Up nice and early again, plenty of time for a morning coffee, and some bread dunked in honey. The honey is definitely best in the morning when it’s cold and doesn’t drip everywhere!
Just arrived at the Kazak border, it’s a tiny stop on a crappy road. Hopefully this will be nice and easy.
It was! Slight worry on the Kyrgyz side when they were telling us in Russian that we wouldn’t be able to come back to Kyrgyzstan but when we understood all was fine and they let us go. The Kazak side was very easy too, a couple of stamps, a customs form for the car and we’re off. One of the Kyrgyz guards fancied my leatherman, but settled for some foreign coins.
The horrible horrible road turned into a dead-straigh, dead flat tarmac road just south of Karkara and we’ve made it to Kegen in no time, just changed some Euros into Tengu (I think that’s what they’re called) - we got 20 grand for 100 euros. Then filled the tank with petrol - also pretty cheap, and now we’re back on the straight, flat road to Almaty, next stop: Charyn Canyon.
We found the canyon no problem, just driven down to the river and parked the car under a bridge to hide from the sun, might go for a swim but the river is very fast flowing. There’s a nice pool to paddle around in just off the river though, good for keeping cool in. The other side of the river looks like a good camping spot too, but there’s no way to get the car down.
Some Kazakh tourists just turned up and parked next to us, they seem to be stopping here for a swim and a drink. One of the women speaks pretty good English so we’ve managed to explain what we’re doing and how long we’ve been on the road. They all seemed quite interested too.
After seeing the Kazakhs do it, we decided to go for a swim. The waster isn’t all that cold, it’s just very fast and the sun is plenty warm enough to dry in. Nice to feel clean(ish) again! The group of Kazakhs also just came over again for some photos and took our email address and website.
We’ve just crossed the river to set up camp on the greener side, where there’s plenty of wood for cooking dinner. This is definitely a great lace to spend a lazy afternoon.
James has spent about an hour trying to make fire by rubbing sticks together (with no success) and I’ve been keeping cool by paddling at the side of the river.
We’ve managed to fix my flip-flops too! Some blue string and a bit of ingenuity is all you need! Duck tape might make them slightly more comfortable but they stay on my feet properly.
Just cooked tea with no problems at all, both had rations today, mine were Pork Casserole & Fruit Dumplings in custard. They were actually delicious!
The only downside to this spot is the mosquitoes - there aren’t swarms and swarms of them, but they’re around and they’re bloody annoying! So we’ve put the tent up quite early and since it’s dark we’re going to jump in and I’ll probably play solitaire for a while, good old ipod!
Just arrived at the Kazak border, it’s a tiny stop on a crappy road. Hopefully this will be nice and easy.
It was! Slight worry on the Kyrgyz side when they were telling us in Russian that we wouldn’t be able to come back to Kyrgyzstan but when we understood all was fine and they let us go. The Kazak side was very easy too, a couple of stamps, a customs form for the car and we’re off. One of the Kyrgyz guards fancied my leatherman, but settled for some foreign coins.
The horrible horrible road turned into a dead-straigh, dead flat tarmac road just south of Karkara and we’ve made it to Kegen in no time, just changed some Euros into Tengu (I think that’s what they’re called) - we got 20 grand for 100 euros. Then filled the tank with petrol - also pretty cheap, and now we’re back on the straight, flat road to Almaty, next stop: Charyn Canyon.
We found the canyon no problem, just driven down to the river and parked the car under a bridge to hide from the sun, might go for a swim but the river is very fast flowing. There’s a nice pool to paddle around in just off the river though, good for keeping cool in. The other side of the river looks like a good camping spot too, but there’s no way to get the car down.
Some Kazakh tourists just turned up and parked next to us, they seem to be stopping here for a swim and a drink. One of the women speaks pretty good English so we’ve managed to explain what we’re doing and how long we’ve been on the road. They all seemed quite interested too.
 |
| They emailed us this photo just after I got home. |
After seeing the Kazakhs do it, we decided to go for a swim. The waster isn’t all that cold, it’s just very fast and the sun is plenty warm enough to dry in. Nice to feel clean(ish) again! The group of Kazakhs also just came over again for some photos and took our email address and website.
We’ve just crossed the river to set up camp on the greener side, where there’s plenty of wood for cooking dinner. This is definitely a great lace to spend a lazy afternoon.
James has spent about an hour trying to make fire by rubbing sticks together (with no success) and I’ve been keeping cool by paddling at the side of the river.
We’ve managed to fix my flip-flops too! Some blue string and a bit of ingenuity is all you need! Duck tape might make them slightly more comfortable but they stay on my feet properly.
Just cooked tea with no problems at all, both had rations today, mine were Pork Casserole & Fruit Dumplings in custard. They were actually delicious!
The only downside to this spot is the mosquitoes - there aren’t swarms and swarms of them, but they’re around and they’re bloody annoying! So we’ve put the tent up quite early and since it’s dark we’re going to jump in and I’ll probably play solitaire for a while, good old ipod!
No comments:
Post a Comment