Thank goodness, when I woke up I felt much better! The medicine worked, so back on the road with a 5 am start heading to Monyak.
So our next issue was getting enough petrol to see us through 500 miles and 2 days of hard uneconomical desert driving. As expected the petrol stations were all derelict, or had closed down to make way for gaz stations. Luckily Andy spotted a coke bottle of petrol outside of someone's house and they were able to sell us 40 litres of petrol. We precariously bungeed and strapped this to the bike in water bottles and and an old oil can. We didn't expect to see a petrol station until we reached Kazakhstan.
Unfortunately it didn't take long for one of the ratchet straps to work loose and wind itself around the rear sprocket. This pinched the water bottle which contained our spare engine oil, so tightly that it burst and sprayed a litre of oil all over our legs!
On the way to Monyak we crossed an interesting pontoon bridge made out of various bits and pieces of sheet metal welded together like a patch work quilt. Slippery with random spikey bits that threatened to punch the tyres, it made an interesting addition to the ride.
As we progressed in the midday heat we started to feel really bad (not helped by yesterday's lack of food due to illness) so when I saw a river, we took the opportunity to cool down by getting in to the water fully clothed in all the motorbike gear. This had a lovely cooling effect once back on the road. I later read in the lonely planet guide, that the rivers that feed the cotton fields are notorious for being heavily contaminated with pesticides!
When we arrived at Monyak we passed a huge sign that welcomed you to a seaside fishing port and holiday resort. The sad reality of the Aral sea disaster becomes immediately apparent once you enter the town. The atmosphere was one of desolation. The town was dusty and dry. the sea had clearly gone, taking with it the prosperity that the town had once enjoyed, leaving in it's place a tragic reminder to the destruction that humans can cause to their environment.
We set up our tent amongst the graveyard of marooned ships on the dry sandy sea bed. Looking out to what was once a massive sea and seeing nothing but dry desert with no life left was very moving and rather depressing.
Once we had settled down for the evening we made candle lanterns out of our old water bottles, and had an excellent camping dinner.
Sleeping was not so easy. The sand that our tent was pitched on had retained the 40 degree desert heat and slowly emitted it out in to our tent creating a mini tent furnace, baking us alive.
The final insult to injury was that we were woken at 3 am by a repeated very loud howling screeching sound, which sounded like it was coming from a large cat type creature just outside the tent. It went on for ages as we lay roasting alive in the tent. Needless to say, we were too scared to unzip the tent and find out what it was!
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