Worried. WWYD?
 

I know I shouldn't panic, but I'm extremely worried about my husband, who seems to have had some sort of problem at the Kazakhstan/Uzbekistan border. The tracker on his bike shows expected slow progress through the border crossing, with multiple stops and starts, but the bike appears to have been stationary on or near to the Uzbek side since about 10.30am this morning.

They're 4 hours ahead, which makes it 7pm - and he normally would have made some attempt to contact me by now. I've tried both his phones. The Irish one doesn't connect at all, while the UK one rings but there's no answer. Does anyone have experience of this crossing or is anyone in the area?

Hi mrsroynie,

I am sure that everything is ok. From your post I read that he is going from Kaz into Uzb, and that can take quite some time even when everything goes as it should. If there are more people crossing at the same time it can take several hours just to get to the police and customs officers.

Last year it took us (my wife and me on a single bike) a few hours to cross the Turkmen/Uzbek border, and we were practically the only travellers there, just a few locals and a Japanese backpacker with us. The Uzbek customs are very anal about checking everything, Besides that, they have some funny working hours, and can take long cofee and lunch breaks. Getting out of Uzb can also take some time. I consider us lucky, as we crossed from Uzb to Kaz in less than two hours.

The only problem might be if he did not get through the border in time, as many borders close during the night. In that case he might have to camp where he is.

Do not worry, spending long hours at the borders is just part of the fun in Central Asia :-)

Thanks. That does make me feel a little bit better. You can't tell a lot from the BikeTrac map, but it makes it look as if he cleared Kazakhstan and then stopped on the Uzbek side. Zooming right in, it doesn't look as if he's moved more than a hundred metres or so. It's nearly 8pm there now, so I imagine he's stuck for the night. I just would have hoped he would have texted me or something.

Well, he might be out of reach, phone signal is not necessarilly good there. At which crossing is he? There are some crossings that are open to locals only.

He rode from Beyneu this morning and was on his way down to Khiva. I'm sure he checked that the border was an international one. But, yes, phone reception might be an issue, especially if he's still stuck at the border.

OK. Thanks for indulging me.

I've just had a text. He's fine. Not at the border*, but at a one-horse town called Kungrad in the middle of nowhere. He says the road to the Uzbek border was the worst that he's yet encountered - worse than off-road - and not much better to Kungrad. He couldn't find a hotel, so has been offered an office above a garage to sleep in ...

At least he's alive and well, and hasn't been arrested ...

* so the tracker has either been damaged or there is some sort of network issue. We'll have to wait and see.

What tracker is he using. Spot, DeLorme or ???

Of course he's well, in Uzbekistan he is safer than in West Europe ;-), and, as long as he behaves himself no one is going to arrest him. You can tell him that the road from Moynaq towards Nukus, Khiva and further on is decent/good.

He will most probably have some difficulties finding petrol, but in a day or two he will learn where to get it. It is available everywhere except at the petrol stations.

Ha! Yes, I believe we have Colebatch to thank on that score. When I last spoke to my husband (in Beyneu) he said he had seen a hotel in Khiva that had good benzine. I was absolutely gutted when I realised I couldn't continue the trip (broke leg on Russian border), but hearing about the condition of the roads, I'm not sure someone up there wasn't doing me a massive favour ... #wimp! :biggrin: I'll be relieved when he meets up with the Globebusters group next month.

Is this Inagh to China?? I have been following through FB, sad to hear about your trip cut short.

Yes, that's us! Mind you, I'm not quite finished yet. I still have to go back to Moscow and collect my bike ... :mchappy:

Contact has been extremely difficult (as you'll know if you've been following FB) while Roynie has been in Uzbekistan. Internet access has been slow to non-existent and the mobile networks don't seem to work very well with our phones. The BikeTrac tracker is a bike security device, which works off mobile cellphone networks - unlike Spot or Delorme, which are principally designed for personal safety and work via satellite. It was rather too much of a coincidence that the BikeTrac apparently stopped working just inside the border, so received wisdom is that it may kick back into life when he crosses back into Kazakhstan this weekend.

Stuck
 

A while ago I spent 9 hours crossing the Kazak/Russian border en route to Atyrau. They were concerned that I had been to Chernobyl and made me wait to see a doctor who never arrived. Everybody was very polite and I would rather spend 9 hours on that border than some of the places in my country ( u.k).

This is why I Do NOT use a tracker.

When it comes to the partner at home, ignorance is bliss.

Yes, I quickly came to that conclusion too. :biggrin: Though, in fact, now that Roynie has crossed the border back into Kazakhstan, the tracker has come back to life.

Things could be worse. We've been lucky enough to have been given sponsored tracker units for our charity rides. However, when we did our "Moscow to Moscow" ride in 2011, we had a genuinely 'live' tracker that actually recorded whether you were moving or stationary and showed your speed! The unit was intended as a security device against theft of heavy plant, but turned out to be a real PITA. We couldn't even stop for breakfast without someone at home immediately posting on Facebook, asking why we'd stopped and if there was anything wrong? doh

Yes, it was much better when I rode around in the mid '70s. A letter from Central Africa to home in Australia would take 6 weeks, and a reply the same, so nobody expected to hear from you for ages.

However, there were also negatives, I suspect there are probably still some Yamaha spares that have been sitting on a shelf in the Poste Restante in Yaounde for the last 40 years.