May 15 The Almaty mountains

Quite a stunning vista. 

This is the Big Almaty Lake 250 above sea level. The colour is like soft aqua milk. 

On our second day we took a picnic into the mountains to the Big Almaty Lake. Glorious wilderness! And Mother Nature decided to put on her own special display for our benefit - we went from warm sunny blue skies on the plains to rain, snow and a thunder storm on the mountain. Quite awesome and funny really being in amongst it way up there. It was veeery cold but we came prepared just in case.

Lindsay and Svetlana, our lovely guide, went for a walk in the rain to get a different view of the lake. Meanwhile I sat in the car with the heater on - I was a bit walked out. But it’s a rather touching scene I think - heads together talking non stop. We all really enjoyed being there in spite of the weather. 

People camp in this glorious national park. 

We descended a little way to visit a falcon farm. Lindsay was over the moon! They put on a fabulous show which demonstrated the birds’ amazing skills - falcons, eagles, griffins, owls. The piece de resistance was a private show just for us - our lovely guide Svetlana told them Lindsay was a keen birder. He got to hold a golden eagle! Such a huge bird weighing many many kilos but he didn’t stop smiling for ages.. On a lesser note but still fun, I got to feed one of the falcons! It was a terrific day.

Beautiful creatures!

Our wonderful guifevstranged fit a special private showing. Lindsay is getting ready to put on the glove with rsgkevattached! He was excited but pretty nervous. 

Lindsay with Gilden zeagorvattached. He never thought he’d get this chance but he was saying under his breath ‘I can’t hold it much longer!’ All that weight plus flapping. Awesome power. Note the eagle’s hood has been left on to protect Lindsay - and not scare the bird. Pretty amazing experience. 

I got to feed this beautiful falcon. What a day!

Next stop Uzbekistan, by plane this leg ..... this is a journey of borders. We will have crossed 6 borders by the time we get to Istanbul at the end of the month.

[Techno hiccup to see my pix go to www.flickr.com/photos/hwheat8pix/ ]