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I'm driving around the world in a Fiesta - This is my story


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- - - - February 2016 - - - -

Thank you for your patients on the recent infrequency of my posts, to start off with stories of the past I rewind you to February 2016 where I was exploring Slovakia. I knew nothing really about this country (or rather embarrassing about most countries across Europe) and arrived to what was a beautiful amazing experience surrounded in deep history.

Whilst driving on a hill I saw the largest castle I have ever seen.. and doing good for time and day light I naturally deviated from my plans to explore. There's a little car park near the bottom which stated the castle was closed due to winter season.

The walk to the top was  long, considering the deep snow, with old tyre tracks to the top this has at one point been used by the odd staff at some point likely the residing gate keeper. So with this in mind I decided to drive onwards and reached a little drawbridge and the gate house court yard. The castle was indeed closed and guarded by a very loud guard dog which thankfully was too big to squeeze under the gate to get to me.

I spent sometime taking amazing photos and drove around a little bit in the courtyard.... perhaps in hindsight to casually drive about here wasn't my wisest move as I later out of interest researched where I was... this is "one of the biggest European castles by area" and in 1993 made  a UNESCO World heritage site... welcome to Spiš Castle

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To continue with the theme of stories of the past:

Beautiful places and amazing faces - If I had my photography in a gallery that would be my exhibit title. My travels have been just as much about the people I've met as it has been about the places I've been. Here's just some of the friendly faces along my travels, the children are taken from my time in Kosovo February 2017 and will remain one of my most cherished collection of photos and a very fond memory with these siblings.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Just an update: I've applied for my Uzbekistan visa, so should be re-united with the car sometime around early/mid March, I will be able to continue on my travels. In the meantime I have one or two stories for past travels to update you.

In the meantime...

----- January 2018 -----

Taken just after the new year, here's a small collection of photos from my time in the Greater Caucasus. The white monument 'Grozniy' is the capital city of Chechnya, the car selfie with the monument of Makhachkala is the Capital city of Dagestan: both these regions the FCO advise against all travel, but my personal experience from travelling through these regions were very warm and welcoming, tourists are respected here.

Some may wonder why I chose to detour around these parts of the world, sadly deteriorating on a dry dock to the Caspian Sea is what is known as the Caspian Sea Monster, a remarkable feat in Soviet engineering...

However google advertises this as a tourist attraction, so I blindly went there to take photos, in truth: its located INSIDE the Kaspiysk Naval base home to the Kaspiysk flotilla...

Arriving here to a naval base with a camera landed me nearly 5 hours of being questioned by Russian intelligence police on topics ranging from terrorism, being a spy and espionage.

Treated nicely I cant complain at security doing their job, especially considering the region. Had coffee and biscuits, and we even went out on a trip to a local Dagestan art exhibition with paintings made by children while we waited for the translator.

I of course wasnt allowed entry, genuinely saddened. (Following image from Google - in my defence it was obviously once accesable) So sad not to see it in a museum.

For future reference, if anyone wants to visit this, dont, the area is restricted now.

On further reading it seems:

In March 2017 the Kremlin approved a major overhaul of the Kaspiysk naval base.

With several expansions and upgrades, what was once a minor naval base became a major base used with Russian operations in Syria.

Sadly I was a little too late, but happy to have explored new regions.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Really happy to announce having recently re applied for my Uzbekistn Visa, I've flown back and am now re united with the car! There's the odd post to quickly add from previous exploration, then I'll look to update you all chronologically on my travels since I returned, so expect a quick influx of posts over the next few days.

In one of my initial posts o the thread I mentioned my exploration into the Arctic to the Russian city of Murmansk. ...

----- October 2016 -----

Shortly after arriving to Russia for the first time in August 2016 I decided I wanted to make the 3 day road trip north from Saint Petersburg, to Murmansk, Russia. Due to the limitations on my visa I was only allowed to stay in Russia for 90 consecutive days, and with the weather already turning from Autumn to Winter in early October I decided to set forth north.. a distance of roughly 800 miles (1,300km)

For those unaware, Murmansk is situated at a latitude of 68.9°N This is approx. 100 miles north of the Arctic Circle and further north than the entire country of Iceland. The drive up was treacherous mainly due to lack of any proper preparation. My first leg was easy going taking the main road and stopping for 2 days exploring the very lovely city of Petrozavodsk located on the shore of Lake Onega. This was first time seeing fresh water lakes of this scale that they're almost tidal yet don't smell of sea salt and have ducks and not seagulls, very surreal and beautiful.

The second leg however was a nightmare, snow had already begun, and heavily... (and its worth noting Im on pretty standard UK summer tyre tread pattern) however with slow and careful driving, with a light foot on the break and accelerator, I made distance.... into what can only be described as an Arctic snow storm... literally. 

