Episode 10

What a boring bloody trip that was. I had got used to trees and trucks, but now I had flat open treeless steppe and not quite so many trucks.

Before we finally left Astana we went to look at the ''pyramid of Peace and Accord". It sits in several acres of unkempt parkland with many tarmac footpaths and plenty of scraggy looking shrubs. The parkland leads down to the river beyond which is some of the new government building and many of the large new commercial building of this capital city. The pyramid is not yet finished and sits atop an earthen mound. From the top of the mound a good view was had, or so I’m told, I was left in the car to ‘fry’ again. Just across the road is a stunning mosque in white marble.

As we headed south on this boring trip I nodded off frequently. Well there really wasn’t anything to keep me awake. Lyn caught me a couple of time just as I was about to tumble off my seat or with my head resting on the back of David’s seat.

Although there was quite a thick haze of dust or pollution or both all the way it got much worse near the large coal mining city of Karaganda and its neighbouring city Temirtau where there is a large steel works. Plenty of tall chimneys belching out clouds of smoke of varying colours: the mines here must be enormous as the overburden and waste mountains run for many kilometres along the road.

Then it was more open steppe. We saw a few horses, some sheep, a few camels and several melon sellers by the roadside. The melons are really nice according to my humans, I don’t get any. There are watermelons, a bright orange coloured melon with a flesh like honeydew, a rock melon with a similar flesh, and a rockmelon such as ours at home. These are the ones my humans like to have for their lunch on the really hot days.

Balkhash sits on the shore of a very large lake. We drove into the town centre and found the ‘’esplanade’. L was not impressed. We parked in the parking lot if one could call it that, from there a few metre of grass separated us from the gravel and sand and then the water. The grass and much of the ‘beach’ was a carpet of broken glass amongst considerable other litter. There were a few people sunbaking on the gravelly beach, none in the water. There was a toilet minus its door a few metres away and believe Lyn, you didn’t want to get any nearer. A couple of very large bushes provided the more popular ‘toilet’. Across a small reed filled inlet was some sort of factory belching out clouds of grey smoke. The water of the lake looked a brilliant pale turquoise from a distance but on closer inspection was a murky muddy colour, it was a good temperature for swimming but L says it would probably have been a serious health hazard to take a dip. After a great deal of speculation both my humans decided that it was probably salt water or at least very brackish.

From here almost to Almati was more of the same except for the many fish sellers along the roadside. L would not like to try those fish after they had been hanging in the hot sun for a few hours.

It was only within the last 100k’s before Almati that we started seeing a few trees and my lot could find a nice bit of shade to park in and enjoy a morning coffee. They do like their mid morning coffee, it’s a regular thing. As we neared the city high snow topped mountains loomed through the thick haze, or at least D said they did, L and I couldn’t make them out.

The traffic in this city is really crazy so that I was mightily relived when D found a shopping centre and we parked in the covered carpark. At least this time I didn’t fry when left in the car. Later in the day we found a little hotel and are now staying there for a few nights. It’s my first time at a hotel.

L says that this city is very much like Santiago de Chile with those high mountains (when she can see them) in the background. The streets are quite pleasant being mostly quite wide and tree lined but it is very dry and dusty too made worse by a great deal of road construction. The city also boast a new metro system which we have yet to find.

I spent a great deal of one day in L’s day pack while they walked miles around the city. First it was to find the Mongolian Embassy. L says that was funny in a way. We had to walk about 1k along a street that is one big road construction site. All the intersections are being made into underpasses but the only problem is that there is no alternate route for pedestrians so they must weave their way through and around large machines and trucks as best they can while all the workers on the site wear ‘hard’ hats and high visibility overall.

We rode on some busses, I went free which I thought was nice. We applied for Mongolian visas, apparently I don’t need one of them either. L hopes that they are going to get to use it after all this bother. We eventually found the city centre again but they were both too knackered to do any sightseeing so they said, I really don’t understand why as I was feeling good in the backpack, I could just keep going. It was beginning to spit with rain as we arrived back at the hotel.

We will try and do some sightseeing tomorrow I’ve been promised.

© Lynette Regan August 7th 2012