Big Hallo Again in Aktau

3rd of November:

Again we have around 100 km of this terrible road but then thanks god or the Kazakh government we have a good road. My father is calling me at the phone and I stop at the side of the street. After some while a car stops in front of us and a man jumps out. He looks really happy and I recognise him. It is the guy we met almost two month ago. He, Volodja, was driving with his Suzuki motorcycle through Kazakhstan visiting his friends. I am really happy to see him and he too. Anyway we wanted to call him that day anyway. We decide to go to the harbour to check the ferry schedule to Baku. After that we go to a Banja to warm us up and to clean. After Volodja came back from work we meet again. He already organised a place to stay for us. One of his motorcycle friends has a hotel and we can stay there for free until the next day. In the evening we have a chat together with him and another friend who can speak very good English. And one good thing we can get the ferry next day and do not need to wait for 7 or 10 days as other people told us.

(Somewhere around here N 43.65345°, E 51.1702 °)

On a Ghost Ship

2nd of November:

We buy some stuff in Beyneu and start our way on nice asphalt. I wonder why the truck drivers said this street to Aktau is horrible. But soon I understand why. After 10 km the asphalt ends and the street gets sometimes so bad that I can only drive 10 km per hour. We drive through a dark grey kind of something. Even worse it starts to rain. The street gets muddy and slippery. My broken shock absorbers are a real pain now and looking in the steppe feels like looking from a ghost ship on to the ocean where the grey fog connects with the dark almost black water. I get really tired of this street. But I do not want to drive 3 days here. Therefore, I try to drive as long as I can. At a point where we drive down into a canyon which is made of white rocks, I guess from former and bigger Caspian Sea, we decide to stay. Camels racing out of a side valley. The white walls of the canyon disappear in the grey fog. I guess this landscape is quite interesting if there is some sun. Now I can just guess how it would look like.

The car is covered with yellow brown quite liquid mud. Each time you take something out of the car your trouser is full with that stuff. We are looking forward to get some possibility to wash. (:)

(N 44.09831°, E 53.18419 °)

Beautiful Altai in the Border Zone (:)

These days are hardly to explain, there is not so much story but beautiful landscape which you get to see later in the pictures.

 

25th of August: In Катон-Карагаи we go to the office of the National Park. Андрей from Altai expedition explained us the way to them and told us it would be good to have at least the пропуск (permission) for the National park. The guys there are once again very friendly. It seems that it is first time that they have a Japanese visitor. We get a lot of explanations about the national park; the area is 6000 km2, with amazing flora and fauna, saying one day is not enough, it is better to go by horse ..... Indeed I would like to stay here more long, but therefore you need an additional vacation which just concentrates on this area. We just get the permit for national park, nobody ask for border zone permit, make the obligatory picture with the boss and some staff of the park, and go on to our Altai "Tour".

 

Around 40 km after Катон-Карагай, the Austrian road is climbing up around 1000 m from the bottom of a wide valley. This off-road trail was build by Austrian prisoners of world war one. This first 1000 m give you the views over the valley its sunflower fields that are encircled by colourful mountain meadows. From here you also see the snow-capped peaks of the highest mountain of the Altai. Along the serpentines a lot of berries are growing, which Kotomi is picking for the first time in her life. Sometimes Kotomi is walking since her stomach does not feel so good due to the bumpy way and the motion of the car. After the pass we drive onto a plateau with meadows, horses, cows, and clean rivers. A family has its summer camp here. It means they build up their Jurt and bring their animals here for the summer time. We go further and make our camp in a wide valley/plateau. The scenery is peaceful; horses jumping around and in the background the glaciers of some 4000 m high mountains getting red in the sunset. It gets cold this night; the moisture of our breath is frozen at the inside of the tent. (N 49.06015°, E 86.01725 °)

 

