The Silk Route Motorcaravan Club.

Bulletin 97 (Part 2 of 2).

…And the USA, a family trip, episode 3.

After a last week in the state of Mississippi, we set our sights for the north and Hunsville, Alabama. The largest museum of space engines in the world was created there by a German space technician in 1970. A covered area contains a wide range of scientific equipment designed to introduce the astronauts to weightless living. Some of these can be used by visitors. Outside there are reproductions of various models of rocket built and used by NASA, Pride of place goes to one of 3 Saturn Vs, not used after the failure of the Apollo XIII mission. There is also a superb collection of missiles and rocket launchers. It is in this town that future space travellers do their training and some parts of the future ISS international space station are being built. The Atlantic coast of the two Carolinas is very sandy and fringed with dunes. Along the coast there are huge wooden houses on stilts and a number of private beaches. If you leave the beaten tracks along the shore and head inland you soon realise that America isn't at all like the country you see in the films. Here there are no stretch limos and no wealthy villas grouped round parkland. Most of the population are people of colour who live in bungalows, many of them in bad condition. The few houses you see are wooden, dilapidated and surrounded by a flotsam of vehicles. In the villages there are no drains, pavements, no neon signs. Only the road running through the middle is tarred.

Some miles from the North Carolina coast the islands of Kill, Hatteras and Ocrocoke form a narrow tongue of land 8 km wide and 185 long. Except for Nag Kead on the island of Kill there is very little going on in the region. There are a few motels and camping sites but there is nothing attractive about the area. The coastline is covered in sand dunes and the only road passes through an area of sparse vegetation inland. The dunes do benefit from special attention as they form the only defence against the surf whipped up by the violent winds that blow virtually non-stop. At the south end of the island of Ocrocoke a lighthouse built in 1825 faces another on the island of Hatteras which was recently moved 900 metres because of erosion.

South-east of the state of Virginia is the island of Jamestown, the place where the first English-speaking colonists landed in 1607. Here there is a reconstruction of the settlers' first village, an Indian village and of the three boats which brought the colonists across the ocean. In the centre of the island is Williamsburg, built in 1699, the first capital, judged too independently minded by the king of England and superseded as capital by Richmond in 1777. Deserted by its inhabitants the city fell into ruins and owes its renaissance solely to the millionaire Rockefeller who undertook the reconstruction according to the original plans and using the same materials.

We began our visit to the Appalachians in the Shenoham national park, 79000 hectares of forest seriously threatened by a disease of trees. We continued along the Blue Ridge Parkway, built in 1930, which surfs above ravines and precipices and forests to heights between 1100 and 1700 metres. The road is 750 km long and crosses part of Virginia and North Carolina, where the tallest mountain in eastern America rises to 2037 metres. Finally we came to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park which straddles North Carolina and Tennessee. It is 211000 hectares big and contains 60 species of mammal, 200 kinds of birds, 600 species of trees and no less than 1600 different flowering plants. What gives the area its name is the blueish mist which shrouds the hillsides, a mist created by the water and the hydrocarbons of the leafy plants growing there. It is the largest reservation of red spruce in the USA. This park was also created by the generosity of Rockefeller who financed it in 1934. It is now a UNESCO world heritage site because of its fauna, flora and biosphere.

Jacky Baronio.

Paris-Beijing.

9 June, they left Champigny sur Marne.
9 July, they're at Naryn, Kazakhstan.

Email number 2, Almaty, Kazakhstan.

In one week we shall be entering China.

After Kiev, it'll be Karkov in Ukraine and on 20 June we'll enter Russia. The formalities are long and tedious as the documents we have to fill in are in Russian. Moreover, we are asked to pay a tax in roubles when there is no bank on this side of the border. Of course there was one on the Ukrainian side which we didn't notice!

The Russians agree that one of us can go and change some currency on the other side. The Ukrainians don't want to know, because we have exit visas. We find someone to whom we entrust $200 and we wait in some anxiety for him to return with our precious roubles. Finally, 3 hours 30 minutes after we began the process, we are driving through Russia. Here there are police everywhere, there are lots of checkpoints and there are many approaches from racketeers but as we're stubborn we don't pay up!

Following a meeting with a Slovakian lorry driver we have altered our trip through Russia so as to follow a route in Kazakhstan further to the east than we had originally planned. But this means we have to travel 2600 km in Russia in 6 days. Here, contrary to what one might have thought, our camping cars provoke neither curiosity nor envy. We have the impression that we're tolerated but no more. It is difficult to make contact with people and we are unable to leap over the language barrier.

