Central Asia tour Finland-Russia-Kazakstan-Uzbekistan-Taijikistan-Kirgistan

[Pata]

So, you might have read about our previous adventure, Caucasian challenge. I did promise that we are about to do new adventure to Central Asia.

Here it is as promised.

Before adventure

We did sell our trusted Defender and we bought Discovery to replace that. Most important thing was ac and more comfortable car.



But, when we applyed visas Kaz visa was difficult for us. No double entry visa, what ever we tried to do. Probably because we beat them in ice hockey world championship tournament... There was only two weeks before departure an decisions to make. Discovery was too expensive to leave there or to sell with reasonable price. So to the plan B, car ads magazine and find and buy as cheap car as possible. We end up buying Volvo 240 station wagon year model 1988, with just a bit over 400 000km driven.



Quick maintenance and I did build snorkel and oil sump guard. And so we started our journey to east!

Day 1 Tuusula Finland - Allmost Moscow Russia

Again it was an early start of the day. Last things in to the car and we started to head to east border between Finland and Russia. Nothing special before border. Finland's side was drive trough, Russian side took half an hour. After we got to Russian side first thing was fill up gas tank. Fuel is about half of price compared to Finland, so we did leave with almost empty fuel tank. There is gas station just after border so no problems. We drive around St-Petersburg and kept heading to Moscow. About six a clock we started to look for motel or cheap hotel to sleep.



Here is the end of first day. Stay tuned for more...

 

[Pata]

Day 2 Around Moscow to Stupino Russia

Early woke up, after good night sleep. We started morning writing our breakfast wishes in russian language on piece of paper. Because no-one spoke any other language than russia in this motel. Paper did the trick and we got almost everything what we hoped to get. After that we hit the road. From previous year we learned that you have to go round Moscow on outer ring road. Yep, we tried. Next time I will go even more round... 400km drive took around 13 hours. Just sitting in traffic jam all day. Local way is to go pass where ever or how ever you can. That slows traffic even more.

After Moscow traffic was fine and we reached city of Stupino in the evening. We have looked central hotel before we arrived, but we just couldn't find hotel were it supposed to be. After we asked local milis they guided us in the right place.





Couple beers and some food and after that to hotel to get some sleep before next days drive.

Day 3 Stupino Russia - Volgograd Russia

Breakfast in hotel room and after that we hit the road. Roads here are straight and long. Big country with long distances. We headed towards Volgograd and days leg was around 700km. Nothing special about days drive. Volvo had some hickups during the day, but we didn't find any specific fault. We did change new spark plugs and it did helped little.



You can buy dry fish as a snack from the gas station...

We arrived in Volgograd and we found hotel right away. We probably got most expensive room in hotel with private sauna and own jacuzi. Only problem was Northern Karabach visas in our passports from our previous trip. "Why this?" "I have been there." "What have you done there?" "Tourist trip" "Why?" " Well, because I can..?" that was this examination during hotel booking. And it kept going like half an hour. They did took copies from all the visas during that process.

After we got the room, we went to local supermarket to get breakfast and some drinks for evening. We even got some local champange for jacuzi...

More story is coming, stay tuned!

 

[Scott Brady]

Awesome!

Great trip repost and a fun story so far. Central Asia has been one of the highlights of my travels. Any plans to do the Pamir Highway or the Wakhan?

 

[Pata]

We did some parts of Pamir Highway... Wait for it... There is more story coming up!

 

[Ray Hyland]

As the guys in the OJ offices can testify, I have long wished to see someone do a long Overland journey in a Volvo Station Wagon.

 

[Pata]

Day 4 Volgograd Russia - Astrakhan Russia

Long sleep this morning. After that nice breakfast with one boiled egg, one sausage and small portion on porridge. Days leg was only 400km so no need to hurry.



As we headed more south all the time, landscape started to change more. No trees, just grass. And long straight road. We drived along mighty Volga river and it was nice to stop once in a while and enjoy wind to cool you down.

We arrived Astrakhan in the afternoon and founded our hotel quite easily. We booked ourselves in hotel and started to wait other teams to arrive. After that we headed out to town, there was lots of memorial statues.

We went to get some pizza for dinner and those were huge!

Day 5 Rest day in Astrakhan

Day 5 was rest day for us, we have allready done around 2500km in four days. So today we didn't drive at all. I did small maintenance to car. Our third team member Maria was also arriving today and other team's as well. After Maria arrived our life changed easy. She speaks fluent Russia so no more language problems. We had a dinner in the hotel restaurant and after that we head out to town to see night life. Anyway plan was to go and grab one or two beers but we took wrong door and we ended up to local high class restaurant. We had some champanje and tiramisu and of course shisha pipe.

Day 6 Rest day in Astrakhan

Today all other teams should be arriving. We took long walk around the Astrakhan city. It was hot and hot and did I mentioned hot. Temperature daytime was around +35C and air is completely dry. By the evening time other teams started to arrive. It was nice to see old friends from previous adventures and get to know new people! Some beers in hotel bar and after that good night sleep.

Day 7 Astrakhan Russia - Beyneu Kazakstan

Early woke up, and we had a hot day! No shadow at all and temperature inside car was aroun +40C. We started early, because we had long way to go. Again day was eating miles to go in central Asia. Days leg was almost 800km with border crossing. We leave from Astrakhan and first part of the road was bad. After we got to Kazakstan side roads were better. We did see some turtles and camels in the way and landskape is almost desert.

We stopped once in a while to buy water. But there isn't much to stop. Just desert. We were still on the road when sun was going down. After dark there was one guy on side of the road waving flashlight. First i drive pass, but we did stop. Inka said that it was Jack from team Canada. So we turned around and drived back. They had problems with started in their car. So we helped them to get car back running and after that we continue as a two car convoy. We were first to arrive in the hotel and we had a possibility to get room with shower! All others arrived in next two hour and we had lot to talk about with all new people. Canadians offered our dinner and some beers because we rescued them from the side of the road.

More story will be here during the weekend, stay tuned!

 

[unkamonkey]

Nice report, I've owned a few Volvos. Other than the color it looks like my '86.

 

[Pata]

Day 8 Beyneu Kazakstan - Muynaq Beach Uzbek

In the morning we give Canadians push start. Starter was gone, luckily car was with manual transmission. We headed to border early, because it's difficult to go pass this border. Roads were gravel, with big potholes. Dust, avoiding holes and extremely hot.



We stopped before the border to buy some water and stuff. Road conditions were really bad, but it was getting even worse. We reached border quite early and started to declare ourselves out of Kazakstan. Our papers were fine but Canadians had a rental car and one paper was missing. So, they had to wait others to arrive. We hopped in the car and drive to "no mans land" between countries. And then everything just stopped. We had to wait that officers end their lunch hour. Inka and Maria scouted what was happening. They negotiated with border officer and suddently all the trucks moved a side and let us go pass. Nice!



We got first place in the line and then all hell started. It was hot as hell and when they started to do inpection of our luggages and car I thought that this wouldn't end ever. First everything inside the car out and to be x-rayed. After that all phones, laptops, ipads to be checked. All photos and videos must be shown. To avoid porn and religious material entering inside the country. All together it took like 4 or 5 hours. I cant even remember anymore, it was so annoying.



Landscape was totally desert with camels in Uzbek side. We decided to take a shortcut trough desert to be more early in the camp site. We followed tyre marks and gps in the middle of desert. Some points were little bit tricky, Volvo is not an offroad car after all. But we managed to drive trough desert anyway. All off road driving in Finland was good basis to go there.





We were first ones to reach camping site on side of ghost ships of Aral lake. We had a local guide waiting for us. He was amazed that we got trough desert with Volvo. It wasn't possible with 2wd car, only with trucks. We put our tents up and started to make dinner, with our guide. Only two teams arrived after us in the camping site. Other 4 teams had to stay night somewhere in the side of the road. But they reached us in the morning. We took some photos in the morning and I did some maintenance for car. Exhaust fix and for Belgian guys I fixed one tyre.





Stay tuned more story will come shortly! And if you want to see photos in bigger size, just click them.

 

[johanso]

Wow! Way cool. You really can't beat an old 240 for reliability (well maybe a w123 Merc)

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Pata]

Day 9 Muynaq beach Uzbek - Khiva Uzbek

In the morning we woke up in sunshine and some cows making noise. We spend our night on old dock, place which has been place for fishing boats when there was water. Now there is several meter long drop on bottom of the sea. We took some photos and did some repairs for the cars.



This day was on good roads, with some problems. No gasoline anywhere. There was some petrol stations but no petrol. Only way to buy petrol is look on side of the road for bottles filled up with petrol. That was a sing that there was 10 to 15 litres gasoline for sale. And quality of gasoline was very poor. Around 80 octane and it has been continued with some solvent. Probably gasoline was around 60 octane and lots of dirt on it.

But we managed with kazak gasoline all the way to Khiva without any bigger problems. We arrived to Khiva in the afternoon and founded hotel after small detour. Our hotel was just on the edge of old town, so not long way to see some sights.

IMG_0959

IMG_0960

Polish girls had problems with the Suzuki what they were driving. I did look at the car and we did find some faults. Sparkplugs were without any gap and one wire was broken. We managed to fix those and Suzuki back on the road again. By the evening we went out to have nice dinner with whole group.

