Hello,
Next week we start our trip from Croatia to Kyrgyzstan. My wife got only a 5-day transit visa for Kazakhstan. We have to make it from Uralsk to Talas in 5 days. It means we have to cover 450-700 km a day. Any info about the streches we have to cover? Like road conditions, accommodation optionc etc.
In order to plan 'good' streches with a bigger distances and not to be over optimistic for 'difficult' ones. We follow the main route Uralsk, Aktobe, Aralsk, Baikonur, Turkistan, Shymkent, Taraz, Talas. Thank you in advance!

First question, what nationality are you and your wife? Many nationalities get 30 days at the border now.

Next, what is your transport , car or bike ?

In 2013 we did Shymkent to Ural in 4 days, camping 2 of them. This was on motorbikes.

So yes, you should be able to get to Taraz in that time. Where you stop is up to you. There are hotels in all those locations and kyzlordia.

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Hi BruceP!
I have Croatian and she has Bosnian citizenship. I'm fine but for her even invitation letter from Kazakhstan did not make a difference.
Other side, she is fine with Russia. No visa for 30 days each entry and I got 30-day 2 entrance visa. We had to shorten our plan for 2 weeks and skip Altay... Ah yes. We travel on a motorbike.
So can I conclude better not to book in advance and ride each day as we can do best and look for accommodation when we are done. There should be some place to stay in an hour ride along the way?

Currently riding that stretch north, we are doing it in short (300-350k) stages to get out of the heat by 1400.

Aral to Aktobe will be the longest stretch (will stop at the motel highlighted by some one else in the thread).

Between Kyzlorda and Shymkent there are a lot more motels than 4 years ago.


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Don't skip the Russian Altai !

As long as you can get off the road you can camp any where.

The main issue on the route is fuel between Aktobe and Aral. 425k from memory. There is a rumour of a new gas station half way. I'd be interested as I will be going that way in 2 weeks.

So plan to ride 500-600k each day.

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Yandex and maps.me show gas and hotels. Maps.me best as it works offline.

Have you considered crossing from Russia at Aktobe ?

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Hi Bruce,

we had to skip Altai for this 30-day visa limitation in Russia as I have to be in Kyrgyzstan August 13-21. Otherwise it would be decision either Kyrgyzstan or Altai. But the idea was to have two weeks more and do both. Then bureaucracy stepped in. Thanks for the Aktobe exit tip. If we would be short on time in leaving Kazakhstan, that would be the alternative plan. We will get Kazakh visa tomorrow. If it will be border crossing specific, maybe not possible to cross at other border crossings. We will see.

According to the waypoints shared here, there is 396 km between gas stations in Karabutak and Aralsk. I'll let you know if there is another gas station in between. If everything goes well we should be there on August 3.

Last year we have been able to buy some benzin from some shops on that road.
I actually saw a lot of work going on, including what looked like new gas stations, so I suppose they are ready now...

We are just going to fill up two 5l water containers. Max on 1 tank is about 300kms. I ran out on that stretch 4 years ago after using all my spare fuel. My dash Defo said 425k. But I think we failed to fuel up at the very last gas station after Aral :-)

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Can you send me the coordinates if the accommodation in the picture please? I can't see it marked on maps.me or Google. And it could be a handy stop off ( in Taraz now, swinging North tomorrow).

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There is fuel and a hotel in Qarabutaq.

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Hi Bruce!
Just read your post. Did not check the forum last few days. We are in Russia now and so far riding the whole day. I have downloaded poi list from the sticky post here (hu, waypoints northern asia).

motel noted. thanks. had to zoom in all the way to see it.

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You done the 5 day run yet ?

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Hi Bruce!
We did it without issues. Not the most fun section of our trip as we had to ride all day long. We even managed to cross the tricky section without using additional fuel containers. I had 3 liters in containers. Between refuels I had 403 kilometers and topped up exactly 12 liters. Honda NC700 took 3 liters for 100 km (cca 78 mpg). I had tempo of 90-100 km/h.
There are two new petrol stations that are still being constructed (one looks like complete but still no fuel) so it will be 300 km and when the second station becomes functional, less than 200 km between petrol stations. So this section will not be an issue anymore.
We stayed in Uralsk, Aktobe, Aralsk, Turkestan and Talas. Many places to have coffee (in fact, tea brakes along the way. The road is pretty straight, good and boring. On our way back we will try to change places so we will try to find accommodation in Shymkent, somewhere between Kyzylorda and Baikonur, then Karabutak and leave Kazakhstan after Aktobe (direction Orenburg).
The open street maps that I have on my Garmin worked perfectly except the border crossing Taraz-Talas. It took me to some old border crossing that is not in function anymore. We had to go back to Taraz and find a new route. Not a single sign to direct you to Kyrgyzstan or Talas so we had to ask local people few times. Besides that, all worked perfectly. Thanks HU for Asia waypoints. Very accuarate.
Where are you at the moment?