Taukum Desert Camping, Round 2

Even with a forecast of rain, we decided to try our chances and headed out of town for some camping. We went north to the Taukum Desert, where Nic and I had gone a few weeks before, but we were hoping to scope out a new place this weekend. 

With the clouds starting to break up, Lake Sorbulak was calm as we saw a few birds resting on the water. 

 Sadie. 

As we continued north, the clouds gave way to clear blue skies. Passing the green steppe, it became an animal spotting game...plenty of sheep and lambs, this horse herd crossed the highway, and we even saw....

 ...a big herd of camels right by the road! There were even beautiful flowers to punctuate the scene. 

 Camels, shmamels. Sadie found a caterpillar! 

 Before long the herdsmen approached us, as they sometimes do if you hang around long enough. 

 Herdsmen are one of my favorite subjects to photograph  in Kazakhstan.

 These two were friendly guys, letting us sit on their horses and doing their best to understand my (extremely) limited Russian. 

Before long the conversation petered out, and it was time for them to get back to work. 

 We found our spot and began setting up for the day. John and Nina really know how to go camping. 

 Nic and Brandon enjoyed the frisbee cross-training on uneven sandy ground. 

Just over the hill from our spot was this cabin. I finally built up enough courage to peek into the window, after I saw that the cinder block held the door closed from the outside. It looked about the same on the inside too.

"Pass the garbage pile, over the hill, and you're there!"

 Desert remnants. 

 Sunset. 

 Nic found something to do with all the wire laying around the desert, though I didn't encourage it. 

After a clear night with a brilliant full moon, we woke to clouds and wind. 

 On the drive home we saw more camels! These ones much more surly looking than the first.

 Beautiful lighting on the steppe. 

It's never fun leaving the wide open, traffic-free steppe and returning to the city in bumper-to-bumper back up. At least on this trip we were stuck behind this cool old car.