The worse part is that for my entire journey my car was completely frozen - importantly my screen wash didn't work - and on Russian roads you screen is pitch black 4 seconds after you've cleaned it... with day light hours at an all time low at this time of year (sun rising at around 11am and setting around 2pm) visibility at an all time low, squinting through a screen I cant see out of into nighttime... oh and also cars driving with 0 working tail lights. Its safe to say this was a very gruelling exhausting journey. Oh... I did I mention Im one of those weirdos who likes to drive with the window down to get fresh air and the heater on? So naturally my window was frozen down also meaning I was wearing full thermals in the driving seat having snow blown into my face.

Buuuut having said all of this.... the region of Karielia is INSANELY beautiful, there's so much to see and do which I didn't get chance to, a lot of Russia's marble is mined here, and you can take boat tours in summer season through natural marble mines, the fresh water lakes are surreal. 

I even made time for some Arctic exploration, whilst driving I noticed in the distance some old abandoned factory, to this day I havn't been able to find what/where it was, but as I was doing OK for daylight (my primary resource whilst driving) I ventured of piste to explore... I also found a box of burned out electronics. I like to let my imagination run wild that this was some 'TV Lost' type facility testing cool Soviet science, who knows, but there were destroyed train tracks in so it certainly was an Arctic facility of some sort at some point.

By late night I made it to the town of Kandalaksha and next day made it to Murmansk. ... Upon reaching my final destination I investigated thoroughly why my car was so frozen as I knew my antifreeze was well stocked up... it was at this moment I looked at the bottle to read words written with such pride "Made in England, suitable up to -10!" i couldn't help but chuckle as I immediately chucked litres of the stuff in the bin obviously the compound just has too much water in it, and I replaced it with the good old Russian stuff "suitable to -60" Interestingly for reference its a different colour (bright orange from memory and not blue like ours) and from what I learned later is the same stuff they squirt on aeroplanes.

I didn't go to Murmansk specifically to see the Northern Lights, but I knew logically due to the time of year and latitude there was certainly a high probability and I had never seen them before. Murmansk itself is quite an industrial town and fog settles in the city's valley but a simple 10 minute drive to the top of the nearest hill solves this, and sure enough at about 1am they fell straight onto my head. A memory I hope to never forget.

Also for those interested Murmansk has a great deal of Naval history: Permanently docked is the 'Lenin' :- The worlds first nuclear powered surface ship was an Icebreaker, now turned museum, which you can explore inside seeing the reactor housing. Also the UK shares a lot of WW2 history with Murmansk, the Allies and the Soviets were heavily attacked by U-Boats during the Arctic Convoys resulting in  heavy loss of life. WW2 and commemorating those who died is something Russia today takes very seriously, at 35 meters tall Aloysha stands to honour those who died defending Murmansk.

I was ill prepared for photography with my tripod frozen in the boot, me realising battery life of anything electronical can be measure in seconds not hours, and also I experienced the dangers of a new personal best of -22 by touching the metal of my camera with bare skin to open the battery latch to receive excruciating burns to my fingers and sat in the car with the heating on to 
recuperate. 

I was able to get some good pictures but my focus was more to happily watch the world go by. I also managed to find a local garage and purchased some proper studded snow tyres 'Nokian Hakkapelitta 8s' for any one interested and with the tyres size of the Fiesta managed to fit all 4 summer tyres back in the car! Stocked up on Russian anti freeze and equipped with snow tyres the drive back through worse weather was a cake walk.

Through out the entire journey the car didn't let me down once, started first time every time with no battery issues! MVP!

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That's some story and trip and a big credit to a Ford Fiesta

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 21/03/2018 at 11:30 AM, Steve said:

@Drive_Further did you decide to do Mongolia at all later in your trip?

I wasn't able to get a visa prior to leaving the UK due to being on a very tight schedule, however I'm exploring options, I've emailed the consulate in Astana to see how easy it is to get a visa whilst here in Kazakhstan, off topic also but I'm sending you a DM so keep an eye out :)

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I was about to write a post regarding recent events when I've realised I'm yet to post anything substantial regarding my time in Uzbekistan.

For those reading above, you'l be aware that in January I returned to the UK with immediate effect and abandoned my car in Khiva. In March, on a new visa, I returned to continue my travels. A big thankyou to the Family run B&B "Guest House Alibek" who so kindly looked after my car for what was at the time, an unknown period of absence.

Also mentioned above in a more detailed previous post, I wrote about my first and only bit of car trouble: I had a blown engine management fuse which required the car to be push started. I took the car to a local Uzbekistan garage where we found that after I ploughed into a Central Asian pothole the damage to my front end was more substantial than I initially inspected. Happy to say I've had no issues with the car since my return and have driven 1000 miles since. I did however take the time whilst in the UK to stock up on spare fuses!

