Monday 12th July

150585....272miles yesterday........Not much sleep last night, there was a strong wind storm..---...12.30pm stopped to watch a herd of horses galloping freely -- a beautiful sight.......2pm stopped at river for a paddle, the landscape is changing, there are trees both sides of the road and water everywhere, we see a canal and a lake, then at 2.30pm with no warning - we see in the distance right across our path, a snow topped mountain range, really strange to be so hot and to see all that snow -- 100km to Almaty-----We arrive in the city and drive around for ages looking for a hotel, then at the traffic lights somebody in their car says hello and asks where we are from, we tell him and ask if he knows of a hotel, "Yes", he says, "follow me", -- after perhaps 10 minutes we arrive at the hotel Astra, our guide just waves and drives off!!! The hotel is fully booked except for single rooms, we can have 3, we ask to see one, it has a double bed and room for a sleeping bag on the floor, we tell them one room will be ok for us, at this they offer us a mattress and sheets, all for around £50 a night for all of us.....to us the rom is large = after the Landy, we are quite happy!!!!