SE Tour Day Three - Tiger Mountains and Valley of the Castles

Tuesday 19 September 2023

The highlight of breakfast at the lodge was overhearing an American try to send her fried egg back because she’d asked for it over easy (and presumably they’d only delivered a sunny side up).  I really don't think anyone knew what she was talking about.  Anyway, back to this tourist...

As we left Basshi I was interested by their telegraph pole erection system.  It looks as if they don't like sticking wood directly into the soil (it probably rots) so they lash the poles to concrete posts.

The second highlight of the day was a surprise stop at the Tiger Mountains.  As usual our driver stopped, pointed and said “you can go walk”.  And so we did.  Once over the brow of the hill a tigerish vista opened up.  Wow!  We wandered down into the centre of it.

The coating of the rocks was some kind of hardened mineral that crumbled as you trod on it.  And visually it was like walking on rhino skin (not that I've tried - in case I needed to confirm that).

These hills must not be well known - only one other car drew up the time we were there - as walking on these must damage the surface.  In the UK these would be overrun by walkers and would probably end up with a designated route through to preserve the natural areas.  Perhaps if I ever come back, I’ll find this here too.  It certainly feels very untouristy in most places.

Third surprise was the pretty empty motorway (it’s tolled hence fewer vehicles) which had 20 m of roadworks every 1 km or so.  You had to be quick to spot them as they weren't well highlighted, just a cone or two popped in the road just before they started.  The only exception being this section where the digger simply reversed across the open carriageway without a flashing light in sight.

This is a classic service station toilet.

We left Altyn Emel National Park and drove to Charyn Canyon via Shonzhy where I had a wonderful lunch of grilled veg, fried veg, rice and Russian salad.  JC and Nurland had manties - meat filled dough balls.  The bell on the napkin holder is a Kazak thing too - you ring it when you need serving.

I was intrigued by these yellow pipes, which we realised were gas pipes with wider ones running along the roads and smaller ones into properties.  Digging and burying pipes is a lot more effort but this option must expose the piles to more danger from damage especially from passing vehicles.

There were numerous, what seemed like randomly placed, road side statues which we got used to seeing wherever we drove.  I think they are a Russian hangover.

We spent the afternoon and early evening at Valley of the Castles.  The whole Charyn Canyon system consists of a network of gorges joined by the Charyn River.

We started by walking the valley floor trying to keep a few hundred metres ahead of a coach load of tourists (Chinese it looked) who had descended the 100 or so steps just behind us.  

Needless to say they soon overtook us, by bus.  There was a shuttle bus running those tourists who didn’t want to/weren’t able make the 2.5 km walk to and fro.

It was a lovely walk even and we ensured our personal purity did not attract any administrative responsibility.

We ended up at the Charyn River - a fast flowing and crystal clear water waterway.

We decided to take an alternative route up, via the Witches Walk which was billed as ‘for the adventurous, involving some roped paths where extra safety was needed’.  Unfortunately we lost the trail very early on, and started up a steepish slope which turned into a very steep ravine which, once halfway up, there was no going back.  I confess to slightly scaring myself at a few points knowing if I slipped it would have been a nasty outcome. 

But fortunately we both made it up just as the clouds gathered and thunder started.

The rain passed us and JC had spotted a wonderful photo spot so he pretty much spent the next couple of hours there watching the colour change on the eastern canyon walls as the sun set.  Then, swinging west, he caught sunset.

Meanwhile I’d returned to Nurland who made coffee and magically revealed that he’d bought more grilled vegetables from our lunchtime restaurant.  What a super star.  So I ate those as the sun went down and bagged a few of my own sundowner photos.

JC appeared as darkness fell then we drove about an hour to the other side of the canyon. We had intended to camp down by the river at Termilik Canyon but, in the pitch black, Nurland was concerned about the state of the road (bits of it appeared to be missing) and elected that we should camp higher up.  So we camped on some gravel on what seemed like a turning circle.  We erected the tent by car lamp light and bundled ourselves into bed.