The roads are so bad here that they have rattled Johns
fillings out!!!
John
holding the broken bit of side mirror in his mouth, allowed me to
photograph his top back tooth that is slowly falling apart. He will
send the photo off to his Australian dentist asking what he should do?
There
are some beautiful dragonflies around but they don’t settle for
long.
Back
onto the road at Koilyk where we stopped to buy some apples. One lady
had good English and I showed her on the map where we had been. She
invited us for tea but I declined then she grabbed me buy the arm and
marched me across the street to her lovely house and garden.
We
picked some apples out of the trees… and she gave me some cheese a
big piece frozen and some fresh. Such generosity.
Kazakhstan apple picker
Then
I returned to the truck for the camera and John. We looked at her
huge veggie garden and about 5 huge apple trees.
Tamara's
husband died 15 years ago she has 5 kids 10 grand-kids and 2 great-grand-kids. Her children are in US, Russia, Kyrgyzstan and one in this
village.
We
agreed to tea with bread, home made cheese, raspberry jam and cream
from her cows. Haven't had such yummy cream for a long time…..
She
had learnt her English by hosting foreign peace corp English teachers
in the village, for 6 years, but in the proceeding two years had forgotten a
lot…
I
went to buy some black currents from the stall we were stopped by but
the lady gave them to me.
On
up to Usharal and the national park. There was a police car lined up
for fuel so went and asked them about the park. Finally got my
message through and they said "wait here for 5 mins and a park guy
will come".
We
waited and two young fellows turned up, Sadly the park is closed to
tourists even though I read on google that it is the second best place
to see water birds. A major stopping point for migrating water birds. We
are not having much luck with the parks here.
The
road degraded….
They have started a new road so we swap from side
to side on temporary roads or back on the original, very slow and
rough with lots of other traffic.
We
spotted on the map some tracks that would take us along a lake which will be the plan for tomorrow. Just need to get off these roads.
It is sunflower season and many paddocks have these beautiful sunny flowers.
Looked
for a river camp but the little track we were on headed into the
hills. A real pretty camp in the dry hills with lush green valleys
where the springs flow
288km Campsite 680m alt.
288km Campsite 680m alt.