On 25 June we leave Russia and enter Kazakhstan. Once we're through the border formalities, we realise that the people here are not the same physically. Their skin colour is different, their eyes are slightly more almond-shaped and they do everything with a smile. This is the first time that camping cars have crossed the border at Troick. They are sure we are heavy goods vehicles and ask to see our tachymetric discs. After half an hour we manage to get everything sorted and we are given permission to continue our journey towards the capital, Astana, which we reach on the 28th.

The 29th June is to be a rest day on which every one can attend to their own business or look after their vehicle. Vibrations on the local roads have left us with problems. The four vehicles and their occupants seem to be forming a family with each person getting to know the others as the kilometres go by. Even so there are some odd people. We have one couple who live in a menage a trois, the husband, the wife and the bonnet. After some problems with the engine overheating, the bonnet is enthroned on the seat where it is spoiled, wrapped up and attended to. The latest news is that the bonnet is fine, and so is the engine.

On the 4 July we reach Almaty, after driving just over 1300 km from Astana, a fifth of this on a particularly rough track. The landscape is steppe and more steppe, the only thing growing there being electricity pylons. When the large-scale roadworks now in progress are finished, the people who come after us will be driving across a billiard table. Lucky devils!

Email No 3, 14.07.02

Our stay in Almaty, a pleasant modern town with several parks, from 4 to 8 July gives us a chance to recharge the batteries. The Ramstor Shopping Mall with its restaurants, its Cibercenter, will be familiar to everyone. Moreover, its well frequented service will allow the ladies to weigh down the vans a little more.

In our favourite shaded parking spot in the centre of town we deal with a few points of detail on the vehicles, alter their appearance even.

During our stay here we go to the French consulate to make sure we don't need a visa for Kirgizia. Meeting some travellers who have told us the contrary is worrying, especially as there are rumours that the Turugat Pass is closed following the assassination of a Chinese consul in the region. The French Consular Agency of Bishkek contacted by telephone says that the road is open.

When we arrive at the border to Kirgizia on the 9 July, our passports are scarcely even looked at as we have visas for China. We take the road for Naryn where we are to join the English-speaking group. Lovely countryside, an agreeable road then a steep climb on an un-metalled track with rain and melted snow to reach a pass at 3000 metres.

As a precautionary measure we stop as the engines have a tendency to overheat. Coming down we encounter our first yurts and their inhabitants offer us various kinds of local produce - curd cheese, milk fermented in a goatskin. One of us, the greediest no doubt, undertakes to try it and despite a furtive grimace says that it's excellent. He is offered another bowl, but declines out of politeness , self-sacrifice has its limits! Forty km before we reach Naryn, we meet the English-speakers who are waiting for us at the roadside. They've seen us coming from a distance.

In the evening, forgathered as the Celestial Mountains Guest House, we get to know each other and have a meal together. Memories of language lessons at school allow us to exchange a few words without worrying too much about grammatical correctness. As long as the heart's in the right place, it doesn't matter. On the 11th July the group are due to leave Naryn to sleep nearer the border. But the guide the English have hired tells us that we won't be able to leave Kirgizia without a visa. Luckily there is a Consular office for Kirgizia on the spot. A representative of the group goes to the office with an interpreter. Getting a visa would be no problem if it weren't for the fact that the rubber stamp is at Bishkek and will take a week to arrive. Two representatives of the group go to Bishkek, 350 km away, to fetch the visa which a travel agency contacted by phone is to get for us. Satisfaction all round when they return in the evening with the precious document. On the 12 July at 4 in the morning, we set off for the border. Sunrise over the mountain is very lovely, some stretches of the road less so. There are troubles with a drive belt and a rear shock absorber. We meet up with the English party who left the previous day and together we travel on towards China. The border controls are fussy and detailed but at midday we cross the Chinese border and take the traditional photo under the Arch.

Eighty km of corrugated iron, then 30 of proper road (bliss) lead us to the customs where we pick up our Chinese registration plates and various documents. The English group drive on to Kashgar which they reach that night. The French group decides to spend the night by the customs office and finally reach Kashgar at 13:00 the next day at the Hotel Selmam.

14 July. Party at Kashgar. See photos.

21 July. We are at Turpan. Tomorrow we are leaving for Hami, taking it easy because the shock absorbers on Roger's van are completely out of order. Our ultimate aim is Dunhuang where we are due to get new shocks and other parts, in theory on the 26th or 28th July.

Mauritania - Mali - Senegal - 2202.

