Episode 12

After collecting their passports complete with Mongolian visa from the embassy we at last headed out of Almaty. D has noticed a very curious thing about the traffic system in the city. There are a number of quite good 4 lane roads that circle the city, not really a ring road system but along those lines. The odd thing is that at most of the big new overpasses, many still under construction you can't seem to make a left hand turn; that’s equivalent to a right hand turn in England or Australia. Almost anything else is possible including doing a u-turn on the overpass. It seems that the engineers here just can’t get their head around the idea of putting in a 270degree interconnecting ramp. I’d noticed this too; gee I am an observant stuffed toy:

It was another boiling hot day and as soon as we’d cleared the city we stopped at one of the many roadside stall selling melons and D negotiated a deal on a bright orange one. I like those ones, they are the same colour as my head.

Heading towards the southeast corner of the country we first passed down a valley with plenty of agriculture, sunflowers and corn mainly and truck loads of freshly made hay. I like the look of those big piles of hay. Then we got into more arid areas again, even the mountains are very arid looking.

Early one morning we visited the Sharyn Canyon. The canyon is refered to as the "valley of the Castles" because of the rock formations. We drove to the end of the road along a narrow ridge with almost sheer drop-offs on both sides then D had to carefully turn around to drive back out. We could have continued on foot down any one of a number of paths that were steep and loose gravel. Neither of my human felt they were up to it. The blazing sun was too much for D and L is too unsteady on her pins, she doesn’t want to fall and hurt her back yet again. I was very keen and ready to leap into the back pack, ah well, maybe another time. I did get my photo taken and the wind was so strong it nearly blew me out of L’s hand.

Heading towards the town of Kegen we actually descended into the upper reaches of the Sharyn Canyon. Here we crossed the swift flowing river far below. It was here too that we met Paul the cyclist. Well, in truth we had met him the previous day, but we met him again here. He is on his way to Laos too, also across China. Being on a bicycle though he has not encountered the same problems as my humans and the motorbike people: I did ponder if going on a bicycle might be a trifle more adventurous than sitting in a RR, but Paul really didn’t have any place for me, he already has 25kg’s of gear, not counting water. Not that I’m heavy but I would get sunstroke in this heat.

A bit later on I saw a big hay load that I really wanted to sit on top of and ride along. However, I was told that no, I wasn’t going to be put up there, so I throw a wobbly and laid on my back and stared at the roof lining for an hour or so. Then we were in Kegen with more things to see.

We filled up with fuel then drove across the Karkara valley floor. Now full of cultivation, fields of cereal ready for harvest and pasture either ready for hay making or already made into hay, it was once the summer pasture for many nomadic herdsmen. The Kyrgyz border is just a few k’s further on.

Retracing our way to the Sharyn River again we took the turnoff for the Kolsai lakes NP. It was only a 90k trip but took us much of the afternoon. Along the way we saw a few small patches of remnant pine forest on the mountain sides and passed through one very lush green area where everyone was out making hay by hand in the pasture fields. Quite a few cows, many of them milkers, and some large flocks of sheep along the roadside; also plenty of horses and a few donkeys: My humans sat and watched some golden eagles for so long it got boring and also some little ground animal, something like a meerkat. I have absolutely no idea what a meerkat might be, but these chaps got quite worried when the eagles got too near and quickly ducked back down their holes.

Finally we arrived at the Kolsai Lakes NP

There are 3 lakes in this park and my human did plan on doing some walking while they were here. At least it was much cooler up here in the mountains so hiking should not be unpleasant. The lower lake where we parked and near where we camped is at 1800m.

We did one hike, me too in a backpack, that took us past a group of campers and along a path that was quite a scramble and I got hooked on a tree branch, good job D noticed or I might still be there. The path got too difficult after that so we returned to near the campers and watched some local wild life, a squirrel munching away at bright orange rosehips.

The next day the humans set off on their own leaving me in the car alone so I have only their word that they did this, I didn’t actually witness it myself. Lyn claims she top to the middle lake at 2300m. It was quite a nice hike so they say, along the lake then up through the pine forest. D got to the bottom of the steep bit, Lyn keep on going, she’s good at that, and reached the lake, she did take a photo of it, but it doesn’t really look much different to any number of other lakes: They were gone all day so I could take it easy.

We came back to Almaty and went up the mountain to the ski resort. This resort was upgraded a few years ago because it was the ski venue for the 2011 Asian Winter games. The ski runs are supposedly very good, however the infrastructure leave a lot to be desired apparently. As we went up the steep road to the top cable car station and hotels the car radiator split and D stopped the car in a cloud of steam. Fortunately, he had some epoxy resin with which he could bung up the split and this got us back into Almaty, downhill all the way, and to a repair place.

The repair was an overnight job and when we came back the next day it still wasn’t finished so we had to wait around a good while. There were howls of disbelief when finally the job was done, D started the car, the radiator worked fine, but the windows had decided to pack up. D got out his little black box that should find all sort of faults but it too wouldn’t work. Someone else came along with an even bigger back box but that one wouldn’t work either so we had to drive off with the windows up and D and L very nearly suffocated in the hot afternoon traffic before reaching cooler climes up the mountain. D finally got his little black box to work on the 12v plug so that now at least the windows can be operated, not easily, but it can be done.

While the radiator was being repaired we all met up with Lorraine and Richard, two of the bikers who will be part of the group we are travelling with in China and Mongolia. I am really looking forward to this, I must be one of the luckiest and best travelled stuffed toys about. I will really be able to brag about my travels when and if I ever meet others of my species.

Lorriane is the one whose bike died in Russia. She has bought another one, or at least believes she has, and is waiting for it to be delivered to her here in Almaty. However, it now seems that she is coming with us to Bishkek as the bike has been delayed so she might as well collect it in Beshkek as that is where it was when she bought it. Richard is another Aussie from Rockhampton. Well, I suppose someone has to come from there. Don’t think I’ve been to Rocky:

© Lynette Regan August 17, 2012