Kazakhstan @9900km

The start of stage 2 sees our intrepid runners cross over the Russian border with Kazakhstan, north of the national capital Nur-Sultan and south-east of regional capital Petropavl . Kazakhstan is the 9th largest country in the world and the world’s largest landlocked country (despite the lack of a coast, Kazakhstan does have a navy, based on the Caspian Sea).

Kazakhstan translates literally as “Land Of The Wanderers” and these are lonely roads we will wander along for the early part of this second stage. We shouldn’t expect to see crowds lining the streets at this point, the average number of people per square km is just 7. We’ll run past small rural communities such as Vozvyshenka and Kiyaly, perhaps stopping to share some Beshbarmak with friendly villagers. Beshbarmak is a regional delicacy of boiled horse or mutton known colloquially as “Five Fingers”, due to the way it’s traditionally eaten i.e without any cutlery. Or perhaps we’ll stick to flapjacks!

The temperature in these Northern parts of this vast country should be clear and dry at this time of year, hopefully still Spring! Average daytime temperatures for April and May are 9.1c and 19.3c respectively. The nights are still cold though with the record low for April being -26.4c! A reminder of how close we are to Siberia.