Literally my first experience arriving back into Urgench airport, was the highest ranking on duty passport control guard singling me out, smiling and calling me over, he personally saw to my passport control whilst enthusiastically speaking in English and thus I jumped a que of about 150 locals, this then lead to every single English speaking local in baggage reclaim coming over to say hello and ask about my travels. Such a wonderful country full of friendly people one guy whilst driving wound down his window and shouted "Hello! Welcome to Uzbekistan" The people of Uzbekistan have been some of the friendliest I've met across my time in Central Asia!

Since my return I have travelled across the beautiful ancient cities of the Silk road, including Khiva (photos attached) Bukhara, Samarkand and Tashkent. [For those interested, the tower pictured is Kalta Minor Minaret - added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1990, constructed 1852-1855.]  

I Crossed the border into Kazakhstan remaining on schedule for my trip to Baikonur, something which had been planned for over half a year and due to recent events was unsure if I would make it. (TBC)

Also whilst in the UK I took advantage to buy one or two gadgets, firstly a much needed dash-cam, and also a DJI drone, so expect a larger variety in images in posts to come. Enjoy!

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Wonderful Wonderful story so far. Safe Travels

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In 2011 NASA retired its manned space program, since then in collaboration with the Russian space agency Roscosmos all manned launches have been from the Baikonur Cosmodrome situated in the vast desert of Kazakhstan.

In August 2017 I knew it was almost certain my itinerary would take my to Kazakhstan, and being completely naive and uneducated on the topic, I had no idea what so ever if the Cosmodrome was accessible to the public.

So I did what logically I thought the best option, emailed NASA media liaison enquiring on the subject and was amazed to find a reply in my inbox. After subsequent emails in Russian to Roscosmos I learned not only is Baikonur accessible to the public but there are affiliated tours. Which I booked there and then n August

I arrived back to my car in Khiva, Uzbekistan 6 days proir the arranged meeting time at Kyzylorda airport.. and a 6 day drive from Khiva I made it with 17 hours spare. 

Technically the area is deemed land of Khazakstan, meaning a Russian visa isn't needed to enter, and this is simply being rented by the Russian Federation for the purpose of space flight.

The town of Baikonur, one of Russias renown 'closed cities' requires special permission to both enter and leave, with a single road in guarded by military.

We were personally escorted through the checkpoint by an employee of TSENKI (Translated to Center for the Operation of Ground-Based Space Infrastructure)

This is a branch of Roscosmos which are involved with EVERYTHING ground based at the Cosmodrome, including maintenance and management of Oxygen silos, Nitrogen production plants, missile silos.

Its here I owe a huge thankyou to TSENKI and Roscosmos, for they granted permission to of course not only myself, but importantly the Ford Fiesta into the closed town. I got to drive around and explore and I cant imagine many Ford Fiestas have been granted permission here!

With additional checkpoints from to the town to the space facility my car remained in the town and I joined on what was an amazing 5 day guided tour around the base. The Cosmodrome itself is a scale I wasn't prepared for, measuring at approx 50x50 square miles it remains the first and largest operational space facility... in the world.

Shrouded in such rich history both Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin were launched from here - infact Yuri was launched from the very same launchpad used by the launch I went to see.

Spending 4 days learning about the space race and learning about Energia, visiting control rooms, learning about the first and only launch of USSR space shuttle program Buran, Important engineers on projects and the initial creation of the cosmodrome...

Visiting museums and schools, being shown 'Cosmonaut alley' An area where every cosmonaut launched from the facility has planted a tree. We saw the original cabins used by Yuri and on our final day watched - and heard -the launch with our own eyes.

Mission 55/56 researchers will study Earth atmospherics, the effects of microgravity on bone marrow, materials' responses to space environments and biological samples' responses to stimulated gravity.

With primary crew: Andrew Feustel, Oleg Artemyev and Richard Arnold.

Its insane! how close we were able to stand, watching the rollout of the rocket from its hanger, seeing both primary and reserve crews, the installation of the rocket at its launch pad.. such a memorable experience.

The launch itself, at 23:44 local, was a once in a lifetime event, and an event lasting about 12 seconds.. I made a very conscious decision before hand to simply set my camera for a long exposure, plop my phone against a rock and simply sit back and enjoy the experience with my own eyes and ears for what it was.

Of my two long exposure shots my primary photo of the launch is pure white, with an iso of 50 the launch itself turned night into day... and my phone fell over... neither of which Im remotely bothered about as I have the memories - the most important thing. The sight and sound specifically is something I hope never to forget.

I now sit back on the steppes of Kazakhstan with nothing on my itinerary except needed R&R

 

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I forgot some of the best pictures!

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  • 2 weeks later...

