Russia
Entry/Exit Dates: Eastbound 30/04/2002-15/06/2002 (Vyborg to Kyachta)
Entry/Exit Dates: Westbound 30/08/2002-21/09/2002 (Kyachta to Karagay)
Route Eastbound: From Finland - Vyborg,
St. Petersburg, Novgorod, Tver, Moscow, Suzdal, Vladmir, Dzerinsk, Niznij
Novgorod, Ceboksary, Kazan, Ufa, Celjabinsk, Kurgan, Tjumen,
Omsk, Novosibirsk,
Kemerovo, Acinsk, Krasnojarsk, Kansk, Tajset, Nizneudinsk, Tulun, Zima,
Ceremechovo, Angarsk, Irkutsk, Sljudjanka, Bajkask, Tanjoj, Babuskin,
Kamensk, Ulan-Ude, Basinoozersk, Selenduma and Kyachta, we crossed the
border here and went into Mongolia.
Route Westbound: From Mongolia - Kyachta, Ulan-Ude, We then travelled up to Lake Baikal and along the east coast to Turuntaevo, Gremjacinsk, Turka and as far as Ust-Barguzin. We returned several days later to Irkutsk. From here we went east as far back as Novosibirsk. We headed south via Berdsk, Iskitim, Barnaul, Bijsk, Gorno Altaisk, Karazan village to Kazachstan border.
Mongolia
Entry/Exit Dates: 15/06/2002-30/08/2002
Route: Sukhbaatar, Darkhan, from here we did a side trip into the Amarbayasgalant Hiid (monastery), we returned to Darkhan and travelled south to Ulan Baatar. Our next trip was to head west via Bulgan to Moron and to the Hovsgol Nuur (lake) but due to serious vehicle problems we never reached Moron. We returned to Ulan Baatar in principle using the same route but headed north at Bulgan and travelled via Erdenet. We stayed in the capital city now for a while and attended the very famous 'Naadam Festival'. When these festivities were complete we headed south into the Gobi Desert. We passed down into Mandalgovi and continued down as far as Dalandzadgad. We visited Yvol Am. We continued on to the Khongorn Els sand dunes and went on to visit the beautiful Bayanzag rock formations. We headed north across the desert to Arwaikheer. We replenished our supplies here after almost three weeks in the 'Gobi Desert'. We kept to our northerly direction and went as far as the Ogiy Nuur (lake) and stayed for a couple of days after visiting the ancient site of Khara-Korum. We returned to Ulan Baatar again. Before we left the country we made a side trip to the Hustai National Park to have a look at the Preswalski horses. We travelled north for part of the route in parallel to the main road back as far as Sukhbaatar where we returned to Russia.
Kazachstan
Entry/Exit Dates: 23/09/2002-25/10/2002
Route: Across an old local track between Russia and Kazachstan over a mountain that was for the most part wet, foggy and the track was slippery mud interlaced with logs to give grip. It suffered greatly from the lack of maintainence so we had to improvise to avoid the gaping holes by using our PSPs (perforated steel plates). During the first two days (climbing up the mountainside), for every kilometre gained we travelled back about a quarter. It took us three days to travel the 120km to reach Leninagorsk. Continiung on our journey in Kazachstan, our route took us through Ust'-Kamenogorsk, Carsk, Zarma, Ajaguz, Aktogaj, Mataj, Taldy-Kurgan, Kirovsij, Sayozek, Kapogaj and Almaty, the capital city and it turned out to be a huge city. While in Almaty, we spent some time planning our route and acquiring a few visas for our onward journey. When we left Almaty, we travelled onto to Talgar, Esk, Turgan, Malovodno, Drushba, ..... where Jan re-visted a canyon that he had camped back in 1995. Part of the river side had been eroded away since he last visited the spot.
From here we continued on eastwards passing through the towns and villages of Ulisk, Basent, Kokpek, Zalanas, Chunzda to visit and experience a typical local banya (sauna). The water was from a local spring and as you got into and out of the water it felt and looked like as if you were getting into and out of a bath of mercury. After this experience, we headed south to continue our journey. We took the route through Kegan, Karkara and eventually crossed into Kyrgystan.
Kyrgystan
Entry/Exit Dates: 25/10/2002-20/11/2002
Route: Our first
village was Karkira, Within minutes in the country we realise how 'high
and mountainous' the entire country is. We made our way to
Karakol having passed through Voroshylovka and Taldy-Suu. We chose to
travel along the south side if the main lake Issyk-Kul.
We drove through
the towns and villages of Kyzylsu, Akterek, Barskoon, Tanga, Kajysay,
Bokombaevskoe, Kyzyl-Tuu, Ottuk over to Balykchy which is on the extreme
west side of the lake. The brought us onto the main run into Bishek
once we passed through Kemin and
Tokmok
(Burana) and Kant. While waiting in Bishkek for papers, we did a side
trip for a few nights to the Ala-Archa national park. With our papers
in order we continued on to Sokuluk, Kara-Balty heading douth to Sosnovka
and through the Tuz-Ashu and Alabel mountain passes to Toktogul. The
road from here took us around the Toktogul lake to Torkent and Sargata
to Kara-kul. We followed the route along the Nayrn river which was littered
with deep gorges as far as Tash-Kumyr and onto Shamaldy-Say. Keeping
to the main highway we continued on to Kochkor-Ata, Bazar-kurgan,
Jalal-Abad, Uzgen, Leninskoe and finally to Osh where we crossed into
Uzbekistan after attempting
to enter
Uzbekistan
at two
other
cross-points
which we discovered that only allow 'locals' to use and not tourists.
