Auto Bild India GLA Day 12: Balkhash to Almaty

With little time left and 550 kms still to go, we drove out of lake Balkhash and joined the highway again.

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Auto Bild India GLA Day 12: Balkhash to Almaty

The fact that the only city between Astana and Almaty is Balkhash meant that we had to stop by for the night in Balkhash itself. The day started with a hearty breakfast and as we stepped out of the hotel we were pleasantly surprised with the sight of mellow snowflakes falling from the sky. The cars in the meantime had spent the night out in the open and were covered in a thick layer of snow which only meant that it had snowed through the night. Nevertheless we took some time to clear out the snow from the windows and drove into the streets of Balkhash. The streets were icy and that meant driving had to be careful! However this city is known for something special which is the lake on the banks of which it is situated.

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Lake Balkhash is claimed to be the 13th largest continental lake in the world and stretches over more than 600kms. There are numerous ways of getting to the lake and we decided to take the not so frequent route. We had to drive out of the city and join the main highway towards Almaty. Around 50 kms later we cut off the main highway and did a little bit of off-the-road driving to reach the lake. The sight of the pristine and pure blue surface is a sight to behold. Barren land all around and a lake in the middle makes this a picture perfect scenario for a picnic! But more than just a picnic spot, this lake has more secrets hiding. According to the locals half of the lake has fresh water and the rest of it has saline water. So the water from the lake is used for both drinking and industrial purposes!

With little time left and 550 kms still to go, we drove out of lake Balkhash and joined the highway again. Once again Kazakhsthan mesmerised us with magnificent panoramas and very hospitable people. The best add-on here was that the sun was out and the temperature rose to a balmy +7 degrees from the -7 degrees we faced in the city of Balkhash.

But it was not just the weather which was changing; the food too was getting different now. Till date we had been surviving mostly on sandwiches and hotdogs. Essentially they were pumped in with meat or veggies. We pulled over at what can be called a small hutment in the middle of nowhere and people came out to give us a warm welcome. It turned out to be a cafe of sorts. Half of the hut was the residence of the locals and the rest of it had a couple of tables for guests. We ordered for what came to be called Kebabs prepared on charcoal fire. It was also after a gap of 10 days that we had peeped towards the tele!

As we feasted on the kebabs we realised that we were just about 75 kms away from Almaty, our halt for the night. We reduced our pace of eating and enjoyed a bit more and sped up, entering Almaty in office rush hour.