My time in Central Asia continues, with weather now at an almost constant 20 degrees the sun is shining and the miles rack up. I'm about 4,000 miles short of the big 100,000 total odometer reading in the Fiesta which will mark 32,000 on the road trip. Since Baikonur I have headed east and due to feeling under the weather decided to take an extended duration resting sharing my time between the small town of Kyzylorda and predominantly in Shymkent, a lovely city, full of parks and tulips,  I didn't have time to explore on the way in from Tashkent initially so glad to have made an extended stay here

Spring is now fully in the air, herds that roam free on the grasslands have almost doubled in size with calves and foals a plenty. I arrived in Almaty "Kazakhstan's largest metropolis, set in the foothills of the Trans-Ili Alatau mountains" and with the 6am dawn finally unboxed my DJI Mavic Air and took it for its maiden flight. I intended to drive to lake Bao but with weather overcast I delayed my trip knowing I would backtrack to this region.

After a 5 day stay in Almaty I headed south to the Kyrgyzstan border, and wow... the Tian Shan mountain range has lovely rolling hills at their feet making it a rather unique landscape. Im a mere 600 miles north of the Himalayas.... those aren't clouds! British passport holders are Visa free (maximum duration of stay 30 days since crossing the border) for both Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan... (convenient as I can simply bounce around countries in the region with no Visa limitations) ...and the border crossing has taken the crown for being the friendliest and easiest border to date, with a total exit -to- entry stamp time: of about 6 minutes, with all border guards being very warm and welcoming.

I'm in Bishkek as I type this but in the coming days venture literally into the mountains and trade my car for hooves, B&B beds for yurts, as my itinerary takes me both on horseback and in a rented 4x4. I've extended my stay here already, Kyrgyzstan is a country, which from what I can tell consists entirely of mountain ranges and thus there's lots to see and explore. I'll double back into Kazakhstan in the coming weeks.. I continue to pick up hitchhikers, in my internal logic the worse that can happen is some one steals my spleen, for the sake of being a good samaritan I'm happy to take the risk. (Me on the left)

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Updated map of the Central Asian travels: 

Purple is the road trip to date, including the one way trip to Baikonur Cosmodrome before doubling back to Shymkent and on to Almaty.

Orange is my intended travels over the coming weeks.. I'm unsure which direction I will head north once back in Kazakhstan and also which exit border I may indeed take as I may return to Shymkent

Also attached is a picture of local food!

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  • 1 month later...

I havn't updated my progress recently but this certainly isn't due to lack of events! Since my last post written in Bishkek, I've explored the region of Kyrgyzstan extensively, especial around the area of Issyk-Kul lake, the 10th largest lake in the world (by volume)

With rock deep red adjacent to the most saturated green grass I have seen.. canyons similar to that of Utah on one side of the road, and mountains and lakes on the other, its safe to say the landscape is varied and so unique here

To the south of the lake lies Barskoon, the location of Barskoon water wall, frozen this time of year but no less spectacular. From here I headed south to Kara-Say, a 1 way trip as its a dead-end to those not entering China, Known as the Suyak-Pass to Kara-Say (The yellow road) I managed to get lost. Happy to explore to a destination unknown I eventually had to turn back at an altitude of 12,500 feet due to needing oxygen.

Hadn't seen tarmac for hundreds of miles, these are the peaks of mountains. The drive up was incredible. It would seem the main road I was travelling on was to a  local gold mine.

"I had to turn back due to needing oxygen" Is probably the best thing I have written regarding my road trip to date :D 

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  • 2 weeks later...

With the adventures of Barskoon completed I returned to Bishkek.

I took a week long excursion on horseback into the mountains, whilst not car related here is the story of such adventures from early May:

For 8 generations Medir and his family have rented a Gilo (an area of grassland on rocky ground) high in the mountain ranges of southern Kyrgyzstan. The scale of which is unknown but suffice to say not small... it takes 2 hours to drive from on end of this Gilo to the other apparently.

Every year the family's livestock is relocated ~150km from one grazing ground to another in a seasonal cycle, to highlands for the summer, and to lowlands for the winter, this is known as Transhumance, a frequent event for nomads.

With a count of over 1000 sheep/goats, 50 horses and 2 donkeys I was fortunate to join as a tourist/tagged along on this natural relocation. This was the first time Madir had received tourists on such an event, and I'm incredibly humbled to have experienced such an event.

Having never been on a horse before I was incredibly grateful to receive an intelligent docile horse, which you could tell was used to tourists, actively compensating should I loose balance. After my 42 second induction of horseback riding I was already trotting with some pace, by day 4 was experiencing galloping, all be it in very short and infrequent spurts.

The relocation of over 1000 animals is a sight in itself, if left alone livestock disperses rapidly covering square miles, and can be rounded up again to a bubble with ease by skilled shepherds. You receive a great amount of personal satisfaction when taking it upon yourself to shepherd 4 stray sheep back to the herd and everything goes to plan and they don't walk off a mountain.

The landscape was beautiful and varied as was the weather! From hail to sunshine to snowstorms and thunderstorms at higher altitudes weather can change drastically within minutes.

