I am sure that most people know of the Aral Sea, a large body of previously fresh water that has been steadily disapearing since the 1960s. It is famous (or maybe infamous) as a stark example of environmental mismanagement resulting from the introduction of large scale cotton farming and associated massive irrigation on Uzbekistan territory during Soviet times. We were here to see this "wonder of the world" and to do so "while it is still there" - as the Lonely Planet guide book suggests.

Our driver turned up at the appointed time of 9:00am in a small white Daewo Nexia sedan. Our first thought was, "not the most suitable vehicle for a tour over rough tracks", but "they must know what they are doing". Yeh right!

We piled into the car and off we went. First stop was to get some gas (in our case gasoline though most cars in UZ used compressed gas), notice in the photos that the gas comes in pastic water bottles and the funnel is a coke bottle - a very common UZ practice. Then we stopped at the local bazzar for some bread, then a nearby shop for water (and we noticed also Vodka for the driver, though cunningly transfered to a water bottle), the finally out on the highway rocketing north and west at 130 km/h. It was a very unfamiliar experience for Nina and I to be traveling at such a speed and sitting only 3 feet from the road surface.

After about an hour we came to a section of newish highway that looked wide enough for 2 lanes in each direction. It even had those concrete barriers down the center to keep the traffic in each direction apart, or so we thought. But for what ever reason there were no gaps in the barriers at cross streets, but there were gaps privided at regular intervals for U-turns. So any driver wanting to turn left (that is across oncoming traffic) had to perform a very astounding manouver. Use the U-turn gap to move onto the other side of the road. Drive down the wrong side of the road until the intended side street is reached and the turn into it. A most perplexing practice, all taking place at 130km/h.

The road went through a series of deteriorations. 4-lane paved, 2-lane paved , 2-lane broken pavement and then after about 3 hours that pavement gave out and turned into what could only be described as a track, and the track climbed onto a plateau about 100m high. We later learned that this spot was the southern edge of the Aral Sea in 1960 but is today over 100 km south from the current southern edge of the water.

We drove along this plateau for the remainder of the day. We stopped at a couple of "qalas" - old mud brick fort structures from acient times and looked down onto a lake with its very unusual islands of reeds (it is west of Moynaq and on our map is called Sudachye).

At around 3:00pm we stopped for lunch. A felt blanket was brought out and held down with water bottles and rocks, the driver brought out hard boiled eggs, tomatoes, cucumbers, grapes, salami and bread (and Vodka), we contributed our cheese and zuccini loaf and we sat in the desert pounded by a strong cool wind and had lunch.

Back in the saddle the miles/km disappeared rapidly under our wheels as our driver gave a brilliant display of high speed rally driving as he bounced his little car (front wheel drive mind you) through ruts, over bumps and through soft sand that would have given the average Landcruiser driver pause. Eventually we caught sight of the blue water of the Aral Sea in the distance (maybe 50 km) and as the afternoon wore on the blue turned from a thin line into a wide expanse of water.

The final leg of the days journey was to descend from that plateau down to water level and onto the beach. To say that the descent was rough and steep is a substantial understatement but it did not deter our driver. He went down the hill and across the sand with the same rallying abandon he had displayed all afternoon. Finally at the waters edge we could smell the rot, like "dead fish" - Nina and I commented. The Aral is now so salty that nothing lives in it. Also the gradual reduction in the water level has left a thick muddy edge composed of silt that was once deep under the sea. Now it is a smelly, sticky paste. We discovered that it was very very difficult to walk on/in and our efforts to walk into the water in order to "experience" the sea were largely thwarted by the mud and we each only got wet upto our ankles.


We spent more time washing the mud off our feet and legs than we spent putting it on, but once "clean" we piled back into the car and drove 1/2 mile up into a low saddle that had some protection from the onshore wind for our nights camp.

Our driver brought out a niffty spring loaded tent that pretty much erected itself and laid our thin mattresses, sheets and blankets for our bedding; he (the driver) would sleep in the car.

That same felt mat from lunch came out to be the dinner table - the food was the same as lunch also with the addition of coffee.

Another guide with a Latvian couple as his clients camped in the same place and he prepared that Plov dish for their dinner.