The big fill up before leaving the safety on Aktau and heading into the Kazakh desert.
A whole lot of nothing
We stopped at the top of this hill so we could take in the views. It was amazing, also extremely hot and a number of the cars were overheating badly.
Our First Camel
This was a graveyard in the middle of nowhere, it was apparent that they liked to keep there dead away from the towns. Each grave had one of these tomb like buildings.
Chris makes friends with a cow.
We stop off for food and water.
All the cars and people got so dusty on these roads, it was impossible to stay clean.
The Vivio and the skoda flying the Mongolian flag.
Botht he SJ and the Pajero were well suited to the roads, taking the bumps in their strides.
The AX struggled on these roads
The literal English translation doesn't quite work......
Dusk of the Kazakh oil fields
The wheel arch trim flaring off
The new Just for Men, grey hair model.
It was wierd driving for days between towns and seeing nothing.
The Skoda takes a battering from some big potholes.
The inside of the SJ after several days of dusty desert driving.
Blake helps out the local kids with some botch engineering
The local kids were amazed at the cars and were desperate for a photo.
Chris in his survival bag
The cars were literally engulfed in sand
Green Pea loose their exhaust
Sleeping in the car was a near impossiblity with uncomfortable seats and our very soft susspension on the bumpy dirt tracks.
In Qanqirat, south of the Aral sea, Ross and Chris getting their exhaust welded back on.
The Town's welder fixing our spare wheel holder after the vibrations shock the rust apart. Unforunately his welding wasnt upto the job and we lost the spare wheel somewhere in the Uzbek desert.
The local kis swimming in the river
A common sight on most of the rally.
Charlie takes a ride on top
The rather desolate town of Moynaq, it used to be a bustling fishing port on the edge of the Aral Sea until the Sea receeded and left it baron.
The ships that were stranded when the Sea receeded.
Jack Osborne and his entourage filling up up at the only petrol station in town
The Uzbek currency was very weak, this large pile was only about £20 worth.
The Bizarre
After the Vivio suffered a failed fuel pump, Team Green Pea's Chris had tried to keep going by sitting in the engine bay with a jerri can trying to feed it directly. This had then developed into a fire and then the car had over heated as they had used all their water to put it out. The only option was to sell the car and all their kit.
The grand give away of Green Pea's kit
We wave farewell to the Vivio
John tries out the local transport
Samaqand
Samaqand; people claim to be the most beautiful city in central Asia
Our stay in the Radisson Hotel in Tashkent, a little bit of luxury!
Dinner with Darni, he spotted us in a traffic jam looking lost and took us to the British Embassy, Kazakh Embassy and then to the hotel. Think we would still be there if it wasn't for him taking the afternoon off for us.
The end is nigh for the Citroen, the over heating was getting really bad.
Our bonnet release broke so had to be operated manually by plyers
Where our spare wheel used to be before it fell off!!
The damage from reversing into the wall as we were leaving home and from the Drunken Georgian's Mercedes.
The lost wheel arch trim revealing an unsavoury amount of rust.
The bodge repair job after the fron of our plenum flew off. Bungee cords and a frying held our air filter in from the Caspian sea to Ulaan Baatar.
Two locals who fancied a picture
We tried draining the Citroen's radiator, unfortunately I had to get down and lie in this to reattach the hoses.
We removed the front grill to aid with cooling and it doubled as an excellent rear spoiler for the Shelter box.
The boy's shelter box was slowly causing the Ax's roof to cave in to the point where they couldn't see out the rear view mirror.
A mammoth pot hole
Two Uzbek locals invite us in for breakfast and a shower.
Everyman and his dog surveying the AX.
The fence separating Uzbekistan and Krygyzstan.......thoughts of Steve McQueen spring to mind.
Uzbekistan's equivalent to Pickford's Removals
Krygyzstan, a mighty fine entrance and the official end to the AX, note the white smoke, we towed them from this point on the 500km through the mountains to Bishkek.
The amazing views in the Krygyzstan mountains, our camp site for the night over looked this lake which we swam in at dawn.
Like Scotland but 100x better.
Overtaking crawling lorries up hill on mountainous roads in a 1 litre car with a car on a tow line is far from easy...the SJ did brilliantly!!
Quick stop for lunch with an amazing back drop.
The final photos are taken for team Go North with the inevitable demise in sight.
The final four. In Fatboys, the favourite of all the ex pats and travellers in Bishkek, Krygyzstan. This was just before Dan and John set off for the airport and home.
A night out in Bishkek with Tom, an english guy who was out there working for the Cnetral Asian Times.
Tom was trying to get a Kazakh visa too and we met him in the queue at the embassy, he put us up for the four day wait we in his flat in Bishkek.