Due to the proximity of the Chinese border we were also greeted by 3 AK47 weilding, mounted border guards who, like in the movies, had been tracking us for many miles, appearing as silhouettes on the ridge line before making their presence known.

On day 3 we experienced a heavy snowstorm with a headwind, however a shepherd kindly lent me his spare Russian plash palatka, and, feeling warm and enthusiastic I braved the storm with only Madir himself and another shepherd by my side. Standing in my stirrups, drinking cognac, singing loudly the melodies of songs I was taught, and braving the storm, this remains my favourite day and one I will member for many moons.

The youngest at 14, Uluk, shepherding for the first time to the Gilo I bonded with the most. A proficient rider is an understatement to describe his skill on a horse, they learn to ride at the same age they learn to read, with a smile on his face the entire time, on the last day I invited him to drive my car around the village. He gifted me a traditional Kyrgyzstan Kalpak (hat) a very sentimental gift, and from what I hear, to be gifted specifically a Kalpak is a sign of true friendship and a rare occurrence amongst Kyrgz to foreigners and something to be cherished.

I took the time to try and immerse myself within the experience as much as possible through my photography trying to capture moments in everyday life along the 6 days.

So many stories, and many memories, I couldn't have dreamed of a better or more immersive experience and end to my time in Kyrgyzstan. With 1800 photos, each photo a fond memory, here's a small small sample, I will try to add descriptions to most I upload as the story doesn't end with this sentence.

Warmly welcomed by the entire family I'm really touched by memories of the whole experience.

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Whilst interaction via comments is small here on the forum, just a quick interjection to say a big hello and thank you to all the people wising me well on my travels who read this. Pretty impressed with the view count of the thread! many people take selfies with the car and once again proud to be told a tourist was taking pics amazed by the fact my car was there [Tajikistan, update coming]. The day after I washed it also!

Also a shout-out to Mark a motor cyclist if you're reading this, from the UK but living in Montreal currently in Uzbekistan, even though we haven't crossed paths by pure coincidence met Kim a Canadian I travelled around Tajikistan with for a week! Small world! 

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I really enjoy reading this thread! Awesome photos and great insights. 

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27 minutes ago, rowanj10 said:

I really enjoy reading this thread! Awesome photos and great insights. 

Thanks Rowan 🙂

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Bishkek to ....  Bishkek: Part 1 of 3:

After my exploration on horseback I returned to Bishkek - via car, not via horse! and decided what to do next, my initial plan was to head back into Kazakhstan and continue north to Astana as planned. However upon flippant research I discovered all I needed in order to enter Tajikistan was an e-visa, an application which 5 hours later, was approved and arrived into my email inbox. (and has the professionalism look of a primary school Clipart homework assignment) For the sake of exploration and happy to explore new regions, I set forth to Osh........ ... ...

The drive from Bishkek to Osh is an 11 hour drive at best if taking the northern route... I however took the 'scenic' route to the south.. in hindsight an accurate summary of this decision is nothing short of a 'catastrophic navigational error ' and this is perhaps an understatement.

For those reading this genuinely interested in roads taken I'm going to try and articulate my route as much as possible, especially considering the outcome of this trip, maybe to someone reading this it may of be some use.... for reference I set off at 8am from Bishkek...

With the intention of driving the recommended GPS route shown I arrived at Song-Kul and traversed the mountain pass, un-tarmacked this gravel terrain Im comfortable with, but it was about an hour and a half off the A365 junction and driving up and over the mountain pass surrounding Song-Kul the road became blocked by a excavation digger, whether this was due to landslides or snow I know not - either way my road suddenly became a dead and and thus the return trip to the A365 junction began, I continued to Naryn and after a long detour joined back to my intended route. This detour is marked in black on the map.

Beyond Kazarman the road to the south eventually becomes non existent and you're basically driving across rough terrain [red hatching] for hours. In most events this doesn't phase me, but after extended time (hours) without seeing another vehicle or any sign of civilisation, let alone fuel stops, in addition to the fact I'm heading more into the mountains, for the first time in my travels I decided to turn back due to safety and isolation.... from here my drive is now marked in red.

With the intention to connect to the M39/M41 eventually, at Kochkor I decided to head west instead of north which would continue back to Bishkek. The additional red hatching shows areas of mountain pass roads of particular poor condition, by the time I reached Chaek I was already fatigued but stubborn to continue. Rested after a few hours nap in the car I ventured forth into the night...

It was around 2am when the storm hit, and around 4am when I had received simultaneous punctures, one of which a complete blowout. The roads were rough is an understatement, tired and annoyed that the entire days' events were due to human error, I set about changing the tyre. Luckily as this was a planned trip to Tajikistan I had the entirety of my belongings on me, including my full set of thermals, which even at -20 I'm genuinely comfortable in. A single vehicle passed by and stopped and were it not for their help I would have been stranded on the mountain pass with snow lightly falling, for the second tyre was in poor shape and other tyres looking like they had extensive sidewall damage.

