Some may even say a cold day, as the maximum for the day has been 12C. We awoke to it raining on our rest day so I decided to put off the few small jobs I had to do on Penny till later in the day hoping it would fine up.

I spent my morning catching up on some emails with the fastest Internet since Bangkok I think. At lunch a few of us ventured out to change some money ready for tomorrows entry into Russia and find the Irish bar for lunch with the dream that it would be a great venue like the one in Dushanbe a week or so back. After finding the Irish pub the beer drinkers were very disappointed with a Irish Pub and NO Guinness, just local brews. I was happy with the water being served. We all had lunch which was average and filled a hole.

After the failed lunch the rain had eased of a lot so we walked of towards home with some stopping at other establishments to try the local ales. My walk home took me through the Main Square, which had Yurts set up, and people in their national dress.

The weather eventually cleared enough for me to check the fluids in Penny, but not enough for me to get motivated to fix the flat from the big border drive day. I guess if we get a flat tomorrow I will have to fix it on the side of the road then.

The talk around town is the Vladimir Putin is coming to town this evening for a day of talks with the Kazakhstan President tomorrow. Our plan is to have an early breakfast and get out of town before the roads are closed and we end up trapped her for longer then we really desire.

Today was crazy because of what we all decided to do not what happen at the border crossing.

We all arose yesterday at 5.30 ready for the early breakfast at the dig site, then into town to meet the guide that was too escort us to our border camp site for the night ready to do the crossing into Kazakhstan early the next day.

We were a few minute late for our meeting after we worked out that we were waiting at the wrong roundabout of the 2 roundabouts in town plus we had our third flat tyre for the trip on the way to the correct roundabout. Eventually we got on the way for the 600k trip to the border.

On the way up to Nukes we went over a small line of hills before we crossed the Amudrayo River in town for the last time before it makes it way to towards the Aral Sea. We had crossed the Amudrayo the previous day on the trip to Kiva which was 200k further upstream and I was amazing how little water was left in the river after it was all used for irrigation further upstream. We have travel with the Amudrayo since the Afghan border days were it was called the Panj River and far bigger then down this end due to the water usage for farming.

After Nukus and leaving the irrigated farming valley we entered a flat desert for the last 400k to the border. Halfway along we stopped and some people toped up with black market fuel were the price has nearly doubled in the last 300k as we go even more remote. While I’m talking about black market fuel I’m fairly sure that it is not all petrol and that it is mixed with other cheaper hydro carbons like paint thinner and the like. I’m very glad we didn’t need to use that fuel for the climbing of 4500 metre mountain passes, we would not have made it.

On the approach to the border it was very cold and incredibly windy so we decide not to camp in the exposed desert and to go through the Uzbek side and camp in no mans land between the borders. We knew that our Kazakh visa didn’t start till the next day.

Departing Uzbekistan was slight less trouble then the entry but the customs still have a fascination with prescription drugs that we all carry. I decided to be on the end of the queue this time, which seems to pay off, by the last car the boredom has crept in and I was not searched at all.

On getting through the Uzbek border we came upon Reg and Mitchell who had left us early the previous day hoping to get into Kazakhstan early. They had been waiting in no mans land for 30 hours at that stage and said that we would be able to enter after midnight.

We settled down to wait and all cooked dinners, which were shared by all. While dinner was cooking we all put more and more clothes on as the temperature dropped towards zero with quite a wind chill.

After getting some sleep in the cars till about 11.30 we where all ushered into the border area at midnight to start that process. It turned out to be very painless exercise with everyone in Kazakhstan by 1.30am.

Reg and Mitchel headed off on the 520k drive to Atyrau for our next 2 nights lay over. Three of the cars decided to camp just down the road till the morning. I decide that I would drive as far as I could then sleep in the car for a bit then drive and sleep till I got to the hotel. We were dressed for the outside temperate and it was actually warmer when we stopped then driving, so sleeping was no problem in an open car. After a couple of sleeps and a morning cuppa we arrived in town at 9.30am to find our room ready so it was a shower, breakfast then into bed to catch a few more Zeds for the day.

The road after the border was 80k of roughish dirt road till we turned onto the main road to Atyrau. This was 450k of the best pavement for the trip I think. The rough bit wasn’t too bad, as it had no broken pavement or rocks so it was just wavy and not sharp jarring bumps no a far speed could be maintained.

The others have just arrived as I’m finishing writing this post.

We departed Bukhara for the drive up to the Dig Site just out of Beruni

The drive started out of a less then average road that was failly rough, as we progressed up the road we started to travel through road works. Then in the middle of nowhere we come upon to the best 4 lane concrete highway for the trip in the middle of the desert. This lasted fro 150 kilometres and then ended as abruptly as it started. It was a great relief for both the cars and the drivers.

On our arrival in Beruni the search for fuel began. In this part of Uzbekistan you can’t buy Petrol from a service station for some Governmental reasoning as most of the cars are on CNG. We asked a person on the street that then lead us to a house in the back of town to buy Black market fuel for a 20% premium. Never mind at least we had the fuel and it was still a lot cheaper then we will be paying when we reach Europe.

On arrival at the dig site we visited the site with Alison Betts the Archaeologist from Sydney Uni running the research project. These places are always so interesting when you are with some one who fully understands what everything is and has a true passion for the work. The site was occupied from about 300 B.C. to 200 A.D. the interesting thing is that when the digging is all finished the site is then recovered with sand to keep persevering it.

At dinner Reg and Mitchel announced that there would not be staying the two nights here and would be leaving for the border in the morning to cross into

Kazakhstan early and would wait in Atyrau for us to arrive on Sunday night.

The rest day at the dig site included a day trip to the Town of Kiva about 80 kilometres away. Kiva is on of the three very historic cites in Uzbekistan along with Samarkand and Bukhara for the ancient history of the country. Al of those that went had an enjoyable quite day in the Old Walled Town. The journey home include a top-up of fuel ready for the 600k trip too our camp site on the border   tomorrow

.

We left Samarkand for an easy 280k drive to Bukhara were we had a city tour arranged for the afternoon.

The drive today was through farming land for almost the entire trip so we had cotton harvesting everywhere and plenty of roadside grape and melon stalls. It is 4years since I drove through this road on the 2010 P to P but I have noticed that the quality of the farming has improved greatly especially with the cotton.

The highlight of the drive for a couple of tech heads was the fact that we drove past 2 planes in pieces packed on trucks going some where to be put together I guess.

On our arrival in Bukhara we spent 540,000 local Som on filling with fuel. This sounds a lot but in reality it was only $180.00 for 165 litres so cheap in fact. The attendant’s are always surprised at the amount of fuel we purchase each time; luckily we only do it every 2 or 3 days.

After lunch we departed on the city tour with our local guide to visit the important cultural and historic sites of Bukhara. I enjoyed the tour today a lot more then in Samarkand as yesterday I was too tired to understand and follow what was being said.

We started at a Mausoleum that was constructed in the late 9^th and early 10 century. And at one stage had been buried in sand to stop it being destroyed by raiders. The tour went on to various sites dating from all different times from the 4^th century mostly being Mosques and Madrasas. Then we ended the trip walking home through the Bazar and looking at some silk rugs being woven and mountains of them for sale.

It must be weeding season in Uzbekistan, as everyday there is wedding parties in the parks. Yesterday we saw 5 wedding parties in the one park and I saw on today in Bukhara while I had my Camera.

I let the photos talk about the day before we head of further west and north to an Archaeological dig site that Frank worked on a few years back.