Another day of remote Kazakhstan
We'd only made it about half-way to our planned destination yesterday. Camping was great, nestling the tents in a small, dry creek bed miles from another human. We were back on the "road" by 8:30am, and stopped for lunch in a cafeteria in Kandygash, Kazakhstan. The locals really love the motorbikes, and Randy and Kenny are nearly always an instant hit with the older ladies and children.
We blazed south a few hours longer. More gravel and dirt roads. There were a handful of stretches with where large, jagged, and dusty white travel stones paved the way for large trucks shuttling loads of rock from quarries. While still focusing on keeping the bike upright and still at a good clip, the mind can't help but dread slashing a tire on these roads. Though equipped with enough for small repairs, there's NOTHING out here to replace a tire.
We rolled into Shalkar an hour before dusk and stocked up on groceries for dinner, most restaurants were closed for the weekend. The bikes draw a ton of attention, so we continued another 10 miles outside of town before pulling down a barely noticeable path and riding another half mile to get nearly out of sight of the main road. While it was the main road into Shalkar, we didn't hear or see a single vehicle moving after 8pm.
It took a while to find a good spot to land the tent, as there was a Kazakhstani grasshopper convention that night. The next morning I'd have to shake them off the exterior of the tent.
