The day started so well. Excellent breakfast in the hotel with fresh fruit salad! Fablus as they say.
Great route advice from Ivan & Dima, two Russian dudes who know the roads well, big smiles and waves from the gorgeous receptionist then 2 hours later the skies opened and it lashed down stopping often and long enough to dry out before lashing down again.
The wind was howling and it got bloody cold. I had the heated grips on most of the way.
So it was head down and grind out the kilometers. 550 of ’em and most of them spent swearing at the weather. 10 hours in the saddle.
The scenery was hidden behind low cloud and mist most of the way, but did lift briefly to reveal the hills and mountains that flank Almaty to the west. I’ll post video tomorrow.
Everything is soaked through so will go through everything in the morning to see what’s damaged. Hopefully the laptop’s ok.
But I’m not moaning now. Celebrating getting to Almaty and way ahead of schedule too so plenty of time to try to get the bike serviced and do some sight seeing.
Hotel here is cheap, £20/night with breakfast, free decent wifi, laundry service and aircon, so Camp Evans is a happy one.
Steve Hotson – if you’re reading this remind me to tell you about the route I took today. Pros and cons, but not ideal for a van.