Syd Stelvio Peking to Paris 25 Days 18 & 19

There aren’t many places in the world that you can really call the wilderness, but the Kazakh steppe is one of them. It is a vast and barren space, with few distinguishing features and our journey on day 18 and 19 took us right through the heart of it, across the stark desert and scrub of the steppe.

Whilst the desert was a constant, the days themselves were vastly different. Day 18 was another long transit day, cutting through great swathes of Kazakhstan on the M-32 highway to Aral, the old port town for the vanishing sea. This road may have been highway, but it was no dual carriageway, instead it was mile after mile of busy road, full of freight to overtake, whilst dodging the lunatic Kazakh’s that forced their way past trucks in heavily laden saloon cars, with little consideration for oncoming traffic.

The desert arrived quickly, absorbing the fertile paddy fields on the outskirts of Kyzylorda and ushering us into the landscape that would be home for the next couple of days. Fitting perhaps that we would pass the halfway point out here in the nothing, marked by a simple board on the side of the highway. Just over the hill from this point was the Baikonur Cosmodrome, a place where other journeys have begun, for great pioneers like Gagarin, and it was perhaps a moment for taking stock of our journey, of where we were heading and of where we have been.

After 500km the route turned off of the ‘32 and hit the gravel, to begin our push across the dried-up bed of the Aral Sea. It was bizarre to think we were driving where fish once swam, a reminder of the terrible impact man can have on the world. After 100km or so on the dirt road, there was a regularity to contest, and then a short drive to our camp that was within sight of what is left of the Aral. The regularity didn’t cause too many issues, but only one crew got their lines word perfect, with the Caudwell’s nailing the timing and accruing no penalty at all.

As the crews arrived into the camp, a spectacular weather front rolled across the landscape, with a large storm brewing in the distance. It had been a stormy day for one or two of the crews as well, with car 68 grinding to a halt on the highway with a seized engine. It’s two occupants, Alejandro Caceres and Jose Luis Martinez Gutierrez where typically upbeat, and will hope to get it fixed in Baku. Peter Berveling and Pieck van Hoven had also stopped out on the sand, but their problem was easier to fix, with the engine overheating after a mix-up of polarities had caused the fan to spin the wrong way.

It's fair to say that when we travelled this route last year, it was one of the toughest days of the rally, so day 19 was approached with some trepidation. It began with a sporting time control, running as a reverse of the previous evening’s regularity, and was fairly inoffensive, a nice little aperitif before the long desert drive began in earnest.

The day would be driven in largely straight lines on a pipeline service road that would take us right across the former seabed, on a road that had seen plenty of work since our last visit, with long sections now graded and smooth, allowing swift progress through the void. We wouldn’t see many people out here, indeed the only spectators were Camels and Horses, as well as Kamikaze Swifts that were perched on the road. They must have been watching videos of spectators back in the Group B days, as they left it to the very last second to take flight, getting as close as they dared to the cars, which inevitably was too close at times.

Despite the tracks being much smoother than last year, the road was still capable of biting, a fact discovered by Ryan and Isaiah Salter who snapped a front strut on the Datsun and were forced onto a flatbed bound for Aktau. Jürgen Wirtgen and Stephan Heberer had also suffered at the hands of a belligerent bump and broke something on the front-end assembly of the Bentley, but their issue was repairable on the side of the road. Things often come in threes, and this trilogy of suspension and steering related issues was completed by car 50, the Volvo PV544 of Nicolas and Max Merlino, which broke a wishbone that put them in the hands of the recovery crews.

For everyone else there was another STC, which was a relatively simple affair, and a case of less haste equals more speed, and was despatched without issue for the majority of the field.

It was then a straight run to the MTC, located at the start of what should have been a regularity, but had been deemed too rough for competition by the advance car. It was another rapid run on beautifully graded gravel, with the cars kicking up great rooster tails of sand as they travelled in convoy. A closer look at the dust firing out of the back of Brian Scowcroft and Mark Gilmours car though, and it was clear all was not well, as a great plume of oil was being ejected from the exhaust of the Fangio. The car was drinking oil, and fast, with a suspect piston that may not be long for this world. They would nurse the car to camp, but the podium sitters intend to push on with the competition on day twenty, Aktau or bust.

The journey to camp was a dusty one, particularly towards the end, with great clouds of sand thrown into the air as the cars travelled along the tracks. The brisk crosswind wasn’t helping, swelling the plume and blowing it across the road, making for some exciting driving towards the end of the day as multiple tracks became available and competitors chose which one they thought was smoothest.

After two days of competition, the positions had in fact remained fairly static, with no changes in the top half of the field at all. There were also a lot of zeroes on day 19, helped by the cancelled regularity. It is still tight at the top between the two battling Chevrolet’s, with Jorge and Cristobel Perez Companc still besting Brian Scowcroft and Mark Gilmour, but with the second placed car now being nursed, the picture may well change on day 20.

It had been quite a couple of days, with big distance covered. As we spend our last night camping on this trip, before heading to the docks on day 20, there is much to contemplate and celebrate from the last three weeks. Kazakhstan isn’t quite finished yet though, with 530km of the country still to cross before the port, and one last STC in this distinctive environment.

Syd