Overland with Kids

Jessica: “What is a trillion?”

Dad: “We have been on the road for 1 million seconds which comes out to about 117 days. Mum and dad have been alive for alot longer than a billion seconds. A billion seconds is 32 years. A trillion seconds is 32,000 years.” (dad found this information in The Almaty Herald published July 22 - 28th).

Before going off to see the sites of Astana (Kazakhstan’s new capital since 1998), our first day was spent doing much needed clothes washing in the hotel bath tub - such style! Then it was out (together with Iain), pounding the streets of the city from early afternoon till late evening. One of our first stops was an English Pub which was an experience of East meets West and then a challenge to actually find the bar once inside - it was a bit of a labyrinth. Finally seated, with an apple juice costing approx £6 per glass, we scarpered before ordering anything.

Astana (meaning ‘capital’ in Kazakhstan) is full of very clever, modern, innovative and shiny new architectural design and engineering feats - we had never seen so many quirky buildings clumped together in one place. London’s gherkin and Paris’ pyramid looked lonely in comparison. Everywhere we had been so far throughout our trip had been oldie worldly and full of history but in Astana, no building looked older than 20 years. It was like taking part in a mirage - especially as we had just driven for hundreds of miles along half sealed, half dirt, track roads of vast emptiness - except for avian wildlife (eagles), 4-legged herds (horses, cows & goats etc.) and never-ending expanses of flat green empty desert-like grasslands. It was also mind-blowing to realise we had hardly made a dent traversing Kazakhstan from the border - we were now just more central of the northern section having driven hundreds of miles from the eastern side of the same area.

We quickly learned there is an old part to Astana where we were based but it still looked relatively modern to us with a mixture of apartment blocks, hotels, cafes and markets. In the new part, the English pub and many restaurants (and westernised prices to match), shopping centres, bridges and monuments. Every building we saw in the new part had a theme of some kind - whether a pyramid shape (Pyramid of Peace) with lifts that went sideways (contains a 1,500 seat opera house among other things), an amazingly true to imaginary life - spaceship - the best we’ve ever seen (housing a zoo or a circus we think) a tilted spinning top/tensile structure (Khan Shatyry Entertainment Centre - aka the world’s largest tent), an orange squeezer-like looking building (shopping centre), a huge towering globe (we learn later it’s a very famous view point of the whole of Astana called Bayterek - you can take a lift to the top of it) a building of Ying & Yang design (we think probably a restaurant) - and we’re sure there were probably countless other structures we didn’t get a chance to see. We didn’t go inside any of the buildings nor did we have any information to hand at the time (we googled later) but it was mind-boggling to try to guess what the function of each structure actually was at the time. We learned later that Lord Norman Foster who built the Millenium bridge has been a major player here (thank you Graham for the info!) - responsible for at least 3 of the structures already mentioned. Overall, definately an oil rich place with plenty of money to spend - yet hard to believe it’s there when you are out, deep in the sticks and wilderness of Kazakhstan!

While out and about in the city - Iain, Jessica and AJ got into trouble with the Police for running up a large steep grass hill instead of using the pathways and steps. They had reached the very top of a high viewing platform they’d managed to climb from the back where a huge big tall flag mast was situated. If you walked using the paths and steps, the viewing platform was actually barred from public access. It was funny watching the Police get them down and also watching them puzzledly trying to work how they’d managed to bypass them and their security cordon without being seen. We blamed Iain of course for leading the children astray!

We walked to get close up views of the buildings we had seen in the car on arrival, hit a supermarket for pizza slices, bananas, beer, juice for lunch on a bench while watching Jessica and AJ play on a bouncy castle play area (both getting too old for such but they didn’t care). The roads were wide, busy and difficult with traffic - otherwise quite peaceful to walk around. We managed to find some relaxing areas around the pedestrianised backstreet zones along the Ishim River and the children found two further play parks to try out along the way. We hit the supermarket again on the way home to save money and had a camp style dinner in the luxury of our hotel room. Lee, Helen and Bev joined us later for drinks, the children jumped all over the beds and another very late night was had by all.

Day two was spent sorting the final bits of our clothes washing and more importantly, locating a welder to repair our damaged roof rack.

Vehicle Issues

Our roof rack as was about to collapse from the rough roads of Kazahkstan - the supports were splintered, bolts were missing, it was creaking and unsafe. Around the back of the garage of the hotel where Iain had stored his bike we mimed requirements to a local who promptly jumped in his car and asked Andrew and Iain to follow him. The welder was located with no issues on the other side of town and on removing the roof rack - two of the support legs immediately dropped off onto the floor. The roof rack was re-welded the same day with plated supports on each corner (took a couple of hours) and cost approx £75 and a couple of beers for the guy who’d provided the original directions. Lee decided it would be a good place to try to see if he could get his collapsing Land Rover plated and welded before moving on. It would be great if he could.

We were missing a hub cover for one rear steel wheel and to prevent any oil spillage or dirt, we followed Lee’s advice to cover it with a small piece of plastic and an elastic band which Iain helped fix on and it worked a treat!

Other Emergency Issues

Haircuts: Andrew and AJ.  Situation: Desparate! Status: Nearly in pigtails!

Route from Astana toward Almaty

The route from Astana to Almaty, our next destination in the far south east took us two days to reach. Roads were no issues to start with - sealed and good but rough for a long stretch about half way out - but still sealed - just a bumpy ride. We were thankful for small mercies but couldn’t help but notice the countless blown out tyres, rubbish and debris everywhere along the sidings. It would take hours for a breakdown rescue service we were sure - if it was needed - and available!? Our route took us along what felt like half way around the circumference of Lake Balkhash (world’s 12th largest continental lake measuring 6,300 square miles - half saline on the eastern part, half fresh water on the west). We passed through the outskirts of Balkhash city - very unpretty and industrialised with mining from what we could see and slept for the night not far away outside. Weather was quite cold. En-route we had a chance to use our winch to help a car transporter operator who was struggling and having difficulty loading a broken down vehicle. Next morning we were able to see the lake but had a feeling we’d passed the best bits of it throughout the night as what we could see in daylight was a huge expanse of water - nothing else - no trees, not a single one, no interesting sites, the place desolate except for water pools and marshland about the place. We were sure we could see a trawler on the lake in the distance but the lake was overall so huge and flat looking, we couldn’t really appreciate it or it’s size…….

Diary (Blog)