You can imagine it like this:

The road goes straight on. Always straight on. And every 70 to 90 kilometres there's a chance to buy something, have a drink – and today, even some food.

This is Karakalpakstan. A region in the northwest of Uzbekistan, almost as large as a country in its own right, sparsely populated, surrounded by desert and shaped by its proximity to the former Aral Sea.

Where water once was, there is now dust, salt – and above all, vastness. The Aral Sea, once one of the largest inland bodies of water on Earth, has largely disappeared, leaving behind a new desert landscape.

It therefore needs to be well planned.

I plan for about eight litres of water for each day. Not just for drinking, but also so that I can still cook something in the evening. Out here, nothing can be done spontaneously – everything here is subordinated to distance, heat, and in our case, the strong headwinds.

I had to cross the border by train. And in the small town immediately afterwards, in Karakalpakia, there was actually a cash machine.

However, it only gave me 400,000 So'm – about 28 Euros. After three days, almost none of it was left. Card payment? No chance.

Today in Jasliq, we (I've been travelling with a Frenchman since yesterday, a blessing in this wind) wanted to get supplies. A place with just a few hundred inhabitants in the middle of this vastness.

But the only cash machine in town had no power. We even tried plugging it in again – but it just wouldn't be coaxed into working.

So, we were faced with two problems: we needed to do the shopping for the next two days – and we desperately needed dinner.

We were able to solve the first problem thanks to a nice boy. He gave us the idea to use Kazakh Tenge to pay. We had a bit of that left over – the border isn't far from here.

It actually worked out in the second and only other shop in town. If they'd generously rounded up, they would have sold us everything: the deal of the day.

Motivated by this success, we tried it at the only restaurant in town. The question: Can you also here with Tenge To pay?

The answer came dryly, with a smile: „Welcome to Uzbekistan, no money!“

And then the exact opposite of what we had expected happened. Dalia, the owner, invited us in.

Salads, fish, kebabs – beef and chicken. Water, tea, grenadine soda, beer, vodka. A feast, as we hadn't had in days. And in a region where people have been living for decades with the consequences of one of modernity's greatest environmental disasters, the drying up of the Aral Sea, this invitation carried an even greater weight for us.

In the end, we stood outside the restaurant, full, a bit speechless, and very grateful.

The wheels have now been reloaded with food and water. We continue tomorrow.

Straight on. Always straight on.