jeudi 28 juin 2012

Mountains , June 28

My new friends finish their yesterday smelly meat for breakfast , with one liter of horse milk per person, not for me , thanks !
Very cold night with lot of fog.
Sunrise is 4h30 am, difficult to sleep after , because of the heat in the tent
I m worry for my back tyre which is really bad, now, and hope it will last the 2000 km I need to reach Mongolia where I ll change it for a new set.
I Take the track the other way around , bright light and beautiful vision of the white Altai mountains, above all, -I can see Mongolia from here, but there is no way to cross the border , I have to make a 2000 km detour.
When the road stops with a weird broken pontoon, it seems something is wrong - speaking (trying ) with a bunch of guys , it seems the pontoon is really there and will be back in 2 hours ..
These 4 guys invite me for food, tea, vodka , ... And give me a knife , a russian army mug, and a hat!!! That is welcoming !
one old guy is a doctor, one is a lawyer and the 3rd is a high police officer
The guy heats the tea with a strange stove powered by a welding machine- weird situation in a so weird place !
And of course no English , french or whatever, but it works .
When boarding the pontoon , i just notice I ve a flat on the rear tyre, shit.
But then to my 4 new friends plenty of others on the boat starts to move around to help.
Tyre repair on the other side of the lake with everybody trying to help - really good time and fantastic people - they give me food , drinks again and they do not let me pay anything
Cool day

June 26 long road

Starting the day with heavy rains, I decide to try to reach the Russian border in one day , around 1000 km alterning harsh sun and stormy moments. The road crosses immense Kazakh sandy desert steppe , and green undulating landscape when following some huge lakes, nothing really interesting to see in this stretch. A bit of mess sometime and funky vehicles, pot holes slaloming keep me awake.

mercredi 27 juin 2012

June 27 makarkal lake

From Oshkemen, I head trying to find a lake in the middle of the mountains close to russian, china and Mongolia border . Some people told me I need a border permit to go around and I don't have it . Let's see what will happen.
Narrow road thru mountains during the first 200 km, crossing beautiful forest again with the road full of potholes. Landscape turn green and air temperatures starts to be acceptable as in the city it was over 35 this morning.
I pass several muslism cemeteries , but that time the tombs are made of wood and very coloured. This valley ends at the border with china and Mongolia , it is q d'eau end And i ll have to turn back.
Lunch in a local restaurant with the strange feeling to be observed . As always I just improvise for the menu , and hope,that what will land in the plate will be eatable..
The markakol lake is not really on the map and now I can see that I ve to go thru the mountains on the left. I finally find the narrow track that head south , the lake should be around 60 km from there in the mountains. Very steep ascents, lots of stones , in 8 km I climb from 900 m to 2500 m, absolutely beautiful scenery, just hope this is the right way.
Then the. Track goes down in a Valley 2200 m altitude , lot of water everywhere
Snow very close by. Horses around.
First river to cross which is .. Quite deep, I ve the entire engine under water and just hope it will not stop in the middle of the 200 m wide river . I m alone and shouldhave tough time to get out in case of problem .
This is an absolutely amazing place
I find the next passage to the next valley where the lake should be , 25 km ahead.
Next river to cross, as the first one , no problem, and then comes the 3rd one- that is not going to work- powerful , lot of big rounded stones , and looks deep, too deep.
I play safe ,
Will not go to the lake as it seems there are others several rivers to cross before reaching the lake - and what if the water level raise up ? Theses are glaciers rivers and that can happen.
I meet 4 Kazakhs trying to go there as well with their small Lada Niva .
Well camp together and will have good time. One guy is a teacher and others are farmers . I ll learn a lot from him about the aerea.
The piste I took as been build by Austrian prisoners catched by the russians , none of them survived .. The reason of the road was to give access to Russian troops to the sensitive china- Kazakstan border as it seems that the area was a
disputed place.
I learn as well that in the area ,is the landing place for the baikonur rockets. So militaries have a moving camp to take over the part of rockets that falls down when there is a launch . I will learn as well about Kazakhs and a bit of their traditions. I try the horse milk they offer me , and as well the strange food, mix of lamb with potatoes.
Cool people , ! For 2 of them I m the first foreigner , ever , that they meet!! And that looks and exceptional event for them.
Camp by the river , in a fantastic landscape , with this kind of encounter,
I love that
Fantastic day!

mardi 26 juin 2012

June 25 , south east Kazakstan

Fantastic landscape , changing all the time , magnificent canyon with strange rocky formations , mountains with green forrest alternate with hot and dry desert - heavy rains from stormy weather and dry hot wind! I stop for lunch not far from the Chinese border and the restaurant is used to it and serve quite different food with lots of Chinese people eating with sticks and making lot of noise . And with the menu in Chinese ! I m out of space here! Brand new chineses busses contrasts with the usual kazakh one (used imported European busses, sometime still with the French ads of the former owner on it - "voyages Bertrand ", funny!)
I find a nice place to camp in the wild
600 km today, super nice day

lundi 25 juin 2012

June 24 looking for fresh air

300 km east of Almaty there are nice lake to visit , in the middle of the mountains.
The last 80km are very bad track and I reach a gate for the national park where the warden wants to turn me back because motorbikes are not allowed in the park! I manage to pas thru by the way convincing an "official ' to break a bit the rules. 2000 m altitude and fresh air
I head east using a very bad gravel road that cross several canyons and no vehicles at all for at least 150 km.
When reaching the tar , everything turns Green with lot of water horses, ..fantastic landscape .i ll pass thru snowed capped mountains to reach the end of the road , with , the kan tengry , a 7000 m in background.,
Dead end here, no way to cross any border to china from this valley , as the mountains
are doing perfectly the job.
Find a super place in the mountains , far from the road and crossing a river.
A cool guy visits me riding his horse and invite me to his place, i have fantastic time with this farmer. He wants to scare me with stories of bears
A large cobra show up in the dry riverbed close to my camp and move away quickly I didn't know they were some here.he is black and doesn't look like the ones in Africa
It is strange because we are 2000 m altitude , the night is cold and snake doesn't like cold

June 23 , leaving Almaty

Find a workshop where I cause the facility with nice people willing to help. But no spares , and they never saw a Ktm 950..
Check waterpump and again all circuit with conclusion that it should be only the radiator safety valve.
People are really nice here, a guy pop up and offer me drinks for free
And at the cafe , linked to the workshop , they offer me drinks , food and they don't want me to pay anything,
I just have to write something on the wall as a souvenir
I leave the city heading east and stop in mountains by a hills passing a Muslims cemetery , closed by of a village
Te are sometime Muslims cemetery , bit it doesn't seem that people do care of any religion here
The road followed a river and it is quite populated here.

22 in Almaty

Waiting for the paperwork..That arrives 5 pm
Meeting again the gues at the bikeshop , they show me good spots north west of Kazakstan - if I can make it I ll definitly go
So a cool guy show me the road riding his green Kawasaki superbike ! Mountain road just getting out of the city and we climb up to 3000 m. Beautiful alpine landscape with nove lake - the is a basic ski resort at the end of the road that reach 3500 m alt.
Will stay in a strange hotel, in altitude where I meet a cool guy who trains falcons and eagles, and eventually speaks a bit of English.
I ve to do some mechanics tomorrow to be sure the overheat is not from the waterpump.