Uzbekistan
Entry/Exit Dates: 20/11/2002-18/12/2002
Route: Once inside Uzbekistan we noticed
the colourful attire of the women. Our aim was to get to Tashkent as
soon as possible to pick up the 'Silk Road' route. We headed northeast
to Khodjaabad and by the time we reached Andijan we knew we had a big
problem on our hands in that we discovered that no Diesel was to be had
for any car/truck users and certainly it was not available for tourists.
After extensive investigations and with some very helpful locals, we
finally got enough to get us as far as Tashkent having travelled through
the Kamchik Pass and onto Angren,
Akhangaran, Tiotepa we finally reached Tashkent. The weather here was
still very nice. From here we drove down to Samarkand taking the Chinaz,
Gagarin, Dzhizak, Mardjanbulak and Bulungur route. What surprised us
was the rapid and severity of the weather change. The snow was very thick
here and it did not stop snowing for days. The roads were closed in principle
and we could not even use public transport, we had to walk everywhere.
We waited several days before we risked driving again. We headed for
Bukhoro using the Trans Caspian Highway heading northwest through Dzhuma,
Kattakurgan, Aktash, Navoi, Gizhduvan and Vabkent which brought us into
the city.
Our plans to visit Shakhrisabz using the southerly route were scrapped
due to the weather. The weather was
a little better here, it was cold and there was a little snow until a
big weather system delayed our travels again. We had hoped that when
we reached Tashkent, our lack of diesel problem would
be resolved, as it turned out the diesel shortage affected the entire
country.
Within a day of leaving Bukhoro heading northwest in the direction of Khiva we
had lost all the snow and we experienced reasonable weather again. We
visited Gazli, Turtkul and Berunij. To get to Khiva, we turned south
and transversed Urgench to get to the city. We stayed a few days here
and noticed that the air temperature was extremely cold but there was
not too much snow. We had to backtrack to the main highway and made our
way up toMangit and onto Takhiatash and into Kunya-Urgench. From here
we entered Turkmenistan.
Turkmenistan
Entry/Exit Dates: 18/12/2002-22/12/2002 (Transit visa of 5 days duration)
Route: With the temperatures down at -17°C at the lowest and on a five day transit- fixed route visa which enabled us to reach Iran, the first thing we did was to fill all our diesel tanks. We did not delay anywhere enroute except in Ashgabad. We spent our time driving, sleeping and eating. We took the direct route via Darvaza, Bahardok to the capital. The visual contrast between the countryside and the capital city where the opulance is so obvious is incredible.
Without further ado after our two nights in Ashgabad, we went into Iran at the Gaudan/Baggiran border post in the moutainous area directly south of the city still covered in snow and freezing cold.
Iran
Entry/Exit Dates: 22/12/2002-17/02/2003
Route: Having crossed into Iran, we had
to climb higher over the mountain range to travel further into the country.
This brought us even worse weather conditions. We had several blizzards
resulting in whiteout and on a few occasions we had some delays due to
articulated trucks getting stuck in snow drifts blocking our route. It
took us till the following day to reach Quchan. We continued to drive
south (in search of better weather) and we reached Mashad a day later.
As we were a little south of our previous position, there was no snow and this
enabled us to carry out necessary repairs to the car. We headed for the
desert area and travelled through Asadhbad, Torbat-e-Heydariyeh, Rabat-e-Kamah,
Emrani, and veered west at Gonabad. We passed by Ferdows, Robat-e-Khoshab
down to Deyhuk. To cross the desert wilderness we took the southerly route down
to Arababad and Nayband. It was a very scenic drive down through Darband,
Ravar, Carrud to reach Kerman. Next we down down to Bam and saw the beautiful
citadel (which is now destroyed after the horrific and devastating earthquake
in 2004). We travelled back as far as Darzin and local a resonably local
route through Sabzvaran, Kahnug, Barga crossing over to Minab. We drove
around the straights of Hormuz up to Bandr-Abbas and continued along
the coast to Bandr-e-Lenge. Due to extensive car problems we stayed here
for about three weeks. We the repairs were completed we took an inland
road up to Bastak. Following the route; Lar, Evaz, Gahrom, Bab-e-Anar
up to Shiraz. At this stage, we were concious of our visa limatations
we headed for Esfahan without delay visiting Persepolis which is stunning
and on up northeast through Abade and Qomse. We zig zagged from here
to Hamadan taking the Askaran, Damane, Hunsar, Guge, Homein, Arak, Malayer
route. We made a side trip west as far as Khermanshah. We backtracked
east to Hamadan and took another small side trip to see the Al Sadr caves.
On this evening, we noticed that it was starting to rain and snow again.
From here all the way north to the Caspian sea we had cold weather and
snow. We avoided Qom and Tehran cities and took the route to Row--an-Salebabed,
Razan, Takestan up to Qazvin. We then followed the northwesterly mountainous
route to Rasht on the coast. We followed the coastal route practically
to the border as Astra and then headed inland to Ardabil travelling west
to Tabriz. We were now back in deep snow and very cold weather again
which is not conducive to walking about to see the sights so we went
directly from here to the Turkish border travelling through the towns
and villages of Sufian, Marand, Pareh and Maku. After just passing by
Maku we could see Mount Araratt in Turkey. We crossed the border without
incident except that as far as the weather was concerned we thought we
had experienced most of the snow and bad weather for the past couple
of months, to our discovery we realised we did not know what real snow
falls were until we arrived in Turkey.