These train journeys are what this trip is about.
Twenty-four hours of mountains and desert wishing some of
the time that we were out there amongst it all in the car. As with our trip to
Urumqi, it was a marvellous trip with fascinating and surprising scenery.
We could be in Australia - but for the snow capped
monoliths louring in the not so distant background. We whizzed past sandy
desert dunes with tussock grass and scrubbing bushes just like the Oz outback
complete with the ubiquitous fluttering kestrel/hawks scouting for food. Water
catchments dotted here and there, and just occasionally we clattered over long
bridges spanning wide shallow mud-coloured rivers with stony beds; obviously
they flood seasonally. They looked rather like our outback rivers but without
the river gums. Further west we saw horses grazing and small mobs of cattle
being herded by men on horse back.
As we got closer to Almaty, we passed cultivated field -
flowers, rice, onions, grape vines, fruit orchards, tree nurseries.
The mechanics of the trip? Well they are simply as they
are and part of the deal - lengthy process while the officials check our sanity
at booking out a 4 berth cabin, many flights of stairs that nearly ‘done us
in’! Wracking my brain trying to fathom departure info (symbol matching - it’s
all in Chinese), a really long wait at the border where the entire 8 carriage
train - that is 4 passengers plus staff! had to disembark and go through
customs etc. Yep you read correctly - 4 passengers on the entire train! Then
after six hours, we were on our way - this time there were escalators to carry
us and our load to our little cabin. Wonderful !!
We arrived in Almaty 11:30pm! The station? Well it looked
rather antique like something from a western - step down bloody big steps onto
broken asphalt and walk ...... where to? This time we had a couple more people
to follow - we hoped they were going where we were going. A man with a trolley
appear out of the dark and he took our luggage for us - lucky lucky, as we had
to cross a couple of sets of train lines, no such thing as platforms! we tipped
him well - bless him.
After sleeping on hard train seats, sinking into a soft
bed once we got to the hotel was sheer luxury! In the end, it’s the journey
that we love; the rest is just a means to our ends. But there will come a time
when ........
More mountains! we're at border control waiting waiting ....
Sand dunes backed by snow capped mountains - weird vista for us
Look at those sand dunes. Add a touch of red and we could be in Oz
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