Beyneu to Aqshalaq
 

Good day you knowledgeable lot.
Could you please let me know if the track from Beyneu to Aqshalaq in Western Kazakhstan is doable. The Kazakhs refer to it as the road of death. Has a certain ring to it dont you think, lol. Soon as please:beerjug:
Henry

Aqshalaq? You mean near Kungrad? in Uzbekistan?

Yes its totally doable. Regular garden variety freight trucks use it all the time. You will see a queue of them near the border near Akjigit. The first 150 odd km from Beyneu is dirt, then it becomes asphalt for the next 250 km to Kungrad (Qonghirat). You can get 92 octane fuel no probalem at Beyneu. You will probably be able to top up with 80 octane at Akjigit, and then no more fuel until Kungrad.

But as I said above, dont be put off. The road is fine. Its only a road of death if you are a Kazakh in a 6 series BMW who considers death to be stone chips on your new car. If you look at OSM openstreetmap.org, you will see its a major trunk route.

Note, the road bed of the dirt / gravel section is a bit clayish, and can be hazardous when wet. I have known of a couple of accidents on big bikes soon after Beyneu - its the first section of real gravel roads you normally come across when heading out from Europe in that direction. If the dirt is wet and clayish, you may want to consider waiting in Beyneu till the road is dry. There has been a lot of rain in the region recently.

Road looks like this:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3653/...35eba228_o.jpg

As a bit of trivia, the road is part of Europe's longest road ... the E40 ... which begins in Calais and goes all the way to Ridder (Leninogorsk) in North Eastern Kazakhstan