Day 61, June 27 - Aqtobe - 20km S of Zhyrun

150km - 4150km, warm 26C, 20km/h tailwind turn side, 0 shots, 0 sauna, 1 Lenin, Camping

Headed out of Aqtobe at 830h south on a pretty good road riding fast about 30km/h with the nice tailwind. Stopped for a little breakfast of plov at a small cafe 25km along the road. Rode 20km and passed Algha - a pretty broken down little town site with decayed infrastructure and derelict buildings, and then another 50km south down to Qandyaghash, where I stopped at a cafe to eat horse meat and noodle soup. After lunch I passed through town and was spotted by the police who talked to me for 10 minutes - i thought that the bribe was going to be asked but it never was.

Leaving town, I turned increasingly eastward over poor roads and arrived in sleepy town of Zhyrun, where I had a bit of a snack and chatted with 10 or so local children. hung Looking skyward, I noticed that it was pretty black all around me, so I hung out for a while to let the thunderstorm pass - I didn't get wet but all around me did. I rode for 10km and finally reached the really shitty broken down road - 1/2 paved and 1/2 large gravel. Rough going for a while, but I made it to a little village where I provisioned for the evening. I chatted with the train station manager who told me that there were two Germans up ahead of me on a funny bicycle. After consulting with his wife, he invited me to stay with him at his house! I went to his house and had tea with the grandparents and family, drove around the village, and watched a little footy on TV. Them men then sat down to dinner with grandma and had "five fingers stew" - meat with thick noodles. I then easily went to sleep in my little bed.