We left Kyrgzstan with sadness. It was an awesomely lovely country and one which we hope to revisit at some point.
The border formalities were some of the easiest that we have encountered so far. It took us a little over half an hour to progress through the “laid-back” formalities. Even the customs guy was too busy washing his car to bother with us!
However the speed in passing the border was somewhat off-set by the puncture we had within a few kms. But of course with good teamwork, we were off again within another 30 mins.

Kazakhstan is huge- and that’s an understatement. It’s bigger than most of Western Europe- but with far less people (as we were later to discover).
The scenery changed almost immediately. Now we were in open Steppes. There were mountains but they seemed far away. We were lucky to find a 4WD track off the main road which led up to part of the amazing Charyn Canyon. (A bit like the Grand Canyon but smaller- but none the less amazing.)

The route took us back upon ourselves to the capital – Almaty. Almaty almost deserves a chapter of its own but, because of our fatigue with major cities- especially where everything is written in Cyrillic, we didn’t really enjoy it. It is certainly a city on the up-that’s obvious from the prodigious amount of flash 4WD vehicles on the grid-locked boulevards and the fact that every meal seemed to cost upwards of $20. But, we were really only there to collect our Mongolian visas- so were glad when we got those with easily. No queuing- $116 and done in a day. Oh, and Phil also found “World of Tyres” at which we purchased two brand-spanking new Goodrich tyres (at an almost equivalent to U.K. price). Mysteriously though, they were unable to balance them or repair our puncture. Before we left we spent an enjoyable evening at a Bar with David and Ingrid, Edde and David (from Stantours!), drinking draught German beer and eating what can only be described as smoked cheese flavoured wood shavings-delicious!

Our journey north towards the Russian border- approximately 1200km. The tarmac- not as good as we’d expected. We made a decision to leave the main route and try a “road” which would take us directly past the eastern end of Lake Balkash, via Lepsey (Lepsi). This proved to be a good decision.

At first, the road was rough tarmac, pot-holed and stony in parts. When we got to Lepsy, the road ended and we were on track, 250kms of track!
Following the railroad, we traversed some of the most interesting and challenging driving of the journey so far. In places, the track was barely perceptible, but with the rail tracks as our compass, we never once lost our way. And at times, it was stunning. Imagine the most uninhabited parts of the Yorkshire moors, subtract all the people, but add a multitude of varieties of wildflowers, birds- kestrels, eagles (big ones!) birds with pointy beaks (no, I don’t know what they were!), pink backed starlings, bright yellow finches, cranes and even cuckoos. But the most exciting spotting- on our second morning, was a snake! It was slithering through the short grass just inches from the truck (which thankfully we were inside at the time.) Dark brown, banded with black, it was most likely highly venomous.
The quality of the track varied, from hard sand, to stones and everything in-between. Another puncture! But this time, Phil decided, not to change it for the spare, but to try to fix it instead. An hour later, much sweat and levering of the split-rims and - Job done!!  Phil was very pleased to have been able to repair- and not just replace, something which we may have to do further down along the road to Ulaan Bator. And apart from passing through one small village, we saw no-one. Not a soul!

Approximately 48hours later, we finally hit the tarmac again and headed north towards the border. Which border, e aren’t quite sure yet. We hope to find a way across much further east than the Semey border. Whether or not we will be successful – who knows?

Post Script ;