From Karaghandy we took the minor road towards the twin ‘mountain’ resort towns of Karkarily and Karaghayli, set in a scenic national park of granite outcrops and pine forest. We made our usual slow progress and our first night’s camp, in fact we stayed two nights, was only 20 odd km past Karaghandy. We found a wonderful open area of steppe and a little used track took us about 2 km off the road where we could not be overlooked. The rest from driving every day was appreciated by both of us. In these days since Naurzum we had started to get problems at night from very small flies which could get into the Tab through the fly screens we have on every window. These flies similar to sand flies well known to Mike in Arabia which are renowned biters. They were more democratic than the mosquitos which only seem to go for Mike, these little fellas also went for Carol. We needed to employ all our defences against them, coils, sprays, citronella candles and even permethrin on the mesh. Eventually we also used our outdoor mosquito nets in the Tab! However the problem did not continue for many days.
After Karkarily we had our best campsite yet, we were able to get a small track that wound through a valley and up hill tracks, low ratio gears needed, bringing us out in a wonderful raised position where we had a 360 degree vista of fine granite outcrops and low rolling hills and we could not be seen from any direction. We stayed two nights and had a great walk over the hills on our day off.
After Karaghayli the road deteriorated to a hard rock road with no asphalt. Very uncomfortable to drive and slow going with the Tab which has a tendency to bounce around too much on hard uneven surfaces. We rarely got up to 25 mph - unless it was a unofficial track beside the main road which tended to be smoother and faster. The road improved to poor asphalt at Kaynar 130 km on from Karaghayli. The last 150 km to Semey were asphalted, of poor condition and very little used. On another driving survey we counted the cars we met coming the other way, in 129 miles (driving at less than 30 mph) we counted 36 vehicles (28 cars, 5 trucks, 1 bus and 2 minibuses).
We were almost caught out on this leg as there was no diesel in Karaghayli, where we had half a tank left, and we had assumed we would find some on the road but we had to decant both 20 litre jerrycans on our roof before we found a garage. This is the first time we have needed our reserve.
The Polygon
This is the area north of the Kaynar - Semey road the site of the Semipalatinsk soviet nuclear tests. In this region between the first Soviet bomb of 1949 and the last test in 1989, 456 nuclear explosions took place, with the power output of 2500 Hiroshimas. 116 of these explosions were in the atmosphere. These tests of course had a detrimental effect on the local population and environment, large areas are still contaminated and there are high rates of cancers in the local population. The test deaths, birth defects and cancers have built a certain level of resentment in the local population towards the nuclear industry and the Russian leaders of the time. There is a special display in the Semey museum about the tests and a huge monument on an island of the Ertis River running through Semey. We did not see any evidence of nuclear activity on our journey.
Weather
The last week or so the weather has settled into a bit of a pattern of sunny mornings with cloud gradually amassing during the day and then a few showers, not amounting to much, although we have seen several storms around us we have not had one right overhead. There have generally been quite strong winds blowing, mainly from the north, which have cooled things down nicely. Daytime temperatures have been averaging about 28C and at night we have had as low as 4.6C and as high as 14.8C. The great thing is that however hot and sweaty it gets during the day it almost always cools down in the evening.
PSs
We have added some more butterfly and dragonfly pictures and some notes on the food/health page.
Mike is having difficulty updating files on the file sharing site (see birds page) but he thinks the current file - birds seen to the end of May is now correctly in place. There is also a file of all the waypoints since leaving home. For Tab caravan enthusiasts there is a page of modification with pictures.
We have been struggling to add videos as they take such a long time and we haven't managed to make them smaller in size - does anyone have any suggestions? Would it be better to put them on YouTube?
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| Our first two night camp site in the Karkkarily hills |
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| Each village has a colourful and unique bus stop - there is another below |
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| First night in the Karkarily hills and the biggest battle with the little black biters |
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| Many towns have monumental artwork at their threshold, like this one at Karkarily |
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| Lunch stop by the lake |
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| Our favourite camp site so far - which is saying a lot as we haven't had any bad ones |
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| Spot the Tab - campsite as above |
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| Walking in the hills near the above camp site we found a trench excavation with lots of disgarded blue rocks and it appeared that a seam of the blue rock was the object of the excavation. Is this lapis? It is certainly found in Afghanistan |
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| From the Balkans, through Turkey and into central Asia a breed of massive dog is used to guard sheep.They are extremely protective of sheep and attack without much encouragement and Mike has had some uncomfortable moments in Anatolia with these dogs. This one appeared suddenly at the camp above causing us both to retreat hastily to the van outside which it then lay in the shade for some time. As you can see from the photo the ears and tail are cut off so that wolves can't grab them in confrontations. This one was probably quite friendly and it seemed to want a fuss made of it but we weren't taking any chances, especially as lone dogs are a rabies risk. |
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| For some reason the village of Karaghayli had several huge unfinished blocks of flats, quite out of character with the rest of the village |
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| Mike was hoping to see steam trains somewhere on this journey, this was the nearest he has got so far. This one seemed to have been run into the buffers about 20 years ago. |
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| Male Marsh Harrier |
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| Hills were a bit more prevalent at camp sites in the east |
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| Unidentified ground squirrel (not a marmot) |
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| Typical steppe farmstead |
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| Recently fledged Rock Thrush |
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| During the 1960's the River Shaghan was dammed by an atomic explosion (somewhere downstream from here). On our short visit there were Nightingales and Cetti's Warblers singing in the scrub |
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| A few photos of village life (Sarijal, SW of Semey), kids in the street, a shop, house with typically blue paintwork, and horses utilising every bit of shade |
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| Last camp site before Semey adjacent to the Steppe Eagle's nest below |
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| One of a number of visiting herdsman to our camp sites shares a cup of tea with Mike |
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| Bridges over the the River Ertis at Semey. This river rises in the mountains between China and Mongolia and is already 1000km long by the time it reaches Semey, it then becomes a tributary to the Rive Ob which eventually discharges into the Arctic Ocean |
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| Monument to the Victims of Nuclear Testing in Semey |
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| One of the few other caravans we've seen! |
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| A group of apparently rural women visit the monument above |
