Steppe-in' Up 2

The next morning we climbed out of the canyon.

At some point the scenery suddenly changed, and we were in the green. It was as if some Goddess had just come over and watered the whole place.

It wasn't a 12% gradient, more like 7%, according to Anna Lena's app. I sorta knew that already, having learnt about gradients the hard way, in Laos and Vietnam, and this wasn't anywhere near as steep as on some on those roads.

But it was still a long climb.

But the scenery made it all worth it.

We rolled down to some roadside kymys (fermented mare's milk) and kurt (the dried sheep, horse or cow cheese) stalls. These horses wouldn't move from the road. We later discovered that they were all protecting a little foal from oncoming traffic, as she was sound asleep on the road.

Churning up the mare's milk.

The kymyss is actually quite nice, once you acquire a taste for it. Penny had made us all little bread snacks, and I thought that was sweet, but later realised it was probably because she didn't want us to fuff around wasting time while we snacked, as it was all about the destination, not the journey.

Mmmmm, sounding a little bitter aren't I.

Kurt stall with Kazakh Elvis watching on.

All the drovers are on horseback in these parts. None of this motorbike or quad rubbish.

The vast steppe.

Eventually we rolled into Kegen.

There was so much on this menu in a random cafe, but they had pretty much none of it.

The three fat women were actually across from us.

But we still managed to get a cracking feast of potato samsas, other pastries, and this absolutely delicious layered cream cake. Go figure.

Riding off with an incredible vista and a full belly.

The situation with Penny seemed to be getting worse, so Anna Lena decided to take the yak by the horns and do something about it, and talk to her. I'd already tried to talk to Penny about the situation but she was unable to even begin to listen to me.

After a long chat on the road Anna Lena reported that Penny had listened, and my next few interactions with her were actually quite normal and civil.

In fact, our evening at the campsite felt so much better, it felt like a weight had fully lifted from our group.