On the last night of camping, at around 1am, it became intensely windy. Enough to rip my tent to pieces. As I battled putting the pegs back in the ground, the sky just opened up with lighteing. Over and over in succession like I've never seen before. I'm not exaggering to say that for over 2 full minutes there was lightening nearly every second. It was so intense, I kind of went into shock. It just felt like something was really wrong. Luckily, my guide and I made it into the truck. By 1:15am, it was pouring buckets of rain on us as we braced for lightening to hit the outside of the truck at any moment. My excellent guide, Til, is a scientist who assured me the truck was the safest place (in theory). We never got hit, but my tent was completely destroyed by the wind and rain.
Korgalzhyn State Nature Reserve, Kazakhstan June 2012