29 July 2014 / leggypeggy

Tits, pits and other bits—or 11 days without a shower—and a surprise wifi connection

bathing, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, rivers, showers

Quinn and Alex raft and bathe at the same time

Overland trips are a surefire way to learn about the simple joys of a bucket bath.

Twice in Africa we went 13 days without access to showers, or access to much water in general. The first time was as we travelled across remote western Nigeria where we encountered no towns, no rivers, no lakes, no wells—not even any puddles.

There must have been water around somewhere, but we didn’t find it, so we had to make the 400 litres we carried in jerry cans last as long as possible for cooking and drinking. Like our travelling companions, Poor John and I also had many more litres stashed away in our locker.

Fortunately, most of Central Asia is different. Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan have abundant water—Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan pretend to have abundant water and are peopled by the most wasteful water users I have ever seen, but I’ve already written about where their precious water comes from.

Eastern Russia (read Siberia) has plenty of water too, in the form of fast-slowing rivers and scenic lakes that are completely picturesque and absolutely freezing.

Five days ago, in a hotel in Ust in northeastern Kazakhstan, we said good-bye to our last hot showers for 11 days. By the time you read this, we will have reached Mongolia’s capital of Ulan Bator, having covered 2500 kilometres of remote Asia. I hope I will have had a hot shower. One must have little dreams.

A likely spot for a bath in Kazakhstan

Along the way, we have had to make do with all manner of creative ‘bathing’. Quinn and Alex did not one, but two speedy trips on li-los (blow-up swimming pool rafts) down an icy river. I’ve never seen goose bumps as big as the ones that came up on Alex’s arms after the first foray.

Steph had a quick dip, Sarah washed her hair (and said she couldn’t feel her head after that), several scrubbed face and hands as they stood on the riverbank, a few (including Poor John) did full dunkings. I did a sort-of bucket bath—standing at the edge of a shallow, almost-still pool and paying attention to the tits, pits and other bits.

One fellow, however, resisted everyone’s demands that he have at least a mini wash so we could stop holding our breath and noses around him. He’d better be careful. People like that run the risk of being left behind at the next border crossing.

P.S. We’re heading to a biggish town in western Mongolia today (29 July). It’s day six without a shower and there’s a small chance of wifi before we drive on to the next bush camp. Our reluctant bather caved in and had a bit of a wash and a change of clothes before we crossed the border from Russia to Mongolia.