Routes north of the Caspian Sea?
 

Trying to construct a ´general route map´ of the most commonly used overland-routes in Asia. This will be for an article on a magazine. The southern route from Turkey to India I´ve done myself, and most other options do seem pretty clear... but it seems I´ve now hit a "blank spot" regarding routes from, say, Moscow to Tashkent (Uzbekistan) or Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan).

Google maps, and my Silk Road paper map, both indicate, that from Volgograd (RUS) to Beyney (KAZ) to Nukus (UZB), especially that last part is a very small road on the southwest side of the Aral sea... any idea, if it´s do-able at all? And in any case it probably does not qualify as a ´major´ overland route, am I right?

Then from Samara (RUS) to Aktobe, Baikonur and Kyzyl-Orda (KAZ), the road, at least on the map, looks like a bigger one... any info about this route?

...Or there is some other main route, that I am completely missing (my aim is not to include every possible route, just the "main" ones)? Any info highly appreciated!

Dont have anything to add yet but would lvoe to see the artilce when you're done though.

Didn't the LWR boys go Astrakhan to Atyrau and on down to Shymkent? Don't know the exact route.

I took this route from UZB to RUS last summer. Straight, 2 lanes, lumpy, somewhat broken/potholed pavement on the Uzbek side- pretty easy riding- though hot,flat and lonely and not much chance for gas or water. On the Kazakh side it is dirt/gravel, somewhat loose and deep in spots. Lots of trucks on this road making for dusty riding, poor visibility and dangerous passing.

http://i831.photobucket.com/albums/z...eyneuKZ001.jpg



http://i831.photobucket.com/albums/z...eyneuKZ006.jpg

From Beyneu to Aterau, Astrakhan and then to Rostov na Donu all paved.


................shu

It´ll be in finnish language I´m afraid! ...But I can put the map(s) into my site, once they´re ready, and post a link, so then we can all laugh at my ignorance on the whole subject :rofl:

And thanks Shu, that´s already very helpful!

ok, here comes something (but I´ve never posted pics here before, so hoping this will work out... and these are just screenshots of a version, that is not the final one yet!)

Routes inside China are marked as red, and I´ll need to include a few words about the requirements & costs. In fact I havent heard of a single biker, who had done the entire China from Kazakhstan to Laos, but right now there´s a bus going from Finland to Bangkok and they´re doing that route, will be interesting to see!

Should probably include the ferry to Egypt, as well as land route from Libya to Egypt, when I´ve got the time. Someone said that north side of the Black Sea to Sochi might also be one to mention.

I actually do not know exactly, how you can go overland through the Caucasus, so I´ll need to do some more research on that. But the Sochi-Trabzon ferry should be a usable ´plan B´ for that.

Note that I´ve started with a Mercator projection map, but here I´ve made the latitudes so that they are always evenly spaced (gives you a better idea of real distances north-south, when you´re a long way from the Equator). Longitudes have been left untouched.

Also thinking my scale might be a bit off, that 1000kms actually looks a bit long. Well, I´ve still got about 2 weeks to finalise this before it´ll be printed.

I´d like to include some kind of ´elevation map´ into that solid green, but that´s going to need a lot of work, don´t know if I can do it. Plus if I´m not careful, it might just make it harder to read. Think I´ll also play a bit more with the texts, to make them more clear.

Routes in Southeast Asia are not included here.

And especially the freighting routes are just plain examples.

Oh, and "Matkateema" means "travel theme".... and "Pietari" is Finnish for St.Petersburg! And here Warsaw is just cut out of the left border.
Any comments and/or fixes will be welcome!

(oh, if possible, could this thread´s title be changed to ´Asia overland route maps´, as these now include a bit wider region than the Caspian Sea..?)


http://i1235.photobucket.com/albums/...4_1024px_A.jpg

http://i1235.photobucket.com/albums/...4_1024px_B.jpg

I am not sure 100%, but I hear its close border from Tashkent to Bishkek. I will go this way on the summer (Astrahan- Aterau - Beyneu - Samarkand - Pamir Highway........). I hope its mistake news!?

Bravo
 

What a fantastic set of maps to help us who are planning to see the options. Thanks for taking the time to do this

Looks about right. One key variation I would add is the route from Baku To Beyneu, via ferry and Aktau (shevchenko on old maps). This is increasingly popular and important as Turkmenstan visas get harder to obtain and as the Turkmenbashi ferry gets more and more expensive and less and less reliable

Also there are no flights from magadan to alaska. The only way people are gettiing out of magadan these days is by taking a ship to Vladivostok.

A couple more suggestions
 

... in blue ... Take them or leave them as you see fit for your purposes:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5216/...24f6154d_o.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5019/...f2648c0b_o.jpg

I thought the option of air freight from Magadan could be outdated, thanks for clearing that up (and for the other great info, too!!)

And thanks for your compliments Navalarchitect - I´m very glad, if these can be helpful! But remember, I haven´t done so many of these routes myself, so there could be some mistakes.... and drawn here are just rough guidelines, nothing more. Also political and security situations are an ever-changing process.

WOW, this is really a great job!

Congratulations!

Excellent work - this is a good job. I'll be in touch by PM to talk about a project I'm working on at the moment and perhaps we can collaborate.

We rode last in Kazakhstan road from Quandyaghash (city south of Aktobe road to Aktone is as good as it is in that part of Kazakstan which means lot of deep holes) to Shalqar and then to Yrghyz and there to Aral -> Baikonur -> Qyzylorda

Almost whole road going north from Aral was under big road construction work so i belive that it will be good road this year. I hope to hear if someone rides it how it is. Last summer major route went on the side of contruction site and was everything between soft sand to small rocks. After Aral road to Baikonur was reasonable ok with tarmac and occasional holes.

SamiV