Category: climbing

Three months of climbing paradise with friends in Kazakhstan: Tamgaly-Tas (September to November 2024)

We made it back to the climbing area we had visited months ago. This time the weather was perfect. Last time it was way too hot. The entrance fee was still beer and cola.
We did a whole lot of climbing.
And learned a lot, lot, lot.
Sarah and Wouter, the “Star Troopies” (travelers we had met before several times in different countries) joined us and tried rock climbing for the first time.
It was super awesome and they did super good. Although they had no own climbing shoes. Racki’s shoes were good for Sarah, but Wouter suffered a lot in my way to small shoes.
Climbing on the wall.
Climbing on another wall.
Climbing on an overhanging wall.
We had a whole lot of fun climbing,
hanging around,
and relaxing.
Slowly, slowly it was becoming Autumn.
Simon visited us and although he was afraid of heights, he made his first rock climbing experience as well.
Maria, who we had met before in Murghab on the Pamir and at the border from Tajikistan to Kyrgyzstan, and her “half-human-half-dog dog” Vedi and another friend came as well and together we had a great time.
At one weekend there was a big climbing festival organized by the biggest “climbing company” Skala in the climbing area. Unfortunately the weather on that weekend was not very good. But nevertheless a whole lot of climbers joined the festival.
One day Kali and Didi, travelers from the Netherlands, came to the climbing area and we climbed a lot together, shared stories and experiences.
Didi brought trad (traditional climbing) gear and let me try it. It was my first time using that stuff and it was very interesting. In the sport/ rock climbing the bolts in the wall where you attach your robe are already set. In trad climbing you have to set these points by your own. To do so, you carry a lot of fancy and expensive gear around.
And we had water melon with the cheapest vodka we could find. It tasted like it had back when I was sixteen.
Sarah and Wouter came back and this time Wouter brought his own, brand new climbing shoes! It’s always nice to see if people love the rock climbing.
Again we had a great time at and in front of the rock.
Halloween!
Our last days of climbing on one of the last warm and sunny days of the year.
After the weather got too cold, we drove to Almaty and met a whole lot of our new friends we had met in the last couple of months.

Nature, climbing and the Kolfest festival in Kyrgyzstan (July 2024)

We passed the border from Uzbekistan to Kyrgyzstan near Osh and entered the beautiful Kyrgyz mountains.
A misunderstanding lead us to this off-road track which is one of the two main connections from the south west part to the rest of Kyrgyzstan.
And as always the locals take it with their limousines, small transporters with horses and cows on it, by foot and all other possible ways.
We loved the Kyrgyz mountain views.
Very diverse.
Beautiful.
😍
And the people were all friendly, helpful and nice.
I loved especially the straw transports.
South of Bishkek we went to a climbing area.
Found a camp spot right next to the climbing wall.
Did some professional leveling of Rosinante.
Met nice climbers from France and Kyrgyzstan and had a great time.
We climbed pretty tough routes and learned a lot.
After that we head east to the Issyk Kul. The biggest lake in Kyrgyzstan and the eighth-deepest lake in the world and the eleventh-largest lake in the world by volume.
We found the location of the Kolfest we were looking forward to join for the last months.
Visited the Fairytale Canyon right next to it.
And then the festival started with an awesome mixture of traditional folk and electronic music.
It was beautiful!
We met a lot of happy and nice people.
Danced.
Jumped.
And had a great time.

Through Russia in the crazy hot steppe of Kazakhstan and someone got stuck (June 2024)

One of my favorite photos from Kazakhstan. But before:
From Georgia, we entered Russia with our transit visa we got in Armenia. The crossing went well, but very bureaucratic: the language barrier made the process of filling the customs papers for our car more difficult and so we needed three trials until everything was fine. Some travelers got pretty crazy in this process.
After the border we went to a rock climbing area right next to the main road. The approach to the climbing routes was crazy steep and the routes themselves were super difficult.
I was not very happy in that area because I did not feel very good about being in Russia.
We took the direct route to Kazakhstan and visited some Buddhist temples. But all of them were closed.
The military checkpoints in Russia were very friendly and we made a lot of jokes about mainly football and German beer. Only one Russian soldier was grumpy but not more than the ordinary Georgian 😁
But still I did not feel so good about being in Russia because of the relationship between the German  and Russian government and the war in Ukraine.
In the end it was like so often: regardless of the governments, the people are super friendly and helpful.
But I still thought that I would not like to meet a Russian soldier who’s friend or family member got killed in Ukraine and now had to deal with us,  German tourists.
This was a  floating bridge which was constantly pushed to the side by the river. On one end of it they installed a couple of outboard motors to keep it in place.
We crossed the border to Kazakhstan and entered the steppe!
The temperature rose to more than 40 degrees Celsius and sometimes we liked to continue driving just to have the comfort of Rosinante’s air conditioning.
Driving through the steppe was a crazy experience. Sometimes there was no turn, bend or corner for hundreds of kilometers.
Driving became pretty boring because the distances were huge. My favorite thing to watch were the camels.
One day we witnessed the funeral of my grandfather who had died in Germany when we were still in Armenia. Although participating online was better than not participating at all, it was weird.
After so much heat in the steppe we wanted to have a swim and went to Aktau, a coastal coty at the Caspian Sea.
There we went to an old amusement park and took a ride in a carousel. These carousels and attractions! I guess some would use them as a test of courage.
After having dinner we met a group of Kazakh celebrating a birthday and had a great time with them dancing to all kinds of music.
The stone formations in the Ustyurt National Preserve area were amazing!
They look like the back of Godzilla sleeping in the steppe.
There were some plants. But only very little ones.
And these rabbits.
Normally we do a lot of hiking, climbing and physical activities but in the heat of the steppe there was not much to do. So we decided to just take a walk around and run back.
While running, we scared a little gerbil-like animal which immediately run to a hole in the ground to take cover.
Unfortunately his ass was a bit to big and he got stuck in the hole 🥳
He tried hard to push himself in but did not succeed. He tried to go reverse but had no chance.
So we helped him a bit and gave him a push.
The vastness of our first offroad track in the steppe.
Sometimes it was like a video game in which you have to pick the best track.
A lot, lot, lot of dust! I loved it and it always reminds me on Mad Max.
Bit the dust could get pretty nasty on and inside of Rosinante.
The first version of our automatic washing machine.