We had
to be at Shymkent railway station to catch the train to Aqtou by 4.30 am. The
train originated from Almaty so there were many people getting off as well as
many people getting on. We found our
carriage, a first class soft sleeper, in which we were to spend the next fifty
four hours travelling to Aqtou on the Caspian Sea and loaded ourselves, our
gear and our bikes in. We had a comfortable two berth cabin with plenty of room
to stow our bags and the bikes went in at the end of the carriage. We were settled in very nicely when a railway
man came and using sign language advised us that our bikes would have to go
into the luggage compartment at the next major stop and that would be an extra 20,000
tenge, thank you very much. When we
booked the train we had asked about the bikes coming on the train with us and
we were assured that was okay and there would be no extra charge so we argued
our case strongly. After about two hours and after a bit of back and forth as
well as a few phone calls the railway man agreed to leave the bikes where they
were and there would be no extra charge.
It was a long trip and we had
taken food with us but we were able to buy some from people who hopped on at
one station and got off at the next. Hot
water was available and we used this to make drinks. When we stopped at major stations there were
also people selling food and drinks.
Kazakhstan is a large country, the ninth largest in the world, and a lot
of it is desert which is the reason we are taking a train for this part of it. We used our time to look at maps and define
our route through Turkey, we read , looked at the scenery and enjoyed the
experience. The land scape flying by was
desolate flat plains, dust blowing in the wind and the only houses appeared to
be for railway staff who man the stations and maintain the track. Rail is used to move goods from one side of
the country to the other, particularly oil and we pass many goods trains. Other
passengers are interested in our maps and our bikes but no one speaks English
and we have limited conversations with them.
Just out of Turkistan we saw the remains of an old silk road
civilization which normally we would have had to hire a four wheel drive to
see, we passed close by to what used to be the Aral Sea and later, large
sandstones cliffs eroded by the wind, but for the rest of the time it was
desert and camels.
After we
arrived in Aqtou station we had a windy 16 klm ride into the city. Aqtou was a
seaside resort for mainly Russian tourists until oil was discovered in the
Caspian Sea and now it is a booming oil town providing employment to local and
overseas people. The boats which sail
from here are known to be unreliable and we have heard of people waiting twelve
days for a berth so we were keen to find the shipping office before we did
anything else as we only have five days left on our visas. We found the address given in the Lonely
Planet easily enough but the office had moved and none of the locals could help
us find it. We decided to ride the eight
kilometers to the docks and see what information we could find. We were in luck. There was a ship sailing
tonight at 8 o’clock, but we had to book at the office we could not find in
Aqtou and it was 5 o’clock. A young
German man, Cornelius,(who had been waiting a week for the boat) offered to go with us in a taxi to show us where it was,
the office would remain open until we got there. It was about 50 metres from where we had been
standing a few hours before asking locals if they knew where to find it. We purchased our tickets, bought some food
for the trip as this was really a truck ferry which takes some passengers not a
comfortable passenger ferry, and hurried back to the docks. We need not have worried, we sat in the
waiting room with others until we were cleared through customs at 3.00 am,
boarded and waited until 7.pm the following evening before we left the dock. Conditions on the boat were not very good,
we shared accommodation with the truckies whose vehicles were loaded on board,
everything needed a good soak in White King, but we had a smooth crossing and
good company. We had been on the train
for two and a half days and then the boat for two days, we were glad to get on
to dry land and looking forward to some nice food and bed that doesn’t move. Customs staff came on board and cleared us and we wheeled the bikes off into Azerbaijan.
No comments:
Post a Comment