Almost Outfoxed

There have been a handful of nights on this trip where I hear creatures walking outside in the middle of the night.  Unfortunately I have never really known what has been out there, could be anything from a small bird to a four legged animal.  I usually just freak out a bit and hope whatever it is goes away.  That usually happens thankfully.  One night here in Kazakhstan we had another visitor snooping around our tents at around 1 am in the morning.  I didn’t move a muscle as I didn’t want to make a sound.  The creature came right up to our tents and was sniffing around.  It then left but returned later and came right up close to my tent.  I was a bit paranoid as I had a two pannier bags and my shoes peeking out from beneath my tent so they were there for the taking.  I opened up and had a look and noticed that one of my shoes was gone.  I quickly grabbed my flashlight and sure enough I had one shoe.  I then saw the culprit right in front of me: a fox, and a sly one at that as I think he was back for my other shoe.  I scared it away and the fox booked it.  I then jumped out of my tent and started scouring the area in the pitch black dark in my bare feet not worrying about the possible cow/sheep/donkey/horse/goat crap I could step in.  A few minutes later I luckily found my other shoe about 15 meters away.  That was a close call.  Had I lost that shoe would have caused me major grief.

We have been asked many times where we are from here in Central Asia and reply Canada.  They don’t get it at first most of the time, so I just keep saying Canada and stressing different syllables.  Usually they eventually get it and repeat Canada!  If they still don’t get it I usually show America and then on top Canada.  That has worked a couple of times.  On a few occasions though I have received blank stares even after trying all my tactics to explain our homeland.  It is clear they have no clue where or what Canada is.  So I give up and say we are North American with much greater emphasis on the American.  Everyone of course knows the USA.

Another question we have been asked by locals in Central Asia is our names.  Everyone can pronounce and understand my name fairly well when I say it to them but when Trevor says his name he gets a perplexed look from the person asking.  They try to pronounce it but struggle so Trevor keeps repeating.  They keep trying but fail to pronounce it correctly so Trevor just gives up and says they got it when they clearly haven’t.  I suggested he just make up a new name but he didn’t.      

Lots of the road here in Kazakhstan has been pretty bad.  Hopefully there will be a change for the better when we get into China.  As a result of the poor roads my bike has squealed.  Not liking that. 

We are now camped out just before Khorgos, the border town and Central Asia is pretty much complete!  China, which both Trevor and I believe will be a tough slog, is next…

I was such an idiot for drinking from my contaminated water bottle.  Since I fell ill in Samarkand I stopped drinking from my main bottles just in case they were contaminated with bacteria.  Well I risked it and started drinking from them again.  Bad call as I had another crappy night.  Same symptoms I had before.  I felt horrible that morning, so horrible that I slept in and rested most of the morning.  I was very weak but we trekked on albeit slow.  I took a few antibiotics and a couple of days later I was back to normal.  I have tossed the contaminated bottle and picked up a new, clean water bottle.  So hopefully I won’t have the same problem again. 

Trevor with his find from the road, some adapter device which can be of some use to us.  It looks like an Apple product but actually a rip off.  You’ll note Trevor has his eyes closed; he enjoys doing that when I take his pictures.  I get annoyed as it usually takes at least 2 shots to get him with his eyes open.  He blinks way too much.  I wasn’t bothered this time round to take another and so here he is looking like a doofus.  

Trevor ecstatic!  He couldn’t be happier with his brand new Garmin Edge 800.  He picked this up at Bassar Electronics in Almaty.  I think they are the only dealer in Kazakhstan.  We can see clearly again which is really great.  Having a GPS back has made things easy again.

Had a few errands in Almaty in addition to getting a GPS.  The first was to get registered by the migration police.  Fortunately that wasn’t too troublesome.  We had to return late in the day to pick up our passports and registration slips but it didn’t cost us anything.  The second was to pick up much needed chains, a pump and a few patch kits at a bike shop.  The remainder of the day we spent exploring Almaty although there wasn’t a whole lot to see.  Here I am in front of the colourful Zenkov Cathedral in Panfilov Park. 

Trevor back doing what he has done so much of on this trip… head down and looking at his beloved GPS.  You can see he can’t even hold his smile down he is so happy.

Lots of barren land in Southeastern Kazakhstan with horses once again roaming about.  

These kind Uyghur people stopped and diced up this melon for sharing.  They offered vodka but that is something that wouldn’t go down well whilst cycling so I passed.