26th of August: Leaving the national park means we go into forbidden area. From now on we need the border zone permit. We driving through narrow valleys, over broken bridges, and have to cross rivers. But all the way is worth to go seeing these colourful mountain meadows which are surrounded by old larches. We manage only 40 km and arrive at Lake Markakol. Our contact person Михаел shows us with his 24 year old Toyota 4WD Combi a nice meadow at the lake where we make our camp. We have a chat and he is very much complaining about the Russians even so he is Russian. He never visited Russia after the independence of Kazakhstan, "всё мафиа", "all are mafia and bandits especially the police". Anyway he is surprised about the border zone permit stuff and says we do not need. We are not sure and are still a little bit afraid to meet any guys from the border police. (N 48.78453°, E 86.01745 °)

 

27th of August: Going south from the Lake means that we almost touch the Chinese border. I really hope that we do not meet the border police. I am always thinking about my excuse just in case that we meet them. Just do not know any Russian?? Or pretending not to know anything? Or .......???? The landscape is changing from rivers and lake, to mountain steppe, and after passing the Mamor pass we are looking down to the white sand dunes of the desert which are already in China. We are driving along the border fence and behind it you can see the desert. We pass a deserted border check point; nobody stops us it seems we are saved. Going on the South west where the left side of the road is steppe/desert and the right is amazing green from the water of the Altai. It gets very hot and we decide to make lunch at a river. We take a bath and some boys from the village join us. One of them is studying music and asks if we have a guitar. He plays while we are cooking. We share the Kumis which I bought in Катон-Карагаи, have some cookies together and then we are alone again. After another 100 km nothing just flat steppe, seeing behind and far away high mountains. Kotomi is sleeping as always on these “interesting” straight steppe roads. In the afternoon we arrive in the town Zajsan. Buying food, getting a 10 kg water melon for free (maybe because Kotomi is the first Japanese in this town, as she was the first Japanese at Lake Markakol (:)) and 50 km more until the quite big Lake Zaijsan. Making our camp in the steppe; behind us mountains and in front the lake. (N 47.67711°, E 84.41575 °) 

 

 

Border Zone Permit and Buying "Diesel"/Getting invited by Kumbat and Kamschat

24th of August and it is monday: The office of Altai expedition is open and the very friendly owner Андреи welcomes us. Just at the same time an author of the Lonely Planet for Central Asia visit him and they actually discussed what to write in the new edition. They also discussed the matter of the border zone permission. Both say you need a border zone permit to go the Markakol Lake in the Altai Mountains. Unfortunately the permit takes at least 30 days and even the fast processing of 12 days seems not to be possible anymore. Well first that is bad news for us, since we do not want to wait 30 days for this permission. I explain him that I want to go to the lake from the North by using the Austrian road. This road is quite a Off-road challenge but promises beautiful views into the valleys and peaks of Altai mountains. I explain him my plan and he tells me that I could at least go to the Austrian road in the area of the National Park of Katon-Karagai (Катон-Карагаи). That is at least something but I do not want to go back to Oeskemen to go to the South to Almaty. So I ask him if I could go south from there too. He just says maybe you are lucky and there are no border police. This sounds like a "nice" plan and we hope that there are no posts on our way to the south using the way over the Austrian road, Lake Markakol, and Tereki. We buy food for some days and go further in the east in the direction of Katon-Karaigai. Андреи gave us a good explanation were the Austrian road starts.

