Kazakhstan (Help!) and Diesel
 

Hi there,

This summer ( late July/August) as part of an overland trip to Ulaanbataar and back we're () travelling through kazakhstan... everything has been planned wonderfully up until Astrakhan, and now I could do with all the help I can get! The plan is to enter there head to Atyrau before descending onto the Ustyurt plateau and moving to Aralsk.From there ( and I know it's a bit of a jump and a bit vague!) but will be headed diagonally north through Astana and cross into Russia at Pavlodar...

Aside from any help with the route my main questions are; particularly for the first bit, how far apart are petrol stations where we can find diesel?

and secondly, the trip lasts 11 weeks, hoping to blast to Astrakhan in 2 weeks, bearing in mind are headed to UB via lake baikal and back ( through all the stans ) how long should we aim to spend in KZ? Can we afford to dip into places such as Aralsk or should we motor straight through?

Obviously we are not just moving for the sake of getting somewhere and so as much as we can time will be set aside for the experience. I do absolutely adore the planning, but after spending a couple of days looking at a lovely michelin 730 of Austria I hope you understand if I feel a bit lost when it comes to the stans!



Thanks in advance

ask him
 

Welcome to Grom's homepage
the guy's rode Usturt this summer Kazakhstan

I travelled through in 07. We planned a southern route to Almaty but were persuaded to to go more north and central because on the state of the roads... what roads (maybe they have built them now) and possible bandits to the south.
Astrakhan-Atyrau-Aqtobe-Qostanay-Astana-Qaraghandy-Saryshaghan-Almaty-Jarkent was our route.
Fuel was never a problem on bikes with a 380km range.

Go south if you want scenery. North and middle is the Steppe... not much to see but flatlands... Almaty, Charyn Canyon and then swing up past Balkhash

John

Thank you all very much for the swift replies!
After a bit more research I have decided to head atyrau- quandyagash- aralsk-dzezkazgan- kurgalzhino park- astana- karaganda- pavlodar

My main question is, what could be considered a reasonable mileage per day on such roads.... is 150 miles too much?

Also when it there is a dotted line meaning 'track'..... I know they must be pretty awful, but is it worth avoiding them?

We managed at least 300kms per day and sometimes 600. Thats on motorcycles.

The line on the map has nothing to do with the road. Sometimes they are good. Most times they are bad. Lots of times we travelled in the sand beside the road, the road was so bad.
Lots of roads are being rebuilt, but they grind up the old road to make it into harcore for the next layer so you cant drive on it.
Its a big country so it will take a while to sort all the roads out.

This is/was a "thin line" road...:eek3:

John

Is this route safe to travel on in a 2WD Mercedes Wagon, I'll be going in June or July? I really don't fancy having to take that Mercedes offroad as it will get stuck and it's not really got any power to get itself out of any trouble due to its diesel non-turbo engine.

Don't suppose you know roughly how many miles your route through Kazakhstan is?

Provided everything goes to plan on the way out we intend to enter at Astrakhan on the 18th July, the route itself is approximately 3400 km averaging about 260 km/day

It goes something like- Astrakhan-Atyrau-Qandygash-Shalqar-Aralsk-Qoskol-Dzezkazgan-Barshin-Korgalzhin-astana-karaganda-Karkaraly-Pavlodar- Kulunda

Bearing in mind the 4wd aspect I am, and please correct me if I'm wrong, th feasible over 13 days with a contingency day for Border crossings....

As a matter of curiosity, is it possible to travel from Atyrau-Qandygash ( or even further ) in one day??

There are a number of mad people that have been doing charity runs from the UK to Mongolia via all of the Stans in everything from Micras and 2CV's, even little Bedford Rascal trucks. All of which have been very loaded with kit.

With good mud and snow tyres fitted I wouldn't worry too much about the untarmac'd sections, it's more about technique really. You'd be amazed where a 2wd can go.
Have a look at this video of production car trials, only standard road pattern tyres allowed - YouTube - Exmoor Trial 2008, Floyds Bank

First Time, I did essentially the route you are planning in reverse 6 months ago, excepting I decided against going all the way down to Uralsk as the roads were getting bad and I snapped the subframe on my bike (I had it welded up in Oral).

Petrol stops are easy, you will travel no more than 100kms between service stations. I don't know about diesel but I did have a problem getting higher octane fuels especially around Atyrau and Oral. Only 70 octane was available but my bike didn't mind the lower octane at all, excepting my fuel consumption increased by 10% which was more than offset by the 15-20% lower fuel price.

I found I could easily average riding 450-500km per day and I am sure it will be even easier in a 4 wheel vehicle.

Atyrau-Qandygash is definitely doable as a one day drive but the road from Atyrau to Aktyubinsk is probably the worst in all of Kazakhstan and you will find it a lot easier to go via Oral.

One suggestion, instead of heading into Russia at Pavlodar, continue on to Semy - it's definitely worth a visit.

Garry from Oz.

On our return from UB we will be entering at Semey and so get the best of both worlds!

As we are currently trying to shave days off the itinerary, we have 8 days + a border crossing/contingency day to get from Pavlodar to Ulaanbaatar via Barnaul-Novosibirksk -Irkutsk and Ulan Ude. I'm hoping we can really take a few off here, does anyone have any suggestions as to how long it should take? Obviously we don't want to be doing 15 hour days for all of this section but are prepared get it out of the way pretty quickly.

is this route the best option, ie stick to the 'main' roads or should we try and cut across if possible.....

HI I am in Kazakhstan at the moment in ulalsk I will be heading down to Uzbekistan next week sometime. the tajikistan, kyrgyzstan and back up to mongolia. If you are in the area then give me a bell and we can drive together. Ps i am in a defender, the roads are ok but bumpy so strap everything down :) 55-60 mph is good going on any roads here.

Hi There, we will be there in about 3 weeks, so probably you're not in that area anymore then.

We will be there with a 2wd Mercedes wagon like James Rothwell :)

What about Kyrgyzstan, ain't that a problem now because of the etnical conflicts?

Where did you arrange your Uzbekistan visum?

Jurgen