Low on money to hand and grateful for the assistance from the 2 men from the truck which stopped, I didn't know what to do. Frankly wanting the day to end I whimsically decided to give them my sub from the boot out of sheer gratitude. A combination of gratitude, the fact I don't really use it anyways, and the logic that I was shedding weight,  I don't regret this decision. I'm unsure who was more grateful, the guys from the truck receiving 8,000COM [local currency] worth of electronics as a thanks, or me for their help.

On a spare tyre, 3 heavily damaged tyres with multiple punctures I decided to limp slowly and carefully to Osh with the intention of going to Dushanbe instead of bailing back to Bishkek....

...I arrived into Osh around 6pm NEXT DAY

(Attached are photos taken along this trip, from the mountain pass near Song-Kul which shows a relatively good 'road' surface in comparison to the mountain pass mentioned above where I had blowouts marked by the red arrow.
 

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Bishkek to ....  Bishkek: Part 2 of 3:
 

So rested up in Osh, on a spare tyre, with the remaining 3 looking worse for wear, I travelled slowly across the border to Khujand and onto Dushanbe... You need at least a grade B in GCSE Geography to navigate this part of the world, and looking at a map you will see why.

The roads interject with neighbouring borders frequently, alternate routes need to be taken to avoid Uzbekistan enclaves. 90% of the road into Dushanbe in perfect tarmac so there were no issues with the car. 

Firstly I attach the main road heading into Osh from Bishkek, a road has been built to navigate around Uzbekistan at Kochkor-Ata, so the trip into Osh was simple enough, all be it a 13 hour drive. (It can be done in 10-11 if one travels at 70mph with fewer stops.) Marked in blue is the main road - noting you need to drive south to Uzgen - marked in red are main roads GPS favours but you need an Uzbekistan visa in order to pass. In fact Kochkor-Ata is a foot crossing only, and contains an Uz train-station, the deviation to go around only takes 10 minutes.

From Osh to Khujand things get tricky. Ive marked in dark blue the main road. The first thing people will note is the interjections into Uzbekistan if taking this route. Marked in green fear not, theres actually a difference between the geographical and physical border in these places meaning you actually drive uninterrupted to Batken. Do not take the southern road to Batken via Khaidarkan as this is the main road through one of Uzbekistan's enclaves in the region, and is a complete dead end, hug the border road and you will arrive into Batken easily.

From Batken Do not! travel north to what one logically assumes is the border crossing marked in red, whilst a border crossing is located here it is in fact a military border and unusable. You do not receive a passport stamp here and can not enter or leave Tajikistan via here. The land border crossing is in fact via a brand new tarmacked road via the border town of Kyzyl-Bel marked location roughly in blue... for your ease of navigation, sarcasm, this remains completely un-signposted in either direction! Further more there are in fact signs both to Osh and Khujand in place navigating you to the road marked in red. Travelling this is futile, believe me. 

Aside from the friendly border guards my first experience of Tajikistan was being stuck in a traffic jam due to the road being closed. This was coincidental due to the fact that the Belorussian President was visiting the region and the road was opened an hour later. However in this period I chatted to many friendly locals, all of whom noted my car looking pathetic with multiple punctures and on a spare tyre. It was obvious to any onlooker I was limping slowly and carefully into Dushanbe having sustained multiple damage. 

One HGV driver very kindly let me use his tyre pressure hose, re-inflating my tyres for this final leg into Dushanbe. As a thanks I gave him what was remaining in my tub of Pringles
™ ... yes! Pringles™ I was amazed to see them at a local Tajikistan petrol station and stocked up!

Arriving to Isfara is easy from Kyzyl-Bel, and simply follow the main road to Dushanbe. I arrived after a night resting in Khujand incident free 

Once I arrived into Dushanbe a large amount of luck fell upon me, for the next door neighbours to the guest house I stayed at were mechanics. Literally 10 minutes after arrival, they were in my car and navigating me to a local garage at 7pm. I'm so so grateful for their help. With extensive damage to all tyres I shrugged off the cost in favour of safety and bought a full set of 4 which were fitted the same night. 

I genuinely regret not taking a picture at this specific sage in my travels, for those unaware I travel(led) with a full set of 4 winter tyres (with metal studs) bought in Russia for obvious winter driving, now with the addition of 3 tyres and the spare my car looked like a genuine competitor for the Dakkar Rally. With the addition of my HID lamps it resembled some WRC machine!

