Sunday 21st July
After we found a little hotel / Hostel in the town, we were unsure if the deal included any food, sure enough the lady knocked on the door with a couple of trays of food, excellent it was quite good rice and chicken with salad, Keith and Linney were pleased as I could just lift my chicken off the bowl. The we thought we had ordered a couple of beers each, though it turnedout to be tea! We did manage to source some beers later.
In the morning it was a gamble again ordered breakfast at 07:00, nothing turned up so we dug into our suppliers, then hit the road just before 08:00.
First section we had to retrace our route back over the river, stopped for water top ups then hit the road proper. Linney had done his research, breakfast stop at 16 miles. Then a 34 mile section then a 24 mile section to finish with one possible place to stay but not very hopeful. We cruised the first section stopped for breakfast again then hit the road again. By which by time had started to get a little bit rough. Linney spotted a rotten cow carcass in the ditch by the side of the road, Keith went down and salvaged the skull and horns, for some pictures, not for me! As we put on the miles Keith spotted the first camels by the side of the road, I had noticed two on our side of the road but thought they were horses, we stopped for some pictures then pushed on. Further on we seen a shepherd with his herd of goats driving them across the road.
There really is not much on this road, so we carried on nearly to the end point, stopped at a petrol station for an ice cream Kazazian petrol station do not do ice creams, much to Keith disgust, he settled for a chocolate bar, then was dismayed when the girl behind the counter tipped herself with a chocolate bar rather than giving him the change, bit of a mistake on her part, she soon relented and gave him is change, or we would still be there.
With around 2 mile to go we pulled over, chatted to some local young lads they said there was an hotel about 3 miles down the main road, but also made a few laughs and giggles, hence we decided to stock up on supplies in the village supermarket first. As we cam out of the shop, a shady guy approached us, asked us where were heading and staying, we told him what we were doing, then he said come back to his house, we could camp there. So we followed him home, it later transpired that it was his parent house. We arrived at the house all hot and sweaty, then ushered into a large shed with seats and a basic kitchen. Within minutes they were serving us with a bowl of yogurt drink "kumys" not ideal but we all tried it, then homemade bread, jam and sugar. Keith politely ask the guy how to eat it, he just picked up a lump of bread stuck it in the jam then put it straight in his mouth, pretty easy really. The cam the tea “char” which was really good.
We then started to ask were we could put up are tents, went out into the garden and decided on two pitches, Linney & Keith started to get the tents ready, while I tried to look busy, but did strike a little bit lucky, as I was talking to the older guy he said why not sleep in the big shed were we had just eaten, result all around, so the tents were put away for another day.
Now its shower time! A wooden shack at the bottom of next doors garden with an 80 gallon plastic drum on the top, though \i must say it did work and we did feel a lot cleaner afterwards. We asked the guy where the local ATM was he offered to walk down with us, unfortunately it did not work, so he flagged a passing car down who gave us a lift to the next one, seems to be a local thing that you can flag cars down and ask for a lift. Also got some beers for our host and us, then made are way back, via another flagged down car.
We later found out it was an anniversary party for the guys parents over the weekend, we sat out side on an old hay cart chatted shared the beers, then the old guy got some dried salted perch out to go with the beers, I quickly reverted back to vegetarian and offered Keith up to taste it, later seen him throw it in the long grass. The party just kept on going with all the men sitting on the old hay cart, guys playing the guitar and dombyra ( a long-necked Kazakh lute) and singing partisan songs all very lively. The more food was served meat soup with fresh bread, fruits and more char, all served up by the ladies but they did not join in. We eventually was able to go to bed around midnight, a really long but great day.