I’ll admit getting turned back at the Turkish border on Tuesday was a blow. Frankly, it was the first time I felt anything but exuberant about this trip. So on Wednesday (15 April) we rode into Batumi on just the R1200 GS – Paul on the controls, me taking the back seat. They say some…

Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa: I plead guilty to briefly thinking as we were coasting along the motorway through Georgia yesterday “maybe this trip is getting a little bit too easy” – think again! Remember I described border crossings as a great opportunity to revisit the Kafkaesque horrors of bureaucratic authoritarianism? +: Enjoyed our stay…

We had set our alarms to 2:30am, expecting to load our motorcycles onto the ferry after 3:00am. At 1:00am a young gentleman came knocking on our door, alerting us to the fact that we should urgently get down to the dock. By 2:00am the bikes were loaded, and we caught a few more hours of…

1 Korday 30 2 Shymkent 505 3 Kyzylorda 460 4 Aral 460 5 Aktobe 620 6 Kulsary 645 7 Quryq 680 3400

After the stress of the first truly exhausting day, we decided to set a moderate goal for the next stage: stopping for lunch in Turkistan – Kazakhstan’s main site on the ancient Silk Road, newly re-enacted. I should emphasise that I really like this country and its people before pointing out that it seems to…