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Richard and Jude’s travels continued.. There are stories abound about this road. It has claimed many a tyre, wheel, vehicle and travel plan and more no doubt more. The 317km long desert road from Kungrad, near the Aral Sea, in western Uzbekistan to the Border with Kazakhstan certainly lived up to its reputation. The previous day we arrived in Kungrad from Khiva and checked into the hotel. We were early having left at 5am and arrived at 9:30, after filling up with fuel. The bike was out of the front of the hotel under a cover and insight of the hotel reception. After eating lunch out at a local restaurant and giving the bike a thorough check over - nuts, bolts, spokes, tyre pressures etc- we retired to our room. Shortly after the skies darkened, lightening lit up the room along with the sound of torrential rain and very high winds. Then there was a knock on the door. Come quick! Come quick! Your bike has been blown over! (Oh shit). I swiftly put my shoes on and dashed downstairs and out into the storm. It was howling. The rain was horizontal and debris from buildings was falling. Two locals had kindly already lifted the heavy bike back on its stand. I checked for damage and other than a few scratches to the crash bars and a broken strap holding the bike lock on everything looked OK. There must have been a hell of a gust to blow the 300+kg of bike over, the bike cover no doubt contributing. I moved the bike so it was facing into the wind getting a real soaking in the process. If you look at Google maps it estimates the time it should take to cover the 317kms is 9 hours and 50 minutes. That’s an average speed of around 32km/h. Alarm bells started to ring. There are lots of reports on this road and we had met a fellow biker in Khiva who had just been on the road a few days before: “Simply awful. Worst road of my trip” it had bent the forks on his motorbike. We had also heard of others who had punctures and other damages to their vehicles. In China we had met Mike and his friend Paul in their beautiful 1967 E-Type who had traveled this road a week or so before and they kindly gave us their report. (See below for further information on their amazing adventure) So in anticipation of a 9 hr ride in temps close to 40c we set off from Kungrad at 5:30am, the sun just coming up but the skies still dark with rain clouds. Lots of drinking water packed and food for a lunch stop as there are no services along the way. The road out of town was pretty good and I was just willing it to go on for as long as possible but knowing it would change. A few rain showers later and about 190km still to go the road suddenly deteriorated, as they often do in this part of the world. The surface roughened, pot holes appeared and it narrowed. Gradually the potholes became more frequent, wider and deeper, many were over 30cm deep with vertical edges. We weaved across the road avoiding as many as we could trying to maximise speed but avoid as many of the larger obstacles as we could. Sections of good road appeared to tease you into thinking it was all over only to be followed by a worse section of road. Eventually all the original tarmac surface of the road vanished leaving only the large sharp rocks of the road base covered with a fine lawyer of dirt which oncoming traffic and trucks lifted into the air blanketing the road making it sometimes impossible to see the road, other vehicles or the obstacles. The bike shook and Jude and I with it. The suspension and frame tested to its limit as it tried tirelessly to soak up the deep holes and endless rocks, stones and gravel. Trucks and cars littered the sides of the road fixing punctures or waiting for tow trucks. We saw one car whose offside wheel and suspension had come off completely! The road then narrowed to a single lane so we had to go off into the sand to avoid the oncoming traffic, which happened to be a wide load. We had to follow trucks which lifted more dirt into the air. The bike snaked about in the bull dust which billowed up and fill our lungs. 30kms to go! Now we were only averaging about 20-30kmh bouncing around up feeling every hole and rock. Relief was in sight with border post knowing that once the other side there was a new highway to our destination for the evening, a further 90kms away. We survived this challenging stretch of road. We cleared out of Uzbekistan, an easy and swift process, and were kindly chaperoned through the Kazakhstan immigration and customs by young officials quickly, politely and efficiently and then we were on our way, bones and muscles aching and lungs full of dust but the bike and us had survived. E-Type Roadtrip. Please do check out Mike and Paul’s amazing trip in the beautiful 1967 Etype from Malaysia to the UK. I have so much admiration for them given the roads they have travelled on. It’s a testament to Mikes skills in rebuilding the car and both their abilities to drive it and get this far in one piece. Click here…. E-Type Roadtrip #blackdogride #mentalhealthmotorbike
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