kazakhstan
 

hi all,
i plan to rich aral sea in kazakhstan next may/june and also drive in the west of the country, anyone have any advices ? how many kilometers is it possible to drive a day? we are two on a bmw r1200 gs
thanks

Yes - the road to Aktobe is horrendous! Or at least it was in 2015. Made it in one day from Aytrau, but it was a gruelling day. I think it's possible to approach Aralsk directly from the west, but remote and sandy.

We rode through Kazakhstan late 2016. We went due East from Astana on mostly dirt roads.

Some days we were lucky to make 150km. Other days we got up to 250km. It was slow.

The 'road' from Atyrau to Aktobe is famously bad. I assume anyone using this road has either done no research or deliberately wants to drive on dusty, rutted hard baked earth and washboard through a totally featureless landscape.

The paved road to Aktobe heads north from Atyrau to Oral (Uralsk) and then west to Aktobe, from where the road is paved to Aral.

You definitely won't get near the Aral Sea heading due east out of Astana.

In essence, if you want to get there directly and are prepared for long off-road sections, head north-east from Beyneu towards Kokaral. I would love to do this trip, but it is seriously remote. You would need lots of water, fuel, and a GPS route.

If you want to stay on asphalt then Atyrau - Oral - Aktobe - Aral is the way to go.

If you really like bad roads, try Atyrau - Kandyagash - Shalkar - Aral.

Kazakhstan is a wonderful country to travel in, take a look at my website if you'd like to get some ideas for destinations. I highly recommend Mangystau and any of the mountains in the extreme south or east of the country, especially Altai. For long off-road adventures, I think only Mongolia can beat Kazakhstan in this part of the world.

Good luck,

EO

Kazakhstan is a very big country: there are good, recently paved, long and boring tarmac roads, on which you can ride tons of kms/day, and there are a lot of tricky, dusty tracks in the middle of nowhere, which will force you to 100-200 km/day.

You can cross the country all on asphalt, or you can explore some remote and beautiful areas, but this will involve some off roading.

I think you should do some research before departing: EO already gave you some great advise.

In the ride tales section of this forum, you can find my report from last summer
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...caucasus-88850

thanks all
your advices help me to improve my knowledge about kazahkstan