Miles driven: 1,280
Time in Car: A long time
Borders crossed: 2
It’s been a few days since our last post - not that we miss writing about our trip but because not much has happened in those days... except driving. Here’s the abridged recap.
Day 32 started with a beautiful sunrise at Son-Kul in Kyrgyzstan, a great breakfast, and a bumpy 3 hour drive out of Son-Kol. Soon after reaching smooth tarmac, we cruised to the Kazakhstan-Kyrgyzstan border around 1 pm. Not long and we were upon Almaty, the former capital. Kazakhstan is the richest countries of Central Asia, thanks again to natural gas and oil reserves. Almaty showcases this wealth. It’s nestled right on the edge of the Turkestan mountains and features international business, cuisines, and hotels. We were planning to get a cheap Airbnb, but because our host never accepted the booking request, we had to audible. For a mere 25k Marriott points, we had a room for us at the Ritz-Carlton - Almaty. Some may say this is too lavish for rally standards - I say au contraire. When you’ve worked 4 years on the road accumulating hotel points and haven’t showered in 3 days, a free room at the Ritz is within the rules. We parked in the hotel garage, next to a lineup that included a few Mercedes G-Wagons, a Maybach, a Rolls-Royce, and other high-end sports cars. Stevie fit right in. Roadworn and dirty, we did not fit in at the spotless Ritz but still we were treated like royalty. For dinner, we continued our trend of breaking up the monotony of Central Asian cuisine with an excellent Indian meal - it’s amazing what spices can do. We caught a few beers before retiring to our palace of a room. We stocked up on groceries the next morning, enjoyed the best ever (really mean it when I say this) hotel breakfast at the Ritz lounge free-of-charge, and hit the road. This is where the interesting part of the blog ends.
Wild camping night one near a field off the highway
The next two days comprised of all day driving over destroyed highway northwards through the Kazakh steppe. It was quite boring and on par with Azerbaijan in terms of scenery. However, the continuous potholes, buckled pavement spots, and gravel sections, were incredibly annoying, especially to the driver. We wild camped both nights on our northern journey through Kazakhstan. The second night camping we set-up near a lake and the clear night skies allowed for some amazing stargazing as well as some shots of the Milky Way.
Day 35, we made it to the Russian border, the first of two times we will be in this country. Crossing took an unpleasant 3 hours but it could have been worse. We then scooted on nice tarmac north to Barnaul, the capital of the Altai Republic. We feasted at KFC, traditional Russian cuisine. Tomorrow we head into the Altai Mountains of Russia for what should make for some great scenery. We’re almost on the homestretch. Barnaul is our last big city before before Ulanbataar so we will be stocking up before departing. -FWY