 

From the steppe to hilly area, along yellow sunflower fields with blue sky, Rolling Meadows, potato harvesting families; that is what we saw on this way. Somewhere in between, we just want to buy a Diesel, we get invited to eat. Kumbat and his wife Kamschat just came back from their potato field and saw us at the petrol station. They were quite busy since he and his son still had to harvest potatoes. Nevertheless he invites us to come to his house were his wife and a friend will prepare a dinner for us. We follow his Lada Samara, which is loaded with 4 persons and 200 kg potatoes, until his house. He is living in a Russian style apartment block. But the apartment is decorated in the same style as the houses in the steppe. Maybe the only difference is that here you do not have the old nice Samovar anymore, the modern Japanese water cooker is used instead (:). We experience again the hospitality of the Kazakh people, with the self made noodle, a lot of meat, self made marmalade, and of course tea with milk and sugar as much as you want. After we are full he shows us his new магазин (shop) and guides us to the street that goes to Катон-Карагаи. We just drive a little further since it is already dark and make a camp at a meadow with hills of fresh cut grass. (N 49.21422°, E 84.39357 °)

 

 

 

 

 

Another 700 km along the Jertis

20th of August: We are following this river stream-upward already since we started in Omsk. The Jertis or Irtysch (Иртыш) has its spring in the Altai in Mongolia going through China, Kazakhstan, and finally Russia. The Altai is still almost 1000 km away and meanwhile we will follow the Jertis. In Omsk still Siberia, we are driving now on the Jertis plateau which is flat steppe. The river cuts itself into the sand of the steppe. In its "canyon" you can find a oasis in the middle of the steppe and villages along. In the afternoon we are stopping at a place where the "canyon" is quite wide. Searching half an hour; we find a way to go into the canyon; down the 15 m high sand cliffs. Now the Jertis has low water and we can make or camp in the canyon. In the sunsets it reminds me at the desert, the sand of the cliffs starts to get red. In the foreground there is a wide sandy beach with a few grass in between and bleached roots of big trees. We decide to stay one more day at this nice place; to write Blog for you (:), to read, to repair ..........  In the afternoon kids coming and after them a big herd of sheep is almost rolling down the cliffs, running over the wide sand beach, and finally to jump into the water. (N 51.44919°, E 77.78976 °)

 

22th of August: we have a short stop in Semey to buy some food and then go on in the direction of Oeskemen still along the Jertis. Semey is famous for the nuclear bomb test in times of Soviet Union. 460 were tested until 1989.For the Russians this area was sparsely populated and they did not care about the Nomads living here in the steppe. We go on in the direction of Oeskemen (Ust Kamenogorsk). Here we want to get a special permission to enter Altai region in the border zone close to China. At the end of the day we are ca. 100 km away from Oeskemen and stop at some beautiful rock formation. (N 50.14946°, E 81.71493 °). When we stopped there to make pictures we met our first tourist in Kazakhstan. He is Russian but lives in west Kazakhstan. He came here in 4 days with a 125 cm3 Suzuki motorcycle. He started in Aktau, which is 4000 km away at the Caspian Sea. He is sleeping 3 hours the day and driving the remaining time. He looked quite tired but still happy about his journey. He just want to visit his friends all over Kazakhstan. We made some pictures together and exchanged the phone numbers since we will cross the Caspian Sea later, starting in Aktau. He still needs to drive but we made our camp below the rock formation in the steppe. The smell of this steppe you will never forget. It smells like an herb shop. The smell of the flowers and grass are very intense. That is the food of the sheep and will give its meat the nice flavour.

 

23th of August: we go to Oeskemen in the hope that the travel agencies which may organise us the permission for the border zone are open. Unfortunately the one guy just left and the other agency is closed. Eating some Samsa, getting some food and find a sleeping place outside the town. (N 50.04802°, E 82.34258 °)

 

 

 

 

 

Experiencing nomadic Live, culture, and hospitality during an Off-road trip through the steppe

