SE Tour Day Four - Wet and Windy Canyons (plus the first camel sighting)

Wednesday 20 September 2023

We were woken at midnight by the tent flapping furiously in the wind.  I was so worried I sent JC out to check the pegs (brave aren’t I?).  The wind dropped after a while and we slept until the rain started at 0430.  Fortunately that stopped too and when we finally awoke at 0800 the tent was dry.

And the view - blimey!  We were camped not far from the edge of the canyon and had a great view of it.

We packed up - narrowly missing the little scorpion that I nearly scooped up with the tent canvas - and breakfasted in a magnificent setting.  We even had coffee.

We then went to Bestamak Canyon and walked 1 km or so down to the river. It had started raining by now and after an hour Nurland drove down to collect his soggy passengers. The rain set in and wind picked up.

We drove to a view point to see the canyon but we could hardly stand up - the wind was that strong.  We couldn’t hold our cameras steady so just snapped a couple.  You certainly couldn’t face the wind as the rain stung your face.  It was really awesome.

Back in the car and we drove to Moon Canyon.  But not before we'd spotted our first Bactrian camels.  Apparently Kazakhstan is one of the few countries where both Bactrian, two humps, and dromedary, one hump, reside.  The dromedary love a hot climate but don't much like frosts (well that's something I have in common with a camel) so tend to live in SE Kazakstan, whereas you'll see Bactrian in more westerly areas.  

Yup, it was another big WOW moment as we got out of the car.  The rain eased temporarily and we were able to take a few shots although, as ever, a photo doesn’t adequately show the awesomeness of a place.  I know, a cliché thing to say, but it's true.  

We drove down into Moon Canyon.  Just after entering the reserve Nurland went to pay and found the ticket kiosk semi-built and empty.  As the wind was still blowing and the rain still spitting he set up a make-do kitchen and cooked us all lunch in the hut.  What a trooper.

Afterwards we had a short stroll, but the rain increased and it was getting too wet to be out.  So we bundled back into the car and left the Canyon Range.

We swapped cars and drivers as Nurland needed to be elsewhere, so enter stage right Mr M. Mr M is very different to Nurlan who said little. Mr M has an opinion on everything and everyone and once on a subject wouldn't stop, even if there was something more important going on.  We missed the Black Canyon viewpoint because he was deep in his monologue about the Nomads and Kurds.  But he did kindly spin around so we could see them.

Then we had his opinions on why Europeans got it so wrong in Kazakstan, why the Russians weren’t as awful as people make them out to have been, why Christians are hard to reason with, Mongols and how they think (or don’t), and numerous anecdotes about languages.  He is certainly a polylingual but once he started telling you, for example, the Russian for goalkeeper he told you all the other related words in Russian, Kazak, Turkish, German etc.  He thought my avoidance of gluten was a western fad.  His car also had no suspension - this would have been just as comfortable.

We drove past the Tien Shan Mountains which define the border between China (which was 70 km away at one stage) to the east and Kyrgyzstan to the south.

All very beautiful.  We arrived in our home stay in Saty and, thankfully, they ran a load of washing through the machine for us.  Hallelujah - saved me doing about 6 day's worth of washing by hand.  Supper was potatoes, that’s literally all I had as they hadn’t realised I was vegetarian, and an early night with smiles on our faces for how lucky we were to be in such an amazing place.

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.