DavidsPayne

Day 22 - Karakol to Tamgar: We checked the coolant level in the morning to find that most of the reservoir was gone. Dave F noticed that part of the O-rings on the reservoir screw-cap were damaged, meaning that it wasn't holding pressure once the engine was switched off and so coolant bubbled out of the overflow. It didn't seem to pose any risk to the engine however, so we topped up the coolant level and set off as normal. Karakol is the 4th largest city/town in Kyrgystan with roughly 60k people and sits close to the eastern edge of Lake Issyk Kol. Our plans for the day were to explore a couple of the valleys nearby, get some supplies and then camp for the night on the shores of the lake. We'd brought all the ... read more

Day 20 - Almaty and around: Yet another peculiar day. We got our admin out of the way in the morning. We knew already that driving into China was impossible without taking their own examinations, and that the controlled border area was up to 100km wide in some places, passable only with a permit. Furthermore, there is little to see or do around the Khorgos border crossing into China A good compromise to show that driving to China was indeed possible but quench our need for scenery and adventure would be to cross into Kyrgystan via the Karkara valley border checkpoint and then fill ourselves to bursting with mountains and valleys going south around Isyl Kol lake. The Karkara valley crossing is one of the most remote in the world. It was closed for many years ... read more

Day 18 - Astana to Balkhash This was going to be a long day. We knew we had to register our visas with the migration police at an OVIR office within 5 days of entering the country, and we were running out of time. Registration is a throwback to the old days under communism, and exists now seemingly only through bureaucratic inertia. We had heard that it could take up to 2 days to complete the process so made contingency plans for staying longer in Astana. We even had a translation of a request to process us quickly, courtesy of the people at the Americana. In the event, though the OVIR was packed and chaotic, the officer spoke excellent English and we had our registration stamp within 20 minutes. It took an age to get out ... read more

Day 16 - Kostanay to Astana Kazakhstan is big, around 12 times the size of the UK, or equivalent to the whole of western Europe. A country of huge contrasts, it's vast steppe landscapes have seen the passing of the nomadic Scythian people, the warring hoards of Genghis Khan, unparalleled cereal production, annexation by the Russian empire, horrific gulags and latterly the birth of a truly stunning new capital city. Nuclear weapons have been tested on these plains, whilst the Baikonur Cosmodrome is the worlds first and largest space launch site. The Sputnik satellite was launched from there, as are the current soyuz rockets that service the ISS. The snow-capped mountains in the south are intrinsically linked to the northern silk road route, and cradle the old capital Almaty in their green rolling foothills. Day 16 ... read more

Day 14 - Ufa to Chelyabinsk We had checked a few websites for ideas but had found nothing inspiring to see in Ufa. Like the others in preceding days, Ufa is a big busy city with lots of grungy high rises, wide dusty streets, and a tram and electric bus system. The tram tracks form part of the street and can be driven on as a seperate lane. You need to be careful though, as the road surface next to the rails is quite cut up. Unlike other trams I've seen, these brake using giant pads that press down onto the rail itself between the wheel bogeys. The pads look like huge versions of the calliper brakes on a bicycle. The electric buses are an odd feature, taking their power from overhead wires. The arm on ... read more