The days are blurring together.

Arrive in Aqtobe,

Today we see a marked improvement in road quality as we near Aqtobe and arrive at Aqtobe lake in the early evening. We set up camp on a nice sandy beach and go for a clean up swim in the lake - just in time as Chris was going to shave his head if he had to go one more day without a shower. Today is Williams birthday (a guy in one of the Peugeots) so it was great to have a bit of time for a good fire and some beers.

Drive from Aqtobe to Aral,

Today we made great time for the first few hours till we drove through Qarabutaq where road construction began. How they do roads here seems to be to tear up hundreds of km of road and make everyone drive through the field beside the road till the road is complete. The sand was so soft that we would regularly sink in it and get stuck. The nice part is that when one of these cars is stuck, even fully high-centered with the wheels spinning in the air, 5 or 6 guys can throw it back on the road. At the end of a very long day we finish where we want to be, a stones throw out from Aral (the city).