Morning wash was an event as can be seen from Kirit’s face!
Heading for Nukus in Uzbekistan at 9.15am
36121 and got another 140 miles to have travelled 5000 miles (36,261 miles)
Uncomfortable drive to the border,reached at 11am and a mega queue of vehicles greeted us – could see this was going to be a very long process
It’s been a pretty frustrating day at the border,it’s now 5.30pm and we have been here nearly seven hours.There appears to be no movement of vehicles whatsoever ever.We managed to use a v basic – I mean v basic toilets on the Kazakstan border.No partition and six holes in the ground!
Spent most of the afternoon in the vehicle ,sleeping and nibbling at what ever bites we had.
After two check points we had to go through on the Kazakhstan side ,we were finally approaching the first of three check point on the Uzbekistan side – as ‘tourists’ we managed to pass ,I would say at least a couple of hundred cars – the locals were absolutely fine and in fact some helped us.
We were finally coming to the business end of this particularly memorable (not for anything good) part of the journey.
Whilst waiting ( now on the Uzbekistan side) we managed to wash the utensils ,using a hose with running water in preparation of the distinct possibility we may have to cook and tent it today.
Customs guy took a particular liking to some of the photos I had taken of the trip and this took up a further hour.He made me delete a couple of photos I had taken of the immigration area. ( but not all – for some reason) but then he insisted I delete a number of my Ukraine(Kiev) photos and a few video’s I had taken there .By now I was in no mood to do anything but delete whatever he wanted.
Even at the final check point we had to go back because we had not been given completed documentation for the car.We finally were given the all clear,with a welcome to Uzbekistan from a customs guy.Thanks ! After a 9 and a half hour wait and no proper sanitation
Started to become dark – being 8.15 pm with no accommodation / food.On route to town – guess what ,we had to go through one more checkpoint on some off main road track.Now we needed some luck – thankfully we got it.
A casual knock on a random house in a village close to the border we had just crossed led to a contact being made ,for us to have an evening meal ,accommodation for the evening and the help of a local who spoke English – Great ,the tent will have to wait for another day.
The blue container looking premisses is where we purchased our car from

Our accommodation for the evening was one room – four people
From Russia to Kazakhstan you could see the changes in facial features of people as we crossed the country – distinctly Mongolian looking,all have been equally friendly as in previous countries we have visited.
After our epic day in Uzbeckistan customs we will be heading for Nukus tomorrow morning – wondering what surprises we will encounter.Perhaps on our European leg we were in the predictable zone but with the start of the Asia phase ,has already brought a few unexpected surprises .