The temperature was -16 when we woke up at Aktobe. The van took ages to heat up and we sat and shivered. It was a bit of a struggle getting out of Aktobe, especially as I asked a moron the way to Astrakhan and he jerked a thumb in entirely the wrong direction. Mapsme got us onto the right road eventually, and we stopped at a little shop and bought some bread and bananas. Nothing much else to report. Mile after mile after mile after mile of dreary Kazakh semi-desert. Desert with little grey plants about 9 inches high. Occasionally flat as a pancake, sometimes with gently rolling hills. The road was brilliant to Baiganin, with an excellent surface and occasional parking places, then became an absolute disaster with massive potholes. Stopped at what the map said was a small town but turned out to be the tiny village of Nogaity which was virtually deserted and had nothing. We slept in the desert close to the village.
