Benni Kircher

Kazakhstan is my last visiting country in Central Asia. The roads are endless and offer wide views. Sometimes, my progress feels very slow here. And yet, I head further eastwards little by little.
I have plenty of time and decide to make a little detour to visit the Charyn Canyon. Since there are no people or park rangers around after dark, I cannot resist pitching my camp there. It was a calm night with a special atmosphere.

The landscape has changed on the next day. It felt like cycling through a savannah with wild horses, camels and cows grazing next to the road. At the end of the day, I found a quiet place in the middle of the woods. I cannot remember the last time I was in the woods. So, I was really looking forward to stay here for the night. I pitched my tent and finished cooking when out of the blue an elderly man approached me. Oh no, is that the sheriff of the woods, I thought!? “Assalamu Alaikum“ he greeted me that I answered with “Wa Alaikum Salaam“. He introduced himself as Batan and started vigorously talking to me in Kazakh. I had no clue what he was talking about. My translator app did not work for whatever reason. To cut a long story short, he told me that there are
wolves around (Oh wow, how many times I have heard this now on my trip) and demanded that I would stay in his yurt on his farm. Yeah okay, why not. He went back and I finished my instant noodles, packed all my stuff and pushed my bike to his farm. But his two giant shepherd dogs did not let me come close to the farm (one of them looked more like a little bear, he was huge!!!). Oh man, I would prefer having some wolves around my tent at night than dealing with these two barking fellas that were slowly coming towards my direction. Okay, slowly walking backwards. I yelled hoping for the man to come back and call his dogs. Nothing happened. After some time, two men appeared and called their dogs back. It turned out that these were the two sons of Batan. Together, with the now well-behaved dogs we walked to the farm.
I joined the dining table, where Batan was sitting together with his wife and daughter. There was a big plate of meat, potatoes and bread (let’s call it Gulasch) already waiting for me. It was a culinary delight after all these instant noodles in recent days. Shortly after we finished dinner, they showed me the yurt where I was supposed to sleep. The yurt was lovingly designed with a mattress just for me. I fell asleep quickly with a full stomach and a content feeling.
The next morning we had breakfast, cruised around the city of Zharkent with their old BMW and Mercedes and fed the animals on their farm. After an abundant lunch, it was time for me to move on to the border of China.Read more