Aksu-Zhabagly Nature Reserve - Aksu Canyon

Thursday 28 September 2023

The Dutch turned out to be lovely.  Their English was very good so we were able to chat and share travel stories.  We drove to Aksu Gorge and alighted from the vehicles to have a lesson on the Kazakhstan tulip (which we’d had the day previously from the same guide).  The tulips are wild and flower in April however we did find some dried versions.

Once at the gorge proper most of the ~20 of us walked down to a viewpoint.

It was slower going than usual as we walked at the pace of the slowest.  Although it was nice being in the company of others it really does slow a tour down as you are waiting for people to get their stuff, go to the loo in the one and only drop toilet, sort their lunches, get their sunglasses etc.

After enjoying the view from about 200 m down 7 of us descended another 300 m into the canyon to see the river whilst the majority walked back to the top and drove off to see another viewpoint.

The river at the base of the gorge was beautiful and we sat and lunched down there.

JC had bought his tripod and water filter for the lens with him so he was happy as a kid in a sweet shop to spend 30 minutes or so photographing.

Meanwhile I sat and waited.  And it assumed one of the Dutch ladies to photograph me watching JC photograph…

The Kazakh flag came out again.

Once back at the top we had to hang around about an hour for the other Dutch group to reappear.  JC found an apple orchard so busied himself testing a few, and I amused myself by feeding a local horse apples.  It then chucked it down so we scurried off to the minibus.

Our train was late evening and the guesthouse kindly fed us before we left for the station, Tyulkubas.  Labelling/numbering platforms does not appear to be a Kazakh thing so we resorted to showing our ticket and asking questions in Russian using our app.  I didn't realise but I'd actually been conversing with a policeman on the platform - I thought he was a station official and had not spotted the weapon on his hip.  He was quite helpful anyway.   It turned out that Tyulkubas only had one platform in use so we stood and waited.

An enormous goods train trundled through with 57 containers on 34 carriages - I counted the carriages and it turned out at the same time JC was counting the containers!  It took a long time to pass.

Our train back to Almaty eventually turned up - we were told it was 50 minutes late then after 15 minutes it appeared - and we hopped on into our 2 berth cabin.  And that was the end of the tour of Turkestan/Shymkent/Aksu-Zhabagly for us.  The red spots show various places we wandered for 4 days before returning on the train for the 630 km leg to Almaty.

Aksu-Zhabagly Nature Reserve - Kshi Kaindy Waterfall

Wednesday 27 September 2023

A driver collected us from our hotel and took us to Zhabagly, 100 km east of Shymkent.  Aside from the fact that he was driving at 180 kph at one stage, we noticed on the other side of the road a truck carrying an enormous cooling tower part (or similar) stuck under the carriageway.  We'd seen a few of these pieces of infrastructure on the back of lorries and I suppose, if you don't measure your height, you eventually clip a bridge? (sorry, no picture).

We dropped our stuff, met Dasha our guide, and hopped into a 4WD.  We were off hiking in the Aksu-Zhabagly Nature Reserve to find the Kshi Kaindy waterfalls.  It was a lovely alpine walk up.

I was intrigued by this structure, which turned out to be a snow gauge.  I didn’t get close enough but think it’s 3 m high and marked off in 20 cm intervals.  And JC was fascinated by the rain gauge, the likes of which he hadn’t seen before and took a photo to share with his colleagues.

We walked on enjoying the views, and passing evidence of wild pigs (the ranger showed us where they'd been foraging) and bear, in the form of poo.  I've never seen wild bear boo before.

The waterfalls were indeed lovely but we were a tincy bit sad we weren’t able to climb down to them. 