Up with the dawn.
At this point, I realise the the vegetation that we've been sleeping in is rather similar to the sort that I tried to grow on the spare bedroom window when I was 17. (A dark period in jy life for which I still owe my long-suffering parents the most enormous apology!)
On closer inspection, we realise that its probably just hemp. Either way, we're not interested.
The drive then takes us up into the mountains even further. We pass the most stunning scenery I have ever seen (Apart from Kashmir). We are in a series of very steep-sided valleys and climb up to over 3000m. Then we reach a pass after driving through a tunnel carved out of the top of a mountain. From there we are looking over a plateau, the weather is cooler. In the distance, glacier-topped mountains.
We start to pass villages of tents (Gers or Yurts?). Local people are herding horses. Smoke rises out of small chimneys and the scene is rather surreal.
After a while, we start to climb even higher on swithcbacks until we reach a pass over 3300m. A tunnel takes us through the top of the mountain and then to even steeper higher valleys as we go back down. 2 Hours after we reached the top of the pass - we are back on the hot plains.
We drive into Bishkek to get some money and a sarnie.
We fill up and fill one jerry can. Then to the Kazak border.
The border crossing (forecast as one of the most complex) took all of 20 minutes.
The road to Almaty was really good but there was a sudden noticeable difference in cars/driving. They drive 4x4s - nice ones. Mercs, Lexus, Audi, VW. They drive like lunatics.
We got to Almaty and got completely lost. We sought refuge in a roadside bar and had a couple of beers and shashlik (Kebabs to you and me).
Again, we got completely lost but after getting some direction, we bump into the teams from Kazak again (One has 2 large plastic horses and 2 cats on the roof rack) They are parked outside the hotel we wanted to find 4 hours ago.
Check in and bed
The drive then takes us up into the mountains even further. We pass the most stunning scenery I have ever seen (Apart from Kashmir). We are in a series of very steep-sided valleys and climb up to over 3000m. Then we reach a pass after driving through a tunnel carved out of the top of a mountain. From there we are looking over a plateau, the weather is cooler. In the distance, glacier-topped mountains.
We start to pass villages of tents (Gers or Yurts?). Local people are herding horses. Smoke rises out of small chimneys and the scene is rather surreal.
After a while, we start to climb even higher on swithcbacks until we reach a pass over 3300m. A tunnel takes us through the top of the mountain and then to even steeper higher valleys as we go back down. 2 Hours after we reached the top of the pass - we are back on the hot plains.
We drive into Bishkek to get some money and a sarnie.
We fill up and fill one jerry can. Then to the Kazak border.
The border crossing (forecast as one of the most complex) took all of 20 minutes.
The road to Almaty was really good but there was a sudden noticeable difference in cars/driving. They drive 4x4s - nice ones. Mercs, Lexus, Audi, VW. They drive like lunatics.
We got to Almaty and got completely lost. We sought refuge in a roadside bar and had a couple of beers and shashlik (Kebabs to you and me).
Again, we got completely lost but after getting some direction, we bump into the teams from Kazak again (One has 2 large plastic horses and 2 cats on the roof rack) They are parked outside the hotel we wanted to find 4 hours ago.
Check in and bed
1 comment:
Glad you're the right side of the caspian sea, there's a couple of late entries driving tanks on its western side. Following progress on googlemaps, way better than CSE geog.Good luck with the next but, lovin the blogs. Dominic
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