Today threw up more of a challenge than I thought would be possible on a 35km ride on expected quiet roads into the former capital, Almaty.
After yesterdays rain, to tiny roads were full of puddles so I avoided them and stayed on the better paved ones. It was all going swimmingly until I turned onto a narrow road, only to be swamped by dump trucks racing to their building site. Some were courteous, some were idiots and went way to close and one or two tooted the toot that says – get out of the way now ! When that happened, I always took their advice.
Soon, Komoot directed me onto a smaller road on the other side of the canal. It was great to start with but soon deteriorated. I didn’t mind though, I had zero traffic and it was a gravel road with hardly any water lying on it – almost bliss.
The road passed a building site of largely finished houses and got a little muddy but still manageable. Then followed a muddy gully full of water – barely manageable but fine. The worst part was 300m of peanut butter mud. I’ve read about this but never encountered it.
I stopped riding but pushing turned to dragging. I tried lifting This Moment but then I slid around too much, so I just persevered with pushing. I heard a noise and looked down and saw the belt twist off the front ring. That’s a real no-no, as after being twisted, belts may fail catastrophically without warning. That could be dangerous.
After making it out of the worst section, I used a stick to clear the worst of the mud, and walked until I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t encounter any more. I took the back wheel off and cleaned the disc brakes and belt etc then tried to put it back on.
It wouldn’t quite go on, so I cleaned the brakes again. Still nothing. It was the belt / cogs connection, so I used a toothbrush and got most of the mud out and managed to reseat the belt and get the wheel on. Phew.
Repacked and ready, I gingerly set off along the gravel road. After a few kms, I came across the building site where the trucks were going. It was vast, and my road was consumed by the infrastructure around the site. So, I backtracked and walked across a dodgy, narrow, no-hand-rail bridge over the canal for the reward of getting back onto the busy road.
The driving didn’t improve, and I wondered how people who are so warm hearted, friendly and generous can turn into test pilots the minute they’re behind the wheel. They’re the same as New Zealanders. The driving can only be described as reckless. I’m used to it though. The short ride really dragged on, and with 3kms to my accommodation , I stopped for a lunch of Lagman and coffee.
I messaged the apartment that I’d be there in 20 minutes but got no response to that or my previous messages. So, more messages were sent when I was standing outside the apartment but no responses were received. I gave up, cancelled and booked another place.
I messaged them and received a reply with a different address. Warning bells. I cancelled that one and tried another with the same result and cancelled it too. (All were free cancellations).
I parked the bike, went to a coffee shop and took stock. Googling Almaty, Booking.com, scam – verified that there’s a rash of scam apartments here. All three were scams. Somehow, they can mark their position on the booking.com map in a favourable location, but specify their address as kilometres away. Be warned. Only book places with plenty of reviews, and check the address. Maybe booking.com can close this loophole ? They usually take ages to fix these things.
I booked into a nice hotel (with lots of reviews) and rode there. The final indignity was the rain on the way.
The moment I walked in, I felt good. The receptionist was lovely and english speaking and quickly found a place for This Moment. I had the last room available.
A shower, a phone call with Cathie, an Indian meal and a beer made up for everything I endured today.
Kazahkstan continues to challenge