Category: climbing

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.

We nearly killed Rosinante, about five times, sold Thor and bye bye Georgia (June 2024)

Back in Tbilisi.
Racki’s brother came visiting us from Germany. He’s a car mechanic and the first thing we did was changing the tyre of our Yandex after the car got a flat one.
I already had seen most of the attractions on Tbilisi but it was nice to show Racki’s brother around.
One of my favorites: the tiny clock.
And of course: THE MOTHER SHIP!
In one of the pubs there was a lot of wisdom to find on the toilet’s wall.
Back in Armenia we had waited for someone from Germany to get really interested in buying Thor but that did not happen.
Back in Tbilisi we made one last push and Racki messaged everybody who was into renting campers and caravans in Georgia. And it worked! We found a perfect buyer for Thor. He fell in love with him at first sight and found a way to import Thor to Georgia even though there were some regulations about importing cars older than ten years.
And so Thor became Georgian and although Racki’s heart was bleeding a bit, we were happy that Thor found a new and meaningful life in Georgia.
Some weeks later the new owner told us, that he already had managed to get everything repaired that was not working for about one thousand Euros. Even in Germany that had not been possible or would have cost several thousand Euros.
Did you recognize my awesome new summer hat?!
We met some of our best friends and went to the nicest restaurant in Tbilisi: Home Kitchen. It’s a super authentic, tiny and cheap place where you basically eat in the living room and kitchen of two real Georgian mums.
We had the biggest and most delicious Khachapuri. It was a super nice dinner and it was awesome to see our friends before we would leave Georgia.
After the city we took Racki’s brother on a nice hike in an area we have not been before and spent some time in nature showing him our nomad life. Waterfalls! Here is the hike on Komoot.
We met Marie who was traveling in a small camper van with her five dogs. Yes. FIVE dogs. They were a crazy gang. The smallest, a Chihuahua, was the leader. And Marie was such a nice mother to them and a very interesting and strong character. Together we had a great time with bonfires and so on.
For the way back to Tbilisi, we chose a small track over a smaller mountain and through nice forests. But this tour turned out to be crazy!
Driving a very steep and narrow hairpin curve, I did not recognize a deep trench on the right side of the track.
Rosinante’s right rear tyre fell completely in it still touching no ground, the whole car tilted to the right, the left front wheel got up in the air and the whole car was only held by the rear fender.
Racki and her brother got carefully out of the car and stood on the left rockslider to tilt Rosinante back to the left but it was not enough.
I felt not good about what might happen next.
We decided to attach the cable of the winch to a pretty small tree to stabilize Rosinante. But the tree was far from perfect because its lowest part was still higher than the track and Rosinante.
But it was our only change. Racki and her brother got back on the rockslider and I started winching from the driver’s seat.
First Rosinante started tilting even more and the front got up. Very scary. I guess there was a possibility that the whole car would just roll.
It didn’t. We managed to save Rosinante and we were very relieved.
After that we decided to go on and made it through some tricky parts over the highest point of the track. The next day we took Just a walk and then I wanted to continue because we did not know what this track would be like and there was a decent probability of rain.
Our next obstacle was a titled part. You can’t see it in the photo but it was really tilted and got even more tilted. I was not sure if Rosinante would flip and roll down the slope next to it and so we started leveling the track. Three hours! It was crazy but we made it through.
After some other tricky parts and a lot of scouting and trying and using our recovery boards we made it to a super muddy, slimy and slippery slope. There was no chance to get up without the winch and so we used three trees to winch us up and around a corner. When relocating the winch, Rosinante’s breaks were barely able to hold her on the slope and saving her from slipping down and so we had to be quick.
After the slope we had to winch Rosinante through a muddy forest because the track itself was completely washed out.
And after maybe rolling down a slope on a small graveyard we finally made it to a camp spot. We were exhausted and for me this off-road track was the craziest I ever did! The same for Racki and her brother.
Since then I’m really not looking forward to do off-roading like that.
And I’m still happy that all four of us survived!
Back in Tbilisi we said farewell to Cindy’s brother who had an adventurous time with us and was looking forward to relax a bit back in Germany.
Our tyres were pretty much done and so we swapped them.
After months of searching for new BFGoodrich AT2 tyres in Georgia, Armenia, Turkey, we decided to just go with Chinese tyres because in the end one BFGoodrich would have cost 700€. Five of the best looking and new Chinese tyres were 620€.
We have a long term review of these Roadcruza RA1100 AT tyres going on since then. And so far we are very happy with them.
And we got the best steering alignment ever! It’s weird but although there are a lot of people offering steering alignments and it’s quite a thing in these countries because of the potholes and road conditions, the results are often not very good. But this time a guy from Russia who worked for a racing team eid a great job!
On our way to Russia we made a stop in Arsha to climb again the magnificent climbing crag there. It was awesome!
Marie and her dog gang joined in and we met Silvi, Rick and another funny guy. Together we had a great time talking, climbing and hanging out.

