Day 62, June 28 - 20km S of Zhyrun - 30km before Qoturas

120km - 4270km, warmish 30C, 20km/h headwind, 0 shots, 0 sauna, 0 Lenin, Camping, flat tire
Woke up at 700h and had tea with grandma. Said goodbye to the family and started riding out on the broken pavement (and often the dirt road to the side). Made it about 30km before reaching the town of Emba. Along the route I kept hearing about a couple of Germans that were a little bit ahead of me, and when i got to town i spotted their flag on their tandem recumbent bicycle. (They were heading from Munich to Beijing, and had spent the morning trying to fix a hole in the trailer tire.) I chatted with them for a bit and said that i would meet up with them on the road ahead, went into the cafe and grabbed lunch and a plov snack to go.

I met up with the Germans about 20km along the road and we decided to move along the broken roads together. They were a little bit slower than me in the broken road paving mess, but that was fine by me as i enjoyed the company and was glad not to be traversing the desert alone. We rode a few villages and then up over a small razorback mountain ridge, where i got my first front flat in a few weeks. Much to my joy, in fixing my tire I noticed that my back wheel rim was cracked in multiple places (yikes! decisions decisions!) We went a bit further where the Germans had a little problem with loose sand and went for a tumble, breaking some of their equipment. We managed to go only another 10km until we found a nice hill to hide behind, where we made dinner and chatter/slept in the open under the milkywayish stars.