Day 18
We have a rest day and Carl and I did a tour aroud Almaty we a few people. We went to the Mountians first then to the Largest Wooden Church in the world. It was very well restored after the Starlinist regeimes have used it as an office.
As the Green Market was closed for the day the guide started to take us to every Bronze statue in the city. We all got tied and decided to go home early. I was lucky enough to go to the green market on Sunday and saw all the produce and meat including horse as it is one of the main meats in Kazakhstan.
Day 19
This has been a long 750 k day starting in Almasty at 6.00 am. The Kazakh people are very friendly and I think every person has a mobile phone or camera. We have been photographed today by nearly everyone and a lot want to flag you down to stop so that they can be photographed with the car.
When you pull up for any reason, people stop to take pics. I stopped at a bank to change money and when I returned Carl was surrounded by about 15 people and nursing a Baby getting photos taken.
We had a small problem to day with the pipe to the Oil preasure gauge braking and starting to fill the foot area with oil. This took and 1/2 an hour to seal and tidy the mess then we were back on the road.
About 17 k’s had large potholes to dodge.
Most of the day the road was fine and ran along the flat with Snow covered peaks just visible through the haze.
Day 20
We all set off for the 200 k’s to the border post for our regular test in Patinences. it took us about 3 hours to get through the 2 border posts.
When we ennteed Uzbekistan we where in the salad bowl of the area with all sorts of crops being grown in small blocks.
We finally got things running well with Penny again today. so all is well for the trip through the heat from here to Turkey. Taskent is a clean beautifull viberant city with parks and fountians every where. About 60% of the population speak English so we are getting a lot of questions.
