We are getting close now and are on the final leg to Almaty.
But first it is time to say farewell to Pavlodar as Diana has deemed herself fit to travel albeit ..... Stop there, no further details offered!
Pavlodar was a nice city.
When you are 5000 kmfrom the sea - you go to the beach
The tomb of the unknown warrior
War memorial park
And we find ourselves in the morning on a nice dual carriageway.
Flat, straight and boring - just what we want right now quite frankly.
We see a sign to Sputnik.
Given that Kazakhstan was the centre of the Soviet space program then possibly Sputnik was launched from round here somewhere.
That got me thinking. I remember in about 1956 as a young 10 year old going out into the paddock about 8 pm to watch the very first Sputnik fly overhead. I think I saw it! My father swore he did.
Of all of mankind’s greatest achievements then satellites into space must be truly one of the greatest. Imagine the world now without satellites and their power to receive from earth and to beam back to earth. Pursuing these thoughts under my helmet sure does allow the kilometres pass to very quickly
I normally don’t post pictures of road cuttings - they tend not to be the most interesting but the colours here were quite amazing
The toilets at roadside stops remain as in Russia - squalid little affairs
This one is disappearing into itself.
Some of the roadside coffee stop places were “ tired”.
But then Astana (or Nur Sultan as it is called now) approaches and it is anything but tired.
Super archtecture and layout. As someone who has studied urban design in a previous life I found the archtecture and layout to be jaw dropping
The entrance to the city
And once in the city...
In view of our various sicknesses over the last while we shout ourselves a night of pampered luxury at the Ritz Carlton hotel, right in the centre of town. And luxury it was! As I tucked into a stunning dish of “foal cheeks” washed down by a very nice glass of Yealands Marlborough Pinot Noir one could but not help reflecting on the contrast in some of our accomodations over the duration of the trip. Everything from 0.25 star (on a good day!) to 5 star and everything in between. Such contrasts do the richness of travel make!
It was very funny parking the bike at the hotel. There were 5 security barriers to get into the underground car park. At the second one the barrier arm came crashing down on my bike as I went to pass through. There was high consternation and at least three staff came up to apologise. Anyway the funny bit was that they told me they had never had a motorbike in their car park before and the barrier arm sensors and timing could not cope with a motorbike! I was promised very sincerely that head office would be told about the problem would be fixed for next time. A real first world problem! As for the parking area every bay was painted and marked with a high gloss paint finish and in the morning they were polishing the floor with an old fashioned long floor polisher. I hope they were not waxing it - now that would be a real problem for motorbikes! Oh, and by the way there was a Rolls Royce parked not to far from the Redhead
After a breakfast that would be understated to be called “ sumptuous” we put our pampered selves back on the bike and head down to Karagandy which is 200 km south of Astana.
We stay at the “ Cosmonaut “ hotel where the book says that Cosmonauts once stayed. I am not sure about that - just good marketing I think! But we are not to far from Baikanur where the Russian Soyuz rockets take off with cosmonauts and astronauts and cargo for the ISS (International Space Station).
So now dear reader we find ourselves with just 1000km to go to Almaty. The next post will be from Almaty. It will be one of great happiness or great despair - that all depends on what Mr BMW has to say at the BMW service centre aptly called Bavarian Motors. We were told in Ulan Bataar by a Spanish motorcycle celebrity (Miguel who was doing a Charlie Borman/ Ewan McGregor impersonation of a trip across Central Asia - complete with film crew!) that Bavarian Motors are good with motorbikes Let us test them !
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