September 9th

G – Reporting

After a good night camped in the canyon, we packed up and drove up the rim to explore and take pictures, it was overcast so I didn’t get the best pictures but the place did live up to its billing as a small(very small) grand canyon!

After that we struck out for the border passing though some quite rocky and hilly terrain and even ending up a dirt track for a while after the GPS had a bit of melt down but in the end we arrived at the border which as we approached looked ominously quiet, not a good sign, so stopping at the stop sign we got out and looked around, there was no one in sight, then from behind a fence appeared solider, he walked over and said something in Russia which I didn’t understand and then held his arms in a cross and nodded towards the border gate which I did understand it was closed, damn!

We showed him the map and he pointed at the crossing just above Bishkek which was over 400Km away, so with no choice we got back in the car and started the long trip to the other border, driving all afternoon we arrived in Almaty around rush hour thankfully it was nowhere as bad as Ulaanbaatar, but still a little chaotic, we pushed on camping another 30km on behind a hill and within striking distance of the border for the morning.

This and the next 3 charyn canyon KZ

end of a long day.