Aktau is a city that grew out of the desert with the sea on one side and nothing on the other. Built in the Soviet era on the eastern shore of the Caspian, in the Mangystau region, it was first founded to support the mining of uranium and later oil, and for decades it was called Shevchenko, after the Ukrainian poet who had been exiled in the area. The name Aktau means white mountain, a reference to the pale chalk and limestone hills that rise behind. With roughly a hundred and fifty thousand people, it is the main port and regional hub.
A strange fact about Aktau: the city has almost no street names. Addresses are written by microdistrict number, building and apartment, a legacy of Soviet planning that takes some getting used to. Another is that there is almost no fresh water; for years a nuclear reactor on the coast powered a desalination plant, and the city still depends on treated seawater. The promenade along the Caspian is a pleasant place for an evening walk, and the sea, which is bluer than you might expect, is calm and warm in summer.
For a rider, Aktau is a base and a launch pad. The roads inland are long, straight and mostly paved, crossing a flat, dry landscape of clay, salt flats and scrub, with sudden canyons, chalk cliffs and strange rock formations. There is a lot of oil traffic, with big trucks, so overtake carefully, and wind can be strong enough to move a loaded bike across a lane. Distances are great and services scarce between settlements, so it pays to keep your tank full and your water bottles topped up.
Within the city, fuel, workshops, banks, supermarkets and hotels are plentiful. Seafood is limited because of the Caspian's conditions, but you will find good grilled fish, plenty of meat and Central Asian standards in the restaurants. A ferry connects the port with Baku in Azerbaijan, which is a point of interest for riders on longer trips, though schedules and rules need checking well ahead. In summer, expect heat above thirty-five degrees, and in winter, cold, wet winds off the sea.