Let’s start with the night before we started to this amazing trip. After the Баня we went together with Арман, his wife, a friend and her daughter to his house. The house is one of this concrete living blocks but just one year old. From the balcony you can see the river which comes together with the Йертис (Jertis). The rooms are big and decorated with wall carpets where in the living room a huge flat screen is mounted at the wall. The rooms are nice decorated but not as full as in Germany or Japan, all necessary things are there. Since we were guests we were not allowed to help preparing the food, which is the job of the woman Арман got a big round table which was place in the middle of the room. The table is 20 cm high and maybe 2 m in diameter. You are sitting at thee floor on some kind of warm mat which is decorated with ornaments and symbols of Kazakhstan. Later on we experienced this style also in the villages of the steppe. For me it is amazing that this culture did not get lost in the cities. After some time a big round plate (50 cm) with self-made noodles of quadratic shape (5x5 cm) and a lot of meat are placed in the middle of the table. Cut horse sausage, horse meat, sheep meat, and meat of the cow. Арман told us that a family normally eats one horse over the winter. The guy from the Кафе and another friend Канат also joined this “party”.

 

Even so my Russian got better it was nice that the girl could translate when I was running out of words or they could not explain it with hands and feet (:). She just went for a language course of the Goethe Institute to Oppurg, which is very close to my place in Germany. She won this trip in a contest being one of the best. She started to learn German because she likes the German band Tokyo Hotel so much, which I do not know so much.

 

Now we could drink first time kumis (fermented mare’s milk). It taste a little bit like yogurt is just a little bit more sour, thinner, and has gas in it. After the main dish always sweets and white bread butter, marmalade, and tea is served. When your tea is empty you normally give it to the youngest woman which is filling it with milk and tea again. If you do not ask for it will be their responsibility to ask you if you want to have more when they see it is finished. After everybody is finished, the oldest or a respected person makes a pray where everybody hold up his two hands together like a bowl. The prayer thanks for the food and when finished everybody slides with the two hands over the face. Everybody stands up to wash its hands. Although the Kazakh are not that strong Muslims there is a strong respect for the older and the mother earth. You hardly find rubbish along the streets; the cities are really clean, also the cars look as they were washed just some minutes ago. The villages seem to be in much better condition than in Russia. All in all we feel more “light” in Kazakhstan compared to Russia.

 

Since Арман and Канат know the steppe around Павлодар very well, they suggested to go together to Баянаул, which is like an Oasis of mountains and beautiful rock formations in the middle of the steppe. Канат’s home village and his family lives in that area and they could show us the traditional live of the Kazakh “cowboys”. That sounded interesting but there was still one problem that our car had just two seats and they did not want to go with there “city cars” since they are not appropriate for the steppe. Anyway it sounds like a good idea and we postponed the decision to the next day.

 

17^th of August: In the morning we exchanged our last rubbles and tried to get a registration that is actually just a further stamp in our registration card. The guys at the border said we have to doo it otherwise we will get problems if we want to go out of the country. They also said just go to town to the police get the stamp and that is it. Well in the immigration office they said it is not necessary and did not want to give us. Or again some citizen of Kazakhstan had to sign some papers and bring some documents. The guide book says the same, nobody knows about the exact rules, sometimes it is ok without, sometimes you get a problem and sometimes the immigration offices in the cities even refuse to give the registration. However we decided to try it together with Арман in Баянаул the next day. The problem of the missing seats was solved by just taking out our additional diesel tanks at Канат’s home, placing a tool box as one seat and putting a mat as another seat. Арман got one of his riffle and we got ready to go to the 210 km fare away Баянаул. Almost all the way we were driving through steppe on a quite good asphalt road. Along the way you could see salt lakes, a lot of cow, horses, and sheep. Fare away we could see something which looked like a huge castle in the middle of the flat steppe. These are the mountains around Баянаул. We approached there around sunset, where the setting sun was going down between the mountains and the steppe over a salt lake. To enter the mountains you have to pass a post that stops you. Арман and Канат just talked with them and we could pass. A second post close to the lake in the middle of the mountains did not want to let us through. But fortunately Канат knows the people there and convinced him to let us through which is normally only possible with a special permission of some tour operator. It was getting dark and Арман and Канат were thinking what to do. We took a dirt road into the mountain which leads us to a small village Торайгиров where Канат was living when he was a small kid. But his friend was not there, so searched for a place to stay in several houses. Finally we found the house of the family of Канат’s teacher. The first step is always to go in the house and ask, all other people waiting outside. After some while Канат comes out we wait some more minutes and then everybody goes in. Again the big round table where already food is served. Nice wall carpets and mats to sit. The grandmother (Канат’s teacher), her daughter and husband, and 3 kids are living there. We get a Боршт, self-made bread, marmalade, and tea. This whole procedure we experience in the following days several times also at places where even Канат does not know the people. This kind of hospitality is strongly related to the nomadic culture, where the people help each other to survive. On the way through the steppe even hundreds of kilometer you do not need to take everything with you since you will be always treated as a guest. Of course in the other way around if they travel they will receive the same hospitality from the others. This culture is in strong contrast to our so called “civilized” world where you can not find this open hospitality so often. (N 50.86432°, E 75.62885 °)

