Day 35 of Rally: Through the Steppes

Posted on by Chandini Ammineni

11144 kms traveled so far
84/200 kids sponsored. Raising awareness and funds to send children in rural India to school. Donate at http://happyharriet.co

Today was all about horse butts. Drove over 800kms and saw large groups of horses roaming about the Steppes. Nonchalantly grazing and stubbornly showing us only their butts every time we attempted to paparazzi them. Not just horses, there were a ton of cows and sheep as well, and even a cute fox! 

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Got stopped by cops a couple of times – for no reason both times. Too bored to argue with them we just had dumb expressions on our faces as we repeated “No Ruski” multiple times until they realized they couldn’t bargain bribes with people who don’t speak Russian and are too dumb. They just waved us off.
All in all, a routine drive with fewer potholes than Tajikistan. I have a feeling I’m going to say this the rest of my life “got to be grateful this is easier than driving through Tajikistan”.
We had started at 7am with an initial plan on stopping at a small town called Ayzgoz. Accordingly, we drove the whole way, snacking on a couple of oranges and a small piece of bread between the two of us, stopping once for Petrol. When we got to Ayagoz at 3:30pm, we were hoping to get a decent meal somewhere, but couldn’t find anything vegetarian to eat. Tired and hungry, we picked up some bananas, cucumbers and tomatoes, and decided to simply drive on to Ust-Kamenogorsk (another 4.5hrs) where we found more tomato/cucumber salad and plain noodles.
The other time this happened was the last day drive through the mountains of Tajikistan – we had two pieces of stale bread and 1 almost rotting apple, and the next city was a good 8hrs away. With dirt caked on, hungry, and driving through rocky mountain roads, we felt like Frodo and Sam near Mount Doom 😂

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(In all the ‘Stans you can see elaborate cemeteries outside towns. The architecture changes a bit from country to country – in fact, in Turkmenistan they bury below the ground while in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan (we are told) the bodies are still above the ground. We met a local who deemed cremating the body as being disrespectful to the dead. Wondered what he would think of the Parsi/Zoroastrian tradition of leaving the body out in a high tower for vultures to eat.)

Do you remember studying about the Pampas, Steppes, Savannas, Prairies in school? In case you don’t, it’s worth googling “grasslands” and learning a bit about this type of ecosystem. Simply amazing! Once you’re done with that, please consider donating $20/month to provide high quality education to a child in rural India so they can learn about our amazing earth’s ecosystems too. Donate at http://happyharriet.co