For these two couples everything is new, 4x4s, Africa, the tracks, the sand, etc. 3 months of discoveries.

Crossing Mauritania is like diving headfirst into a sea of adventures - a sandy and stony journey for which a 4x4 is essential. We have a magnificent first bivouac right out in the desert by a dune, the second near a fishing village and finally 180 km of beach towards Nouakchott with a spell in the dunes because of the rising tide. A long delay because one of the vehicles in our convoy keeps breaking down. (an old Mercedes van destined to be sold in Senegal). We reach Nouakchott at 2 in the morning after 4 hours struggling to get the Mercedes out of the sand… A Great atmosphere. From the Mauritanian capital we leave to visit the region of Atar with the oasis of Terjit (a must-see) and Chinguetti where Theodore Monod stayed on several occasions searching for a hypothetical meteorite. At Chinguetti we meet a team repairing the electrical system.

After Atar we travel by the 'road of hope' (1100 km) to reach the border with Mali. The Nara-Bamako journey is a real treat - 450 km of pseudo road with three days of hard labour, holes, corrugated iron, dust and 8 to 10 hours driving per day. After Bamako we discover the river Niger, and pass through Segou, Djenne and Mpoti (sloops, dug-outs, fishermen and brightly coloured crowds…)

We pass by Hombori, a paradise for some French climbers with beautiful routes on magnificent granite sugar loaf hills. We're now at the furthest point of our African tour, around 80km from Goa and very near the border with Burkina. Our 3-day visit to Dogon country is enchanting despite temperatures over 40 degrees. This region is a must for anyone who wants to discover Mali. We are on another planet. You need a guide and good walking shoes to visit the villages. Before we return to Bamako we make an extraordinary discovery in a small Malian village which is twinned with a group of Savoyard villages to which we belong. Here cooperative use of the land can achieve miracles with small resources.

Then we go back to the south-east of Senegal along tracks that are shown as correct but which defy the laws of gravity for our vehicles. There are many interesting moments… wouldn't you say, Michel? A vehicle gets stuck on the bank with its wheels dangling after going through a ford and has to be rescued with the help of neighbouring villagers. A great adventure with some very high temperatures and a lot of dust. If we wanted excitement, we got it.

We begin our journey in Senegal with a two-day visit to the national park of Niokolo Koba (a lot of wild animals and birds). Then we head for the coast east of Dakar where we enjoy lazing around, bathing and a more clement temperature. After a trip to Dakar, a swarming, polluted bottle-neck where you're better off going by taxi, we spend a day at the island of Goree then at Lake Rose and start back via Saint Louis, cross the border at Rosso (not to be recommended, see the Di Giusto family's article), go back over the Mauritanian desert and make our way peacefully into Morocco.

Altogether a wonderful journey, with a special mention for Mali where the people are so welcoming and the countryside so remarkable. A few notes and observations to pass on: We were lucky, 17000km without any mechanical problems, only a puncture.

It's best to travel in two vehicles and 4x4s are essential.

Be prepared for shocks, dust, heat and thirst.

For anyone who doesn't have a 4x4, work starts on a road across the Mauritanian desert in June 2002 and will take around 2 years. It will then be possible to drive from Paris to Dakar on tarred road.

Pierre and Lucette Michel

Planned trips.

China 2003.

John Frederick and Thelma Anne JENKINS, new British members, would like to be included in the next trip. I'd suggest that everyone hoping to make the big trip east should get in contact with one another as soon as possible and start serious preparations.

Iraq 2003.

Andre and Francine HELMBACHER would like to try this adventure… They have already contacted the embassy about visas.

Africa 2003.

To judge by the telephone calls received after the article in CC magazine (no 142, page 187), a good dozen teams should be ready to leave for west Africa. Dates, times, itineraries, returns are still to be agreed. Personally, I think it would be good to assemble around 12 vehicles to pass through the strategic points, to split up before and after into small groups of 2 or 3 and to meet up for a lazy rest on the beaches of the northern Ivory Coast. We'll discuss this at the AGM, obviously, but we all know that time is rushing past.

Ever more difficult.

France-USA by road! A daring plan, but possible thanks to the ferry that operates for one month a year between Siberia and Alaska across the Bearing Straits. We still have to find out what dates it travels and where the famous ferry leaves from, how much it costs, the length of the voyage. Ferdinand Kohn is very interested, has done some work on planning and is ready to share the experience, if it goes ahead, with 2 other partners

… And the classic journeys, POLAND LITHUANIA with J.Pillot, SOUTH MOROCCO with Rolland Moreau.