After preparing Rosinante, getting our Russian transit visa, and choosing an agency for our stays in China, and all the activities in Almaty and Tamgaly Tas, it was time to continue our journey.

Our plan was: nine days of transit through Russia (with lots of climbing) to Mongolia, two months in Mongolia (mostly driving bad roads), two month China (climbing and sightseeing), three months in Laos and Cambodia (climbing and sightseeing), two more months in China (climbing, snowboarding and sightseeing) in which we would drive back to Kazakhstan.

Just a few days before leaving, another overlander with a Hilux and I had a look under the hood of Rosinante. He noticed a leak at our intercooler. And when I checked the cooling liquid, the level was pretty low, but not too low. I did never see it like that when Rosinante was cold. I didn’t panic, but it didn’t feel so good because we were about to leave and continue driving a lot.

So I cleaned the area around the leak, put a marker to see if Rosinante was loosing cooling liquid. We bought a big bottle of compatible cooling liquid to be able to refill more than our spare bottle could handle, if it would be necessary.

On our way out of Almaty, we went to a mechanic who we got recommended by Kasia and Michael. That mechanic was supposed to help us getting a technical certificate for Rosinante which confirms that she is running well etc. It was a mandatory document for the Chinese car documents…

We had the document already prepared and had arranged everything with the mechanic via WhatsApp. When we reached the garage, I thought our friends were kidding. We already have seen a lot but this garage looked just like a scrapyard. A lot of garages we got to know on our travels looked like a scrapyard, but this one just looked absolutely fucked. After searching for some minutes, we found one guy sleeping in a container who did not understand us and couldn’t deal with Google Translate. After searching some more, we found the mechanic. And we found the actual garage behind all the scrap, mud, wreckages. The mechanic guy was very friendly and gave us a tour. And it turned out that this garage was one of the most elaborated we’ve seen in the stan countries so far.

They had all kind of high level machines, were 3d measuring cars and parts, had laser cutters for metal constructions and were doing all kind of things.

And after giving us his stamp on our document for the China trip, I showed him the leak in Rosinante’s cooler and he just said that he was absolutely sure that there was no liquid flowing through that part of the cooler. The moisty stuff that had accumulated around the “leak” was most likely just some water that got under the hood, mixed itself with dirt and some oily liquid.

For me, this was another example for what is just happening a lot while overlanding: you think you know something and it turns out to be different. Somebody else thinks he knows something and it turns out to be different. And even after all this years of traveling and all the assumptions that turn out to be wrong, I still get trapped by them.

We continued our travels, but wait, what were these boards next to the highway in Kazakhstan about? Recycling? …

… No littering?! Were we still in Kazakhstan? Normally, here the only one caring about stuff like that was the wind. …

Safety? This couldn’t be Kazakhstan!

But it was. And we found our first real overlanding camp spot on our way to the north east of Kazakhstan. It was awesome!

The overlanding travels had us back and we were driving a lot to make it to the north east of Kazakhstan.

Eventually we arrived at the Lake Marakol. But it was very different than what we knew from the stan countries: we were not allowed to drive to the shore of the lake because of the breeding season and there were hardly any nice camp spots away from the shore. But in the end, we found a nice place.

It was a beautiful lake for sure.

But having a really nice view was only possible to hike and fight our way through a lot of bushes. See our hike on komoot.

We liked it: back in the stans, hiking, nature… beautiful. But I personally would not recommend Marakol Lake. There are so many lakes that are more beautiful, easier to reach, with a lot of camp spots.

From the lake, we went into the steppe and found this place!

Astonishing!

Such nice formations!

And the colors!

We loved the all the details.

And parked right next to the rocks.

And the sunsets were so beautiful as well!

And there were stars all over the sky!

We continued …

… to more rocks in the steppe.

Nice colors.

Next to the big Lake Zaysan.

Unfortunately thousands of grass hoppers lost their lives in Rosinante’s wheels.

Another beautiful camp spot with a very good internet connection for Racki to work online.

And this was our last camp spot before entering Russia. It was beautiful and close to the border.

And of course I was practicing playing the guitar almost every day.

In between all the things we did in Almaty, we went to Tamgaly Tas to climb there again. And this time I had my favorite birthday present with me: a custom handmade dino tail chalk bag!!! This thing is so awesome! Thanks, Racki!

The climbing felt great again. And it was interesting to climb on these rocks again. To me, it felt in a way easier and simpler than the climbing in Malaysia and Thailand. And the scenery was super nice. Especially the big birds of prey flying close to us while we were on the wall.

A lot of friends came to visit us in Tamgaly. It was very nice. For a couple of days, our friends, the Startroopies (Sarah and Wouter) joined us, and this time not only them, but Wouter’s father, sister, and brother as well.

His father celebrated his 65th birthday with us. It was very nice. And the Startroopies gifted us another special chalk bag: a yeti-style one!

And the same day, he tried sport climbing for the first time.

One day, our friends “The Gügels” visited us. Together we went for some climbing, and the boys tried to catch some fish. Together we figured out a very good option for me to get a new smartphone: asking the regular group of German expats if somebody would be flying soon from Germany to Almaty and could bring me one.

The dinosaur tail found a lot of friends, and one day, I lent it to a Kazakh climber who gifted me a dino shoe sticker for that. Dino fans!

Merel, Leon, Arni, and his dog Cleo joined us as well, and we climbed a whole lot!

Everybody had a good time, and it was so nice to see everybody continuing the climbing experience. Arni especially got really into it after trying sport climbing for the first time with us. After his first day, he immediately got climbing shoes and a whole lot of equipment. And thanks to Arni’s Starlink, which he lent us, Racki and I were able to stay for three weeks in a row in Tamgaly.

Something was different in Tamgaly than last year: our stray dog gang was missing. But one day, all of a sudden, they were all back and as crazy and cute as ever. We think that some locals had taken care of them during the harsh winter and brought them back.

We had a look at a nice mountaineering competition of a mountaineering club from Almaty.

In between, I got a new guitar: Phoebe! Absolutely beautiful and super nice. I kept practicing almost every day.

And Racki and I decided to change our plans: instead of going west, we decided to pay the money and go east: Russia, Mongolia, China, Laos, Cambodia, Laos, China, Kazakhstan. We were very excited about it and especially curious about climbing in China!

Together with the Startroopies, Merel, and Leon, we had a fantastic karaoke night! It was hilarious: riverside motherfucker!

And we had some minor sandstorms! Interesting to have about 15% humidity again after 90% in Southeast Asia.

One day when I was belaying Racki, I had a look around and discovered that some Kazakhs had somehow managed to drive their pretty small car pretty deep into the river. Even for the Kazakh level of driving and treating cars, this was a new level for us. There was nothing we could do about that because driving there, to the other shore of the river, would take us hours.

They didn’t seem to be happy about the car in the river. At some point, they started fighting, and when one guy was punching the other several times in the face and pushing his head under water several times, I didn’t feel so good anymore about this whole situation.

The river was wide and there was nothing we could do about it, but still it didn’t feel good. Luckily the guys stopped fighting soon, and the next morning, their car was out of the river again.

Racki and I climbed a lot of newly bolted routes and older routes we had never done before. I was especially happy with two more 7a routes which took me quite some time to figure out, but after solving the puzzle, they went very well. I loved the climbing life!