Wednesday 3rd August
We were on our way from Almaty but the traffic was very heavy and it took over one and half hours to get out from the city as the traffic was heavy. The it was more of the same Kazakhstan lots of plane and mountains in the distance.More sunflowers some serials melons and apples being sold at the road side. Katie had her usual tantrums about 2 hours down the road and continued throughout the day. Nevertheless we managed with Gordon coaxing the car along to cover a reasonable distance for the day, where as every time I drove she dug her heels in and stopped, a bit of deja vu and my horsemanship. We reached the town Usharal and found a small hotel where communications was severely challenging.
Our excitement for the day was a couple of police stops, our cost of fines per mIle will son exceed fuel costs, a litre of petrol costs approximately 30 pence in Kazakhstan. We also met soon fellow Mongol Ralliers 5 chaps from Luca in Italy. They had two cars an old style Fiat Panda and a Fiat Uno which both had been running well but they had managed to damage a rim and had to have to reshaped.
For any apiarists reading this I did see some hives to day. These seemed to be stacked on a trailer on shelves and probably 40 to 60 in total and looked as if each hive consisted of 2 boxes rather similar to the ones I have seen in Greece.
As the car was running well at this point there was no stopping . This was an area where there was a lot of apples as well as sunflowers, also on the steppe there are !it's of wild flowers such as evening primrose and something that looks like wild forget me nots. The hive trailer had a roof and canvas sides which I assume could be closed at night and the whole lot moved to another site.
Thursday 4th August.
Another day another place and another 350 miles of Kazakhstan, roads still less than ideal road conditions and more of the same scenery. Another police stop with in 100 metres of leaving the hotel we were stopped for having no lights - itis mandatory to drive with headlights on at all times, just a talking to this time but of course he could have been saying "see you in court next week."
On the edge of one village we saw what we eventually deduced to be rehearsal for the unveiling of a monument or statue to some past village worthy. There were lines of children segregated in groups of boys and girls, loud music and some horse man as well. They were being choreographed by a ldy with a tanoy. In the middle of ll this was a mobile plinth without an inscription in Russian and around this workmen laying paving tiles. So not really sure answers on a post card please.
Then on to Sydney a town of two parts. This had obviously been an important garrison town with a large presumably red army presence. There was a building that was some sort of regimental head quarters derelict barracks and a large redundant industrial site. Also a permanent display of military hardware including tanks, other armoured vehicles and a MIG fighter plane. The other end of the town was modern with office blocks the statutory karaoke clubs and the best road system we had seen in Kazakhstan. Our hotel was under Islamic management so the mandatory beers at the end of a days driving never materialised. However the receptionist was happy to direct us to a bar restaurant with the required amber nectar, good local food and friendly waitresses with their smart phone translator to keep us happy ?!
We were on our way from Almaty but the traffic was very heavy and it took over one and half hours to get out from the city as the traffic was heavy. The it was more of the same Kazakhstan lots of plane and mountains in the distance.More sunflowers some serials melons and apples being sold at the road side. Katie had her usual tantrums about 2 hours down the road and continued throughout the day. Nevertheless we managed with Gordon coaxing the car along to cover a reasonable distance for the day, where as every time I drove she dug her heels in and stopped, a bit of deja vu and my horsemanship. We reached the town Usharal and found a small hotel where communications was severely challenging.
Our excitement for the day was a couple of police stops, our cost of fines per mIle will son exceed fuel costs, a litre of petrol costs approximately 30 pence in Kazakhstan. We also met soon fellow Mongol Ralliers 5 chaps from Luca in Italy. They had two cars an old style Fiat Panda and a Fiat Uno which both had been running well but they had managed to damage a rim and had to have to reshaped.
For any apiarists reading this I did see some hives to day. These seemed to be stacked on a trailer on shelves and probably 40 to 60 in total and looked as if each hive consisted of 2 boxes rather similar to the ones I have seen in Greece.
As the car was running well at this point there was no stopping . This was an area where there was a lot of apples as well as sunflowers, also on the steppe there are !it's of wild flowers such as evening primrose and something that looks like wild forget me nots. The hive trailer had a roof and canvas sides which I assume could be closed at night and the whole lot moved to another site.
Thursday 4th August.
Another day another place and another 350 miles of Kazakhstan, roads still less than ideal road conditions and more of the same scenery. Another police stop with in 100 metres of leaving the hotel we were stopped for having no lights - itis mandatory to drive with headlights on at all times, just a talking to this time but of course he could have been saying "see you in court next week."
On the edge of one village we saw what we eventually deduced to be rehearsal for the unveiling of a monument or statue to some past village worthy. There were lines of children segregated in groups of boys and girls, loud music and some horse man as well. They were being choreographed by a ldy with a tanoy. In the middle of ll this was a mobile plinth without an inscription in Russian and around this workmen laying paving tiles. So not really sure answers on a post card please.
Then on to Sydney a town of two parts. This had obviously been an important garrison town with a large presumably red army presence. There was a building that was some sort of regimental head quarters derelict barracks and a large redundant industrial site. Also a permanent display of military hardware including tanks, other armoured vehicles and a MIG fighter plane. The other end of the town was modern with office blocks the statutory karaoke clubs and the best road system we had seen in Kazakhstan. Our hotel was under Islamic management so the mandatory beers at the end of a days driving never materialised. However the receptionist was happy to direct us to a bar restaurant with the required amber nectar, good local food and friendly waitresses with their smart phone translator to keep us happy ?!
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