Syd Stelvio Day 14 - to the Almaty Rest Day
Syd is having a well-earned rest under the cars, but before he went to sleep, he gave us a few pointers for you all
The day started a bit late, a 9.40am off for the truck convoy, but not before there had been some entertainment in the car park in the form of some local musicians and dancers, briefly interrupted only by a garbage truck needing to exit the car park.
The convoy got under way with the trucks rolling out first along with the Zebra Datsun number 76, 27 the Ford Super Deluxe Convertible and the gold and blue Porsche 911Ts (62 and 72 respectively) all under tow to the border. The Chinese side of the border was relatively painless aside from expecting the navigators to carry all the baggage without a trolley in sight, once over to the Kazakhstan side things it slowed to a snail’s pace, possibly due to a large number of new cars being exported from China and each one being rolled through individually.
Once into Kazakhstan the crews assembled at the MTC 40km into the country to stock up on more recognisable snacks, a coffee that didn’t automatically arrive all milked and sugared ready to go, and possibly a local cheese puff pastry delicacy. But only if crews were lucky enough to grab one of the few remaining!
Heading from the MTC to the Regularity of the day, it was the same as 2024, but Kazakhstan is lulling everyone into a false sense of security, you could overhear chat about how green and lush Kazakhstan was compared to China and so on, but watch out people, a few short days will put pay to that theory!
It was a relatively simple Regularity on dirt roads that didn’t seem to throw up too many challenges for the competitors and they were rewarded with a brief stopover at the Charyn Canyon, which was sensational. Some took longer than others, to gaze in awe over the incredible formations, but most were relatively brief as everyone was keen to get to Almaty and the non-transit day.
The run into Almaty was quite green in places, gradually getting busier with traffic the closer we got to the city and finally rolling into the hotel late afternoon to be greeted by a couple of race-pit people in gold and silver jumpsuits, needless to say the vast majority of the competitors were more than delighted with the greeting…..the sweets being thrown on the cars by girls in national dress was a rather more bizarre experience, but there we go.
