Syd Stelvio Peking to Paris 25 - Day 17 – Shymkent to Kyzylorda – 510km

Another day of long transit sections, which are just a necessary part of getting across Kazakhstan, the ninth largest country in the world, and we’re on a deadline. The boat across the Caspian will leave whether we are there or not, and if the cars aren’t on it, that’s the job knackered.

So, with that said, today followed a similar pattern to the previous one, but thankfully not quite as long. Our route would plunge us fully into the vacuous Kazakh Steppe, which is the largest in the world. It’s vast, and over the next few days we will cross it in its entirety. Today was but a taste of what is to come, especially when we head completely off road tomorrow afternoon, after which point it is desert driving almost all the way to the Caspian.

There was some off-road fun to be had today, before the monotony of the afternoon. In fact, the scheduled STC section was a bit of a cracker, a 29km blast across the dust and waste that passes as grazing land in these parts, complete with confused goat herders, marshalling their flocks to safety as the cars blasted through. The surface ranged from soft sand to hardpacked dirt, with smooth and rough section stuff as well, that some cars, such as the Toyota Hilux of Paul Maddicott and Lee Potter took some air over. They weren’t the only ones…

It was an opportunity for those who had not enjoyed as good a day yesterday to claw back some time, crews like John Henderson and Lui MacLennan, with John ringing the neck of the Volvo as he piled on the coals. They would clean the section, but so did everyone around them, leaving everyone at stalemates. This was a long section, and as we saw yesterday the positions can swing on a single error, but all of those in the hunt were keeping their nerve.

Our overall leaders looked smooth and in control as always, Tony Rowe and Mark Delling in car 23 less so, swinging the back around as they attempted to punch their way up the score sheet. Others were getting held up, car 30, Peter Berveling and Pieck van Hoven hammering on the horn almost as hard as the accelerator as they caught slower cars ahead. Losing ground and losing time in their bid to stay top of their class.

At the sharp end Brian Scowcroft and Mark Gilmour lost their ignition at the beginning of the section, but quick and calm thinking from Mark quickly diagnosed the issue as a blown fuse and rectified the problem. Brian then did the rest, pushing the Fangio to claw back the time. They zeroed the section. The sun was out, and it was hot, so this was a physical challenge as well, and with the wind whipping up towering dust devils those in the open top cars had plenty of extra hazards to overcome.

The long transit section to follow gave plenty of time for contemplation, of success and of failure, but if I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, there is a long way to go and after tomorrow’s transit day the final two days in Kazakhstan promise to be some of the toughest so far. Emerge unscathed from those and you can perhaps begin to think about an end game, perhaps.

The makeshift paddock in the hotel was a hive of activity this evening, with frantic repairs and maintenance happening, ahead of the long days ahead and the two nights of camping. Some were still out on the road, after mechanical issues on the highway, such as Brian and John Caudwell that had suffered distributor issues before then discovering a carburettor float issue that was starving the engine of fuel. Harold Goddijn and Corinne Vigreux had their Porsche on jacks, with a broken oil cooler, assisted by Laurenz Feierabend, one of their closest rivals, showing the spirit of camaraderie in the camp. All around there was a real fizz of activity, whilst the residents of Kyzylorda watched on, posing for photos with the machines and their crews.

Tomorrow we will hit the halfway point of this adventure, this journey. Suddenly, Beijing feels like a distant dream. Tomorrow is many more miles of transit, out past the Baikonur Cosmodrome, out into a part of Kazakh that is so remote it’s suitable for firing rockets from. The gigantic LaFrance won’t be heading into the desert with us. They are running, but theirs is a different, but no less arduous journey. For them, the long road around the Steppe beckons, an even greater distance that is just as much of an adventure and comes with the same pressures of time. Time that from tomorrow, will have less left than has now passed.

Syd