 

18^th of August: We start very early in the morning since Арман want to show us a lot of interesting place. The village is just in front of a mountain close to a lake and the morning light serves us a nice view. We drive through a beautiful rock formations that look like in a picture of Dali, visiting the stone of the witch (Hexenstein) and climbing up to a cave. Have a bath in the lake and going on to Баянаул to solve the registration problem. Канат knows the police and after one hour a lot of discussions and phone calls we get that stupid stamp. Nobody wants to make that stamp but the border wants to have it. I wonder how to do without the help of Канат and Араман. However we have it now. We were visiting one Cousin of Канат got again food and Kumis from him in his Кафе. In there one guy looks at us and asks if we are the couple from Irkutsk with the stolen car. That is really amazing but TV is everywhere even in the small village. The people just saw our report in the Russian federal TV which they also receive there.

 

During the meal the Cousin decided to come with us since he knows the ways through the steppe better than the “city cowboys”. We improvised one more seat and the adventure through the steppe and the mountains was starting. Арман was always looking for something to shoot and finally we saw some wild goat (not sure if it is really a goat, looks like big dear with spiral horns). Unfortunately (for Арман) that he just took his small riffle. With the big one he could shot it even on a distance of 500 m. We often used no way as way, and sometimes you could only guess something like a track from a car in the grass. This was called an old bad “road”. We stopped at every 20 to 50 km at a families farming house. Always the same procedure; one goes in after some while the others, Kumis, bread & butter, and tea is served. In the end the prayer of the oldest, often the grandfather, and then we are on our way to Канат’s family again. We also make a stop in a valley with an Islamic cemetery with a relaxing silence, soft wind blowing over our skin and fare away mountain scenery. Канат makes a prayer and we stay their for some while in respect for his ancestors. In the evening we arrive in the village of his family Жуаитобе. Since we made already 150 Off-road km we decide to stay there over night. The family has 60 goats, 40 horses and 10 cows. Арман  explains me that the horses are not for riding. Most of them are sold in the winter for around 1000 USD for eating. After the dinner I am quite tired and I just fall asleep. (N 50.55114°, E 76.27285 °)

 

19^th of August: Арман got the permission from his wife for one more day, so we decide to go through the steppe back to Павлодар not taking the road and having one more chance for hunting. I am shooting my first time and can hardly hit the bottle (:). We are driving along salt lakes, farming houses, again with the same procedure. There we always make sure that we are on the right way. Often we just drive trough the pure steppe without a way. We also visit a deserted Kolchose from the old Sowjet Union times. Most of them were closed and the people left the places. Smaller farming houses or villages are preferred in a more traditional way of living. Normally each family is like its own company. In the evening we arrive in Павлодар we stay this time at Канат’s house. We have a Баня and food, Kotomi plays guitar and drum, and we also have some beer. Арман wants to get some more for us and drives with the car, gets stopped in the middle of the night, but thanks to Канат’s connection to the boss of the police he get his driving license back. (N 52.24652°, E 76.9775  °)