Day 74 Almaty - Shonzhy
This morning we said goodbye to Chris Eden, we have enjoyed his company and wish him well for his journey to the Pamir.
We then headed into town to buy insurance which I had neglected to get at the border. The girl behind the desk was so patient with us, so between the odd word of English and Russian, a bit of sign language and Google translate we skipped out the door with 1 month of insurance for about $15.
We then adjourned to a really nice little cafe to reassess our plans. (real coffee what a treat)
The central area of Almaty is really nice, there seems to be one arterial route which is extremely busy and manic. Away from this there are wide tree lined boulevards which can be busy but the craziness is not there.
So we hit the road to the Charyn canyon area, destination Shonzhy. The first 150km were dual carriageway, perfect concrete road. The area is flat with crops in the fields but nothing much to see. The mountain range on our right is obviously impressive but we only caught glimpses of it through the clouds.
We seemed to be steadily gaining altitude and the ground became quite barren, we turned off the motorway and bought some fruit for lunch in a little market village.
Then onwards and upwards to around 1200 metres, very bleak looking but the close foothills we are passing by are quite beautiful, the road then passed through these hills in a narrow winding gorge.
We emerged into the Charyn canyon area and before long came to a lookout. The canyon is a fissure along the earth, not really deep but spectacular all the same, it is obviously a natural water course with a lovely river running along it and greenery all along the bottom.
The day is grey and gloomy and sure enough the rain drops began to fall, not much more than spitting really but quite a novelty to us. These conditions add to the atmosphere of bleakness about the place.
We arrived at Shonzhy which looks and feels like the wild west (except it's east) . One horse town with what appears to be a large military presence. A young man wound down his window and asked where we were from, we mentioned the word hotel and he immediately changed course and guided us to probably the only hotel in town, he negotiated the price ($10 basic but clean) shook our hands and left.
We went for a walk to suss out dinner options which are limited and bought ice creams on the way back . My first black ice cream and not too bad either.
We then headed into town to buy insurance which I had neglected to get at the border. The girl behind the desk was so patient with us, so between the odd word of English and Russian, a bit of sign language and Google translate we skipped out the door with 1 month of insurance for about $15.
We then adjourned to a really nice little cafe to reassess our plans. (real coffee what a treat)
The central area of Almaty is really nice, there seems to be one arterial route which is extremely busy and manic. Away from this there are wide tree lined boulevards which can be busy but the craziness is not there.
So we hit the road to the Charyn canyon area, destination Shonzhy. The first 150km were dual carriageway, perfect concrete road. The area is flat with crops in the fields but nothing much to see. The mountain range on our right is obviously impressive but we only caught glimpses of it through the clouds.
We seemed to be steadily gaining altitude and the ground became quite barren, we turned off the motorway and bought some fruit for lunch in a little market village.
Then onwards and upwards to around 1200 metres, very bleak looking but the close foothills we are passing by are quite beautiful, the road then passed through these hills in a narrow winding gorge.
We emerged into the Charyn canyon area and before long came to a lookout. The canyon is a fissure along the earth, not really deep but spectacular all the same, it is obviously a natural water course with a lovely river running along it and greenery all along the bottom.
The day is grey and gloomy and sure enough the rain drops began to fall, not much more than spitting really but quite a novelty to us. These conditions add to the atmosphere of bleakness about the place.
Random statues in the middle of nowhere.
We went for a walk to suss out dinner options which are limited and bought ice creams on the way back . My first black ice cream and not too bad either.
There are little surprises everywhere, we had been thinking there wasn't much on offer for dinner and right next door we wandered into a less than appealing (from the street) diner, absolutely delightful owners, spotlessly clean and great food into the bargain. And as an added bonus they do pancakes for breakfast!
Interesting choice of ice cream, what was the flavour? Mmmmm not sure I could get over it being black
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