 

[Pata]

Day 10 Khiva Uzbek - Bukhara Uzbek

We started our day with the best breakfast ever. It was huge and there was everything what you could hope. Even coffee! After that we went out to see old town and bazaar. And there was everything and much more what you can imagine. And then we hit the road again. First stop just before we went out of town to buy some frozen water bottles and snacks for days drive. First 60km went ok, but after that it hit us. Poor fuel started to make some problems. 500m at the time and after that car just died. After small waiting it woke up again and again after 500m it died. We limped to small town and find a car repair shop. It was sunday and mechanic was home, but people did call him to get some help for us. I started to find fault by cleaning all the fuel lines, fuel pump, fuel filter and so on. But nothing helped. I started to think that would it be possibly on electricks of the car. We checked sparkplugs, wires, distributor, coil and so on. But nothing.

korjaamo

It took several hours to find problem, but nothing seemed to help. I started to feel that this was the end of the road for Volvo. I called other that could they come and pick us up. Other guys, told that no worries they will come to rescue. Luckily there was this Russian mechanic with them. He did took look under the bonnet and couple test runs and we have found problem. Fuel quality is so bad that it jams injection valve. Small knocking on the side of injection unit and we did manage to drive 30-50km. That was enough to get us going.

We reached Bukhara about 2 or 3 am and we open up our breakdown bottle with others. And some other bottles too... We went to bed after 6 am...

IMG_0961

 

[MLu]

Hah, I looked at that exact same Discovery before buying my own! Too bad you couldn't take it, but looks like an awesome trip with the Volvo still.

 

[Pata]

Day 11 Restday in Bukhara

This was a rest day for us. No driving, but lot of things to fix. Everybody had something to fix in their cars. We did go to local car bazar to find oil, belts, tyres and other stuff to keep us going. Even these guys don't have much they are ready to help. I spend my day fixing car and girls went out to see town.





After car was fixed we had a snack in local Burger King.



By the evening whole group gather up in the dinner. It was nice to eat in roof terrace and see town.

Day 12 Bukhara-Samarkand Uzbek

We started day quite early because heat was not so bad. Our car suffered about this heat a lot. I did couple wentilation holes in the bonnet to help car to cool down. And it did helped little bit. It was so hot that radio and clock stopped working.



We chose to drive on the main roads, because car wasn't so reliable as I would hoped to be. Biggest problems caused heat and poor fuel. Polish girls had major issues with their Suzuki. They burned head gasket and car was done. Belgians towed them in Samarkand and our local guide managed to get car in the shop right away.

After we got to Samarkand hotel, we take a quick shower and after that straight to see the Blue Mosque. But we didn't go inside because the pricing. Locals payed 3000 local money but our price was 16000 per person. I felt little bit cheated.

 

[Pata]

First, sorry for delay...

Day 13 Samarkand UZB - Dushambe TAJ

Days are starting as usual. After breakfast you pack your bags, routine check's for car and so on. Today we drive trough country side to get in Tajikistan while the border would be open. They close that border on 7.00 pm so you need to get there before that. Inka was feeling a bit sick today so she took place from team Canada's car and enjoyed a good sleep in car with AC. Good solution because she felt better after days sleep in car.

By the time we started to reach border we realized that we are in a hurry. Clock was allready 6.00 pm and we still had more than 40km to go. And roads aren't so fast there.

We reached border just before it was closed for that day. Paperwork wasn't so bad as we arrived but it still took some time. We told that there is still other people coming and they promised us to keep border open. How nice was that! We reached our hotel in center of Dushanbe just when sun gets down.

Day 14 Dushanbe TAJ - Tavildara TAJ

In the morning Dushanbe was like any other big city. People were heading to work and school, it was nice too just sit on breakfast on side on busy road and watch people. Hotel it self was old and Soviet style. Todays drive was easy, mainly on tarmac roads and only 200km.

First stop as always was to buy some water and snack for todays drive. After that we headed out to countryside.

Roads were nice and landscape as well. We took our time and stopped once an a while to took photos and just to look around. We find a perfect spot to stop and eat in a restaurant under this big tree. Owner told that tree has been planter in year 56. "1956?" I asked, "No 0056." told the owner.

After good lunch we hit the road again. We turned to smaller dirt road and I starter do hear some kind of banging from the chassis. I stopped car and crawled under. It was the right time to do so, because all these bumps and potholes had loosen our front axle. Luckily bolts were still there, so tighten them with some silicone in thread keep them in place.

First I thought it was only a bearing, but no. Team Canada reached us while we were fixing our car. We drived rest of the leg together and reached our residence quit early. We waited others to arrive and started to make dinner. Jack had great Georgian red wine with him and we had some pasta for dinner. Perfect! Tomorrow is going to be big day, we are hitting to Pamir highway!

 

[thethePete]

Fantastic adventure and thanks for sharing! Glad to hear the Canadians are holding up our friendly reputation.

This part really stuck with me "Owner told that tree has been planter in year 56. "1956?" I asked, "No 0056." told the owner."
I love trees, and the thought of being next to something so ancient just gives me shivers.

I always find it interesting to read about travels through the less modernized areas of the world. Once again, thank you for bringing us along on your adventure.