Long slog to Semey
15 AugUp at 5am. The road gets worse today, with some massive potholes that cover the entire width of the tarmac, and you have to take to the verg in avoidance. Lots of people have broken their cars on this road. With our engine though we’re only doing about 60km/h, and that gives us plenty of time to avoid the biggest bumps. We’re still generally getting our teeth shaken out though.
Sunrise in Kazakhstan:
Everywhere we go people take the time to wave to us. One car passes us twice, waving vigourously from 3 windows. Then they come past a third time, this time only about 20cm from the side of our car. The passenger in the back seat winds down the window and hands Stephen a plastic bag. It’s got 3 nectarines and a sealed bag of dried fish inside. We say thanks to our Chinese friends (we think they were Chinese) and they drive off.
We stop to try and have lunch at a café in Ayakoz, but it’s not that type of place. I’ve been craving a nice coffee, and as we left Almaty we saw loads of cafes. It’s not to be today though. We do find a shop selling cheese and chocolate bars. Good cheese two days in a row, what more could we want…and this stuff was awesome. Best lunch since we had cheese yesterday.
It’s a greener Kazakhstan than we remembered, but only just in this instance:
We eventually camp 10 miles south of Semey. We’ve arrived one day ahead of schedule, which is a great thing. We’ve chosen a farmers field to camp in, and not long after we’ve set up he rides over on his horse, brining a massive dog with him. This guy is not good at communicating. To start off with he won’t speak properly at all. We offer to leave, but in the end we decide he’s offering for us to sleep in his house, or come over for dinner. It’s difficult to be sure though, and we decline and eat boil in the bag fried rice from Almaty instead.
Camping in our tents with no fly has been a great part of the trip. You can see directly through the mesh above you at the stars, but the mosquitoes are kept away. Tonight we finally suffer when we both wake up to th e simultaneous sound of big rain drops, falling fast. The next 5 minutes involve us getting completely saturated in an electrical storm, in a strong cold wind. I didn’t have time to put clothes on so I’m running around in my underwear, trying to pitch a fly that is intricate enough in the day. The inside of the tents doesn’t suffer too much though and the lightening and thunder was something to remember. Who would have thought it would rain in Kazakhstan!
