Thinking about all that made my head hurt, so I decided I'd better just concentrate on Kazkahstan first, and set about trying to cross the 1,200 kilometes of steppe in 10 days. So I began aiming for... hang on... wait a minute... carry the three... 120 kilometres per day. I didn't leave the hostel until midday though, so I aimed for 80 on the first day. That was the day I witnessed my first real accident on the roads. I was cycling along minding my own business on the shoulder of a dual carriageway when I heard a massive squealing of brakes and looked up just in time to see a Land Rover slam into the back of a van. Presumably the van had just pulled out into the fast lane in front of the speeding Land Rover. That vehicle had come to a halt in the fast lane, whilst the van pulled over on the shoulder further up. The owner, a short and slight young man in a white vest, got out with a sheepish look and started to walk back towards the Land Rover. Then the owner of the Land Rover got out. He was an absolute bear of a man, he looked like an ogre, he was a beast. I swear I saw the little van driver recoil and almost consider running back to his van. The bear-man walked around to the front of his vehicle and appeared as if he was trying to rub a dent out. It was an ambitious task, given that the whole of the front was caved in, but I think if anyone could do it, it was him. The young chap had, with nuts of tungsten, continued his walk over to the bear and I saw him reach out to shake his hand. 'A good place to start' I thought. I kept watching for a moment as I thought it might be quite entertaining to watch a grown man be buried up to his neck in sand, but the bear seemed amicable enough, and disappointingly no violence ensued. As I moved on the two of them were still deep in conversation and, whilst I didn't catch much of it, I think I could guess one side of it involved the words "I'm sorry. I'm really, really, really sorry!"
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The next day I met three motorcyclists. They were two guys, one from Turkey and one from Israel, and a woman, from California. They had all started their trips separately but had joined forces along the way. We talked for a little while as they were all very nice, and I explained that I had to be crossing into Russia via the northern city of Semey in a little over a week. I felt terrible to be rushing through Kazakhstan so quickly and not giving it the attention it probably deserved. As it turned out the three motorcyclists were also all going that way (not that surprising as it was practically the only road) and they said to me "Oh, we'll be in Russia tomorrow." I didn't feel so bad after that.
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22/07/14 - 81km
23/07/14 - 119km
24/07/14 - 127km
Today's ride: 327 km (203 miles)
Total: 22,907 km (14,225 miles)
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