Motorbikes

In Beinju in Kazakhstan, just before the border, we noticed that Marcin's motorbike has a little problem.. but since we were already so remote from any place with a chance of being able to fix it, we decided to keep going. After 170km gravel road it looked like this...

I really don't know what this is called in English, but since Marcin spread all the oil that was once inside this part on the road, he looks quite funny when he hops along the road like on a rubber ball.... (no more attenuation of his suspension)

Also he complains about some funny sounds.. but so far his bike still runs well apart from this jumping thing.

On my bike the suspension fork is leaking oil, so that has to be fixed as well.

Since we can only pick up spare parts from Taschkent, we'll keep going and hopefully with the help of Christian and the ADAC will be able to pick up some parts there. Since Taschkent is a fair bit away from here, the plan is to visit Chiva, Buchara and Samarkand on the way, then hopefully pick up the parts from Taschkent, get the bikes fixed and head down south towards Dushanbe (Tajikistan).

Nukus, where we are having a day off from riding today to check the bikes for more damages, seems to be the capital of Karakalpakstan, a somewhat independent state with, as I was told, different culture and also language from the rest of Uzbekistan. This region is the area that was most heavily hit by the consequences of the dying Aral sea (which used to be quite close but is now far away). And we did feel some consequences too, when a little sandstorm hit us one night. (Sand and salt is what stayed behind as the water retreated...) It was extremly noisy inside our tent and in the morning there was sand EVERYwhere... even between our teeth. Mniam mniam :)

I'll try to put some new photos into Picasa in a minute..