Day 17 – Nur-Sultan to Balkashino camp 7

Leaving this city without being able to have a look around is a shame. The buildings we could see on the way in and out were stunning architecture. The city blocks were the size seen in the US but sprinkled in between were original structures of days past.

A picture from the hotel window before dark. Steve working on the car in the hotel car park and the dirt from Denise’s bottom. Another shot of the city at night from hotel window

The track out was straight forward on long stretches of city roads and stoplights then onto highways that stretched for hundreds of miles before us. Concrete roads that would be considered the best became boring as we progressed to the one exiting event that when we arrived we found had been cancelled.

Photos going out of the city

Back to more concrete road to our next event that was a passage control and a couple of time controls.

The car had lost the overdrive that Steve had repaired the night before. Obviously some electrical issue. As he had replaced it with a new one. He hasn’t worked it out yet as to the cause but our speed was dramatically reduced and the motor revs increased accordingly.

The last evening Steve had spent the best part of two hours cleaning, adjusting, replacing and tweaking the various parts that required attention. Some 5-6kgs of dirt was removed from underneath. A good job but failure of the o/drive continued to perplex.

With all the tight schedules every day and lack of sleep can be dangerous on the road. Care is essential.

A national park we drove through

A hotel coming out of the park. Scenes of the countryside. It’s so fertile and the govt is making the most of it. There’s a lot to develop yet

A successful arrival at the camp entrance only to find throngs of people. We had expected a serene location in the countryside somewhere.

Not to be.

We were directed to our tent which was the size of a pea pod. Rain was threatening and Steve didn’t want to pitch his, but it was the only resolve to get some sleep for the night.

It then became obvious that this site was to become a gala event with the locals Turing out in their customary costumes, dancing and singing.

At the campsite 7 in Balkashino and the welcome gala that the locals put on. The garb is something to behold

The facilities here looked “not so good” but these too turned out to be first class. Showers with hot water and proper toilets with flushing and blue water.

Really good.

So, as it turned out it was a rather joyful afternoon, the food cooked by the locals was surprisingly good and breakfast the next day was also ok.

Some more activities at the camp

We bed down relatively early, 8.30 but the partying carried on to all hours.

The worst feature was people walking past the tents, inadvertently tripping over the tent ropes in the dark, with the obvious outcome of waking the occupant.

It rained during the night and the tents were wet inside. And the cold of the early morning was getting through the sleeping bags.

But there were really no issues to complain about.