Tours

Too bad the blues was taken by the previous entry, 'cause the last days would also have suited some lamentation..



Qizilorda, 16 October 2009

Must have been that 'french dish' that I accidentally ordered in a Korean restaurant in Aral... (I know, quite the combination, and as so often in far away places, it's better not to deviate too much from the local cuisine.) An upset stomach was in any case the result. And like the Soviet remodeling of the rivers that used to supply water to the Aral Sea (and placed the city that used to be at its shores, at a 60 km distance; after efforts to save the northern part, or little Aral, this distance is now approximately 30 km) this food drained my body of water. And that doesn't help. Especially not with very strong headwind. I struggled to Qizilorda, where the sky has cleared (literally, I even got sunburnt, although that doesn't mean much in my case) after a hot shower.



But I left Aral with a smile on my face: on the road again and this time the road was made of tarmac. About 40K into the morning, I was overtaken by an odd-looking vehicle. Later I would know that this is what a Puch/Pinzgauer Swiss army vehicle made camper van looks like. It pulled over. When I passed I looked into another smiling face. "Hallo!" The license plates had told me that this person most-probably came from Switzerland, but in these instances you still ask: "where you're from?" 'Die Schweiz' it was. Urs his name. We settled on German and made our introductions, which mainly focused on the road behind and ahead. When this tasted like more we agreed to meet again. Funny how that goes. K: "I will probably make another 80km today.." U: "I still have to do some laundry.." K: "So perhaps we can meet somewhere around this town here (pointing at map).." U: "Gut, ich warte, die erste Tankstelle?" It proved to be a far better place: a little lake surrounded by steppe bush in autumn colour. At the moment the desert really boasts a lot of colour: shades of green, yellow, ochre, orange, brown.. When the sun sets and the light becomes more and more yellow, it's a beautiful sight.



We placed my packs and cycle in the mobile home and went into town to buy some groceries for dinner. After this we found a quiet spot somewhere in the Wüste. Great to cook again (and by cooking I mean something else than boiling water for noodles). That evening Urs told me about his passion for traveling. He actually managed to make a lifestyle out of this passion. He built a house on six wheels and drives nine out of twelve months around the globe in search for beautiful spots to stand. His credo: "mal sehen" (let's have a look), something I also like to say, but when you have to cycle every kilometre, you don't make a turn that easily. On an earlier travel, Urs spend 4 years (in a row) in Africa. This is indeed no longer traveling, but living. Blending in and seeing what life over there is like. Too bad visa's often limit the possibility to do so, but the time that is given is pure quality time. "You know, living is actually very easy", he told me. And he's right. Although our modern society makes it feel like it's hard work, if you scale down your needs and wants, you can live a very comfortable life and see an incredible lot.

An African touch to the OST. It seems like the 'Bembeya Jazz National' named it after my fellow traveler: