Day 20

Distance Covered: 182 miles

Total Distance Covered: 3792 miles

Outrageously hungover, after a huge buffet breakfast we headed for the Kazakhstan border, clearing the border fairly quickly we headed toward our next destination ‘Atyrau’ but about 2 minutes down the road we were stopped by officials at a very unofficial looking checkpoint. After trying to get us on various different fictional offences they grabbed our phrase book, rolled it up and made us breath into the cavity they then proceeded to smell it and shake their heads, I mean I’m no expert on these matters but I’m not sure of the legitimacy or accuracy of this particular test. After ‘breathalysing’ Rob they tried to convince us that despite not being the driver it was an offence to have alcohol in your system as a passenger, not even the free coffee we gave them made them any less tenacious but eventually we slipped through their clutches and were back on the road. Not making it to Atyrau we pulled off the road in the middle of the desert and camped with a caravan of camels. Some time mid way through supper we were freaked out by the appearance of a nasty little scorpion, the thought of such things hadn’t even crossed our minds until this point After donning the shoes and spending hours messing about with long exposure on Denny’s camera we settled in for the night.