Day 86

Perfect road, perfect day! After slogging over the steppe southern Kazakhstan is getting too easy! A super smooth brand new road takes me out of Taraz, and a light tail wind gives me that extra push. About 80kms out of Taraz I am passed by a Nissan Micra with UK number plates. A little surprised I wave and it stops ahead of me. I catch up to find that it is being driven by 3 girls (two from Australia and one from Poland) from the UK to Mongolia on the Mongolian Rally! They have taken a very different route than me, heading south east through Europe, across Turkey and into Iran. From here they turned north through Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and into Kazakhstan before heading into Russia and then Mongolia. They can't go through China apparently as one needs a resident permit to drive in China, and these cost lots of money. I tell them my plan and that I am heading for Kyrgyzstan, at which point they give me their rather splendid map of Central Asia! Very grateful we part company, I head east and the Micra north east!

Later I stop at a roadside stall for a drink. At the same time a police car pulls up and stops, and asks me what I am doing. I tell them, at this point the police officers laugh and buy me drinks. Today is turning out to be a very good day!. We take lots of photos, the babushka who runs the stall is very impressed at my frozen water bottle, and part.

I make Merke for the evening, but almost don't as I miss the turning and find that I am heading for Almaty. I guess everything can not be too perfect! I realise as I finally head into town that today I have made 160kms and still feel fresh. The advantage of a tail wind and a smooth road! Merke is fairly nondescript, it is the last Kazakh town before the Kyrgyz border. I feel a little sad at the thought of leaving Kazakhstan, but at the same time I am looking forward to Kyrgyzstan.

Thanks for the drinks fellas!