John & Mick's BIG Adventure

Hello Charyn

Day 28 – 385kms (9798 kms total)

We left Almaty and negotiated the one way system with the help of the GPS and finally got to the road out, It was a very busy road through the suburbs and smaller towns but the scenery of the mountains to the south was fantastic.

The road weaved around a little and also gave some great views of Lake Qapshaghay, that lies North of Almaty and has another set of mountains as a backdrop.

The Charyn Canyon is about 160km from Almaty along the main A351. On route we saw another wiped out people carrier. Dead straight road, middle of the day and he decides to go cross-country. The problem is the 3metre drop from the road to the desert. Starts the car rolling with predictable results. Loads of people stopped to help so have a quick rubber-neck and continue.
The Charyn canyon isn’t a huge affair, but the approach to it is spectacular and a small track off the road, leads you to a viewing point where we lunched on our previously purchased bread and cheese.

From there we moved further south and then cut northeast to Shonji, which was also turned out to be a good road to ride along as its a river valley of a tributary to the Charyn river.

Shonji was a very vague affair and the fuel station involved the regular difficult conversation as they want you to pay up front for your exact amount of litres. If you ask for it to be full, they still ask how many litres! So if you underestimate, it cuts off before it’s full and you have to go and make another payment, and if you overestimate, it invariably overflows and you never can tell how much you’ve put in and so whether you’re being ripped off.

From there north to Koktal and across the Ili River. We ended our day in Jarkent, where there seems to be more of a town.
The border to China, about 40 kilometers distant, is closed at weekends.
Today is Friday…

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