Spring, hiking and climbing in lovely Armenia (April, May 2024)

After more than three months in the ski resort and  organizing a lot of stuff in Tbilisi, we made it back into Rosinante and the nature life and went to Armenia!
It was awesome to run around in T-shirts again and discover new places.
We found super nice camp spots.
And the scenery in Armenia was very diverse.
Like always we had different temporary dog friends. Some were more funny than others.
Waterfalls!
And more waterfalls!
These stones looked very exotic. They are called Symphony of Stones and I’d say they are one of the biggest tourist attractions in Armenia.
Most of the time we searched for our own hiking tours and found very nice ones.
On that river crossing, Racki and I tried different approaches. Both of us got wet feet. Who would have guessed?
This monastery in Tatev looked very nice. Next to the monastery we took one of the longest (distance between two pillars) cable cars in the world.
And the birds in that region were huge and majestic!
Here are the hikes we did on Komoot:
Angel Canyon
Wings For Life Run
Jermuk Waterfall
Shaki Waterfall and Zorats Karer (ancient tomb memorial) unexpected hiking tour, Tatev monastery, Devil’s bridge, Hermitage, Wings of Tatev (cable car)
Azat valley, Symphony of stones and Geghard monastery
Parz Lake round Short hike down to the river (Lastiver)
And we went back into the climbing life! It was awesome! After a couple of days we were fit again and did weeks of climbing!
This was my favorite route. 38m long and 6b grade. It was awesome. But before it was awesome, it was a frustrating experience for me.
During that time my grandfather died in Germany and that was another special experience for me. He was quite old and had his illnesses and so it was no surprise but still it caught me. Mostly it remembered me at the time when my parents and other grandparents died and this kicked me really out of balance. I got kind of stressed, partly pissed and it was not the easiest time for Racki and me. I guess I could not really communicate my imbalance or did not understand what was going on with me which made me kind of pull back which maybe confused Racki who always loves to do something together. But in the end I mostly found my balance again and we got relaxed again.
In Armenia we met so many lovely people! It was unbelievable. Even compared with other regions of great hospitality this was so amazing. This guy (a natural reserve ranger) let us stay in the reserve area, explained a lot of interesting stuff to us and gifted us a lot of grilled lamb. Which I ate because I’m not as strictly vegetarian as Racki.
These guys took us with them to a hot spring bath and we had a good time together. And there were a lot more of these lovely Armenian people.
Our diesel heater showed some malfunction and to be able to maintain and repair it without putting the cabin off our pickup we realized one of my dream improvements for Rosinante: we installed the heater from the inside. In Yerevan these nice guys laser cut a custom stainless steel plate for us and in the end they wanted no payment at all.
This is the custom cut plate. In Germany we maybe could have ordered one online but in countries like Armenia this is not so easy or even impossible. The tasks of the car life.
The sexy pig-batman-ass hole in which we fit the heater.
We cleaned the heater and afterwards it worked flawlessly again. I’d say it’s normal that diesel heaters get dirty when one uses them a lot and so I thought about it since I started living in a car. In the end it was not difficult to dismantle, clean it and put it back together. The needed spare parts we had with us. And so we learned to handle one of the big car life topics.
Some classic site seeing in Yerevan.
We did none of the famous volcano off-road tours because the weather was too cloudy and there was still too much snow on the volcanos.
But still we did some off-roading to explore nice places.
And some more tricky off-roading.
And nice roads. And in the end when crossing the border back to Georgia we normally would have had to pay 90€ driving penalties but the officials decided to let us leave without paying.