Today was forecast to be anywhere between –4 and –21 degrees celsius. It was definitely closer to the colder end of the scale. Way, way closer. This morning we had a sleep in, stale bread with fake cheese for breakfast and some hot tea. The local army guys marched down the street to start work for the day – they got all excited when we waved and took photos. They were like Lemmings walking to work, singing Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it’s off to work we go…… (they literally were all singing together). We watched a snow storm roll in as quickly as it left.
Leaving at 9:30am, we were on the road – paved for about 5km and the rest of the hundreds of kilometres were all dirt. In a Russian Jeep with as much suspension as our Khovsgol Jeep, we bumped and bumped along with the most spectacular scenery. I know I say that regularly, but whatever. It’s true. We saw petroglyphs that weren’t quite as cool as the ones I saw in the Gobi. We got stuck in the middle of an ice river that collapsed underneath us. We rocked back and forth until all the THICK ice was broken and we were sure we’d have to swim out of there – but NO! We made it! Woohoo!!!!
Drive, drive, no gers, bumpy bump bump, camels, sheep, goats, camels, flat topped house, drive, drive, horse….
And then WHOOPS:
Sally: I think we’ve lost a wheel
John: Nah, we’re just on a little hill thing
John: We’ve definitely lost a wheel
We piled out, got re-dressed with lots of clothes, checked out the damage (The wheel had come off, with a pokey thing that looked like it was suppose to poke into the axel??!?) and walked to the nearest house. They were hospitable, not friendly. We did get a cup of hot salty milk tea which was very very welcome. A solution was come up with very quickly – the neighbours with a car would drive us on to our family stay, and the driver would go back to fix the damage. And that he did. While we played at our family stay.
The moral to that story – the machine was terminal, broken, not just broken down. It got fixed, apparently, we’ll be on the way to the mountains tomorrow. Mind you, we have to hike a glacier. It’s predicted to be colder than today and we have no lunch to pack. It will be SUPER windy. I’m not looking forward to it.
They’re SO friendly! They have a 16yo daughter who is very lovely and the mum is great too. I haven’t had to explain yet that I won’t be eating the mutton soup for dinner, but I’ll worry about that later. I am a bit peckish, after stale bread for breakfast, a very small stale vegemite sandwich for lunch and a few jelly beans.
We checked out some petroglyphs out the back of the house, and the river, and the neighbour’s wolves that are tied on a leash and have no water or shelter. I wore thermals, trackpants, ski pants, thermal top, normal top, jumper and my middle of winter jacket with the hood up, with my balaclava and ski gloves. And two pairs of socks and winter boots. My forehead and fingers got really cold. We walked 1km to see the wolves, in the freeeeeeeeeeeezing cold. They were excited to see us, invited us in, had all the neighbours over, gave the kids chocolates and fed us fermented sheep milk (better than fermented horse milk). We had to leave before the tea. It was one of those commit to memory moments, photos wouldn’t have worked and wouldn’t have done it justice. It was just beautiful, they were so intrigued by us. I know they’ve seen foreigners before but I guess, I’ve seen a Mongol before but if he was walking past my house in Mudgee, I’d stare and ask questions!
There is no toilet and it is VERY cold having to expose your bum to the VERY strong winds. I spent the evening going through farm videos and photos. I should have taken more. Favourites are the rodeo bull riding, photos of sheep and the dogs going round the cows. Now I’m being shown the Ashford 2 speed drum carder, which does something with sheep wool – it looks like the equivalent of spinning wool, but might be for felting more than it is for knitting??!? I’m sure I’ll be shown soon, they love the Aussie sheep pictures.
Everyone’s playing cards in the next room (that’s right, there’s a certain level of privacy in Kazakh houses and it makes SUCH a difference to making me feel more comfortable and less exposed. Kazakh people so far are super friendly, and smiley, and they wave too!
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