Day 38 - Bumpy Tourism

It was windy all night, but warm. I slept like a log but Emma was tossing and turning. It seems like usually one of us sleeps well one one badly in the tent nights, perhaps subconsciously on lookout who knows?!

The day as a whole was a bumpy, very very windy ride across the Kazak steppe. We're not very remote yet, but it was easy to forget that seeing only tracks and nothing else in every direction!

The two highlights, were Ybykty Sai Gorge and an underground mosque, planned and unplanned respectively. The gorge was really cool, hidden away in a small hill and with wild natural formations in the limestone. A group of four Kazak social media influencers rocked up half way through and walked around videoing everything while playing a traditional lute and singing. The acoustics were very cool in there!

The mosque was just something we cycled past - a very much still in use mosque underground, next to the Muslim equivalent of a monastery (perhaps a Sufi lodge here I'm not sure). The modern above ground part had a big communal sleeping area open on one side to the courtyard, while the underground mosque was surrounded by ancient tombs. We didn't feel particularly welcome while asking there for water, no doubt because of our clothing, but when we entered the area above the underground mosque with our long sleeves and trousers, we were excitedly included in a ritual cleansing using a small fire outside.

Actually while I was being cleansed, Emma was being harassed by the dog she stopped to pat which was nipping her trousers and demanding more cuddles!

Both attractions were particularly enjoyed as we could get out of the infernal wind!

We got back to one of the big roads as planned and the speed increased, but by the time we pulled over to camp we'd done less than half our usual distance at half the average speed! We expected the pace to slow here though and are enjoying the rugged terrain and adventure!

We've not had signal for a couple of days, hence the delayed blog uploads. Tonight we're closer to a major town, but apparently right on the edge of the range because to make it work Emma's phone has to be 1m or more above the ground. You get fast 4G holding at waist level or above, and nothing at all below that - weird. Uploading the photos is a pain one at a time and often retrying, but I push through for my valued readers 😉.

Food spend today: 7.97 euros