With changing 4 new tyres we were able to get a good look at the chassis and suspension, everything seems in good working order although I did have a fair amount of rim damage. Next day with the same next door neighbours we went back to the mechanic took the tyres off again and did a full rim restoration and wheel alignment. The metal is heated and reforged back to shape by a master mechanic and a blowtorch. Impressive work! Having 4 tyres off simultaneously is pretty cool and the first time Ive seen this

12 hours after arriving into Dushanbe my car was all fixed up and back to good health, I figured the Fiesta needed some good TLC, washing cars is futile out here due to dust and mud but for the sake of it I gave my car a good wash inside and out - (though now just a week later you wouldn't be able to tell) As a thankyou I gifted the neighbours my 4 winter tyres aware that I likely wont need them again, aware that were it not for their help finding a garage, wheel alignment and a set of 185/55 R14 in Tajikistan would have been a bigger hassle.

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Bishkek to ....  Bishkek: Part 3 of 3:

Finally I've been able to find time to write up the anticipated conclusion to this central Asian adventure! With the car washed, news that tourists had been taking selfies with the car amazed by its presence in Central Asia, and in high spirits I set forth... into Pamir!


The choice to enter Pamir wasn't well thought out, per usual for me, and a flippant decision at best. I only entered Tajikistan for the fun of exploration and the decision to enter Pamir was for the sake of fun exploration also.

For those unaware of the region, Pamir is a region of Tajikistan home to the M41 - the famous Pamir Highway. With multiple mountain peaks, high altitude roads, and breath taking views, this is one of the most remote and beautiful regions in all of Central Asia.. supposedly. Shrouded with deep history as one of the original routes taken by traders during the Silk Road era the highway has become a popular attraction for tourists, especially motorbikers, and crazy cyclists!

The M41 itself is the highway but over time multiple routes through the region have evolved and many sections avoided or navigated around to avoid treacherous terrain or altitudes. From Dushanbe I headed east with pencil plans of taking about 7 days and looping back to Osh. But this wasn't to be and the outcome was very different.

Much of the initial drive was across below average but bearable tarmac conditions, to enter the region special Visa permissions need to be granted to gain access through the military checkpoints. however this is a easy process during Visa application. The proximity to Afghanistan can be measured in meters and the region now remains relatively safe considering events of 2001, Tajikistan conscripts patrol the border and Afghan military often cross into Tajikistan border to make use of their better road network across sections of border control regions.

I'm unsure of the world's preconceptions towards Afghanistan in today's climate, however more importantly: I'm unsure how Afghans think the outside world perceive THEM. So at my first opportunity of communication, seeing a family play along the river Pyandzh I pulled over and gave a universal friendly "toot-da-toot toot.... toot, toot" with the car horn.

Likely massively confused by the sudden communication from across the border the Afghans just stood and starred at me. However the youngest, a boy, started to jump up and down like a starfish. In turn, in plain view, I jumped up and down like a starfish. This turn based communication jumping up and down like a starfish lasted until I became out of breath... driving away with a farewell toot toot,  I hope this brief communication stays as a memory with the boy as he grows older. A memory, that should he be is any doubt one day, that the whole world doesn't hate him simply due to his nationality. This is important to me.

Pamir is renown for being a graveyard to HGVs and 4x4s alike, taking exception to no one, especially a front wheel drive Fiesta with a standard 45cm? ground clearance. On our first day, due to a combination of inexperience driving on rough terrain, and likely excessive speed (30mph instead of 15-20mph) I hit a 'rock.'

I say 'rock' as upon later inspection this was an immovable object so likely part of Earths crust! I was very very lucky upon impact, for my natural driving style is to drive with a hand permanently on the gear stick and the windows down, I felt a sudden and severe vibration straight up the gear stick.

Pulling over after about 200m due to the smell of oil and my oil light suddenly on I pulled over inspected the car realising this was perhaps more severe than other off road vibrations than initially expected. With the engine idling I inspected the undercarriage to see .. no exaggeration, a 4"x4" hole in my oil pan and the entire contents trailing in a lovely straight line behind me. Turning the engine off I was unsure what to do.

I'm not a mechanical person in all honesty, and am unfamiliar of engine mechanics to even understand the fundamentals. With the engine off I started the car again with the intention of driving back to near by  village. I owe a great amount of thanks to one or two locals behind me who had witnessed the impact, for they waving their arms in the air and crossing their arms furiously made me turn my engine off again. In frantic Tajik and hand signals it was more than obvious they were explaining not to turn the engine on.. ever. With their help and some children on push bikes we pushed the car 1km back to a nearby village (unnamed on a map) with a population of about 15 overlooking the Afghan border.

The village very very kindly put us (For reference 'US' being myself and a Canadian [Kim] *waves if you're reading this* I was exploring the region with, whom I met up with in Osh) up for the night.

The village itself was lovely and quaint, with emphasis to lovely homely gardens with fruit trees and a peaceful lifestyle. The family who put us up was home to a former Scout Sniper Peacekeeper,  he trained in Virginia and with deployments around the world including Chad during the Second Sudanese war and Afghanistan he had 17 LALO jumps to his name (~1,600ft!) as someone who has skydived solo, this is certainly an impressive statistic.

Where as HALO [High Altitude Low Opening] jumps are designed for troop deployment where: "the aircraft can fly above surface to air missile engagement levels through enemy skies without posing a threat to the transport or personal," and HAHO [High Altitude High Opening] jumps are designed for troops insertion where aircraft doesn't cross into restricted airspace [due to the high altitude of parachute deployment troops can cross country borders under canopy]... LALO [Low Altitude Low Opening] are jumps designed for troop deployment under radar levels, and is one of the most dangerous jumps for military personal. Often where aircraft is flying at sub 2000 feet altitudes.

Acutely aware of such hardships one may face with such a career I didn't press further beyond information he was willing to share. In summary a warm and welcoming gentleman and very grateful for being so welcoming.

...Ive diagressed

The village, population 15, by amazing coincidence/logic included a mechanic. With the oil pan removed, next day we headed back to Dushanbe in search for spare parts, or an attempt to bodge job weld fix the damage, so I can get my car back Dushanbe myself. With Ford a manufacturer that literally doesn't exist in the entirety [literally!] of Central Asia I wasn't holding my breath, so after our third trip to a traditional scrap yard imagine my utter surprise at finding an identical oil pan!

At $100 it wasn't cheap, but with the other choice being an end to my travels it was a price worth paying, returning to the village the following day the oil pan cleaned with petrol, was re-fitted with sealant and and a full oil change we all crossed our fingers and the key was turned.

The Fiesta only went and started first time with no hiccups like nothing had happened!

I returned to Dushanbe the same night wanting to return to civilisation and rest up. From here I was genuinely torn what to do next. Nothing has gone wrong with the car outside of driver error and I was genuinely 50/50 as to whether re-attempt a Pamir run.... running a Facebook poll amongst friends the result was one sided in favour of adventuring and attempting another run. However the same night and following day thunder, lightning and heavy rain hit the region, who am I to argue with Zeus himself, and weighing up my options and all the recent signs I abandoned Pamir and headed back to Khujand.

I think the decision to abandon Pamir would have been more difficult had I been in the region specifically for the M41, but I wasn't, so for me it was no loss. From Khujand I backtracked my steps back to Osh and back to Bishkek.

It was in Bishkek I bumped into
two Canadian 737 pilots, First Officers flying for West Jet, *waves if you're reading this* one of which had a following departure flight from Almaty (By coincidence my next natural destination) So for the second time in as many weeks had a friendly Canadian riding shotgun.

An easy enough border crossing back into KZ I was once again re-united with the vast steppes of the region...

Out of interest to any one reading can anyone suggest why I was able to find an oil pan in a continent where almost literally I am the only Ford? Some suggested that there's a Toyota which shares the same oil pan as me... and there's of course Opels... I was very, VERY lucky! I should have bought a lottery ticket!

*Attached are several images, including the mechanic, recognisable by his enthusiastic thumbs up, the damage, and the views near the northern Tajik border around south-western Kyrgzstan.

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Great Read!!!.. and that is one mother of a hole in that oil pan. Glad the locals stopped you from driving, it would have definitely been game over if you did.

 

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On 6/13/2018 at 12:48 PM, Steve said:

Great Read!!!.. and that is one mother of a hole in that oil pan. Glad the locals stopped you from driving, it would have definitely been game over if you did.

 

It sure was a big hole. As you say super super lucky with the locals, and this entire part of my travels!

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My last post ended in Almaty, from here I travelled the surprising 'good' quality road north. A 2 day drive resting in Balkhash situated to the shore of Lake Balkhash - this remained univentful and straight forward. Car runs fine. With the 10pm setting sun I reached my destination with open arms from locals.

ASTANA! 

I write in capitals to emphasise my enthusiasm reaching Astana the capital of Kazakhstan. Im not one for 'bucket lists' mainly due to the fact I forget what my items are, however somethings have been goals of mine for decades. 

Banff and the Vancouver area of Canada has been the #1 place in my life Ive always wanted to see (and eventually will)
#2 In close second was visiting Russia. A feat accomplished in August 2016
#3 Is specifically to see Astana.

You will likely all be unaware of the career I have taken a hiatus from, but I am a CG artist/visualiser specialising in Architecture. A niche job and generally speaking people in my position don't fall into it by chance. We work with architects and architectural drawings on a daily basis and its only natural one has a genuine interest for architecture. In fact it is not uncommon for Arch Viz CG artists to be former or dropout architects who have fallen in love with the creative/artistic side of things as oppose to the more technical engineering side of the field.

Kazakhstan is oil rich, cities such as Atryau only exist due to the close proximity of large oil fields and this money is being poured into Astana. Dubbed the Dubai of Central Asia this city is literally being built in the vast Kazakh desert and is a brand new city at only 20 years old.

The city is being designed and built as we speak, with gardens, parks,skyscrapers and flower beds everywhere there's no shortage of picturesque photo opportunities. 

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