The Kazahk Steppe to Oral

We woke up after camping at about 7 a couple of the convoy teams were heading south so they left early on. The rest of us choose to head the Northern route, aided with some local knowledge from an older man who's stopped to say hi, and happened to have cycled the routes previously, told us the good and bad routes. His advice was mostly spot on, there are always going to be some holes to avoid, but on the whole not to bad.

We headed through the countryside to Oral, after a couple of police pulled us over to say hi, we were making good time.

I earnt the nickname Perry "the birdkiller" Philipp, after a flock of birds took flight just as we drove past and unfortunately took a couple of them out. Obviously not my finest driving moment.

We got to Oral, and with the aid of a Kazakhstan guide book we found a hotel to stay in. It was fine to sleep and have a shower in, as it happens the enterprising owners were still constructing the building and let out the rooms on the half completed floors, this worked out fine for us, and pretty cheap after some negotiation, at about £20 for a triple room.

We then set off to find some food, a restuarant down the road called "Camelot" managed to sort us out, and after a few beers, and some interesting navigating on the menus we managed to get some pretty good food.

We then went back to the hotel, got our stuff together, then headed out to a club down the road where a couple of other teams were hanging out, by this time it was about 11pm, whilst at the bar having some beer, a larger than life local man came and introduced himself in pretty decent English. Turns out a German housemate of his had tough him years back, he was a regular at the club, so much so that he got complimentary cigarettes when he bought a round. We later found out that he went there every single night, and was on his 8th wife so far, he even described himself as a Kazakh Abranovitich. This lead to us all chatting then he insisted in buying a round, and another round, and another! The beers were then followed by Absinthe, luckily knowing what it's like, I avoided it, but those who had it definately regretted it the next day. The barman was a very skilled man with absinthe, he put about 2 shots into a brandy glass rolled it around the glass then lit it, the blue flames rose about a foot out of the glass, then the remaining liquid is chucked in a spare glass, you drink that, as the barman fans the smoke with a beer mat, he places the brandy glass full of smoke upside down on the bar, so after the shots you used a straw to suck up the smoke. Judging by the guys who did this, it definately helped them forget what happened that night. Around 12pm the club picked up as it filled up, and with all the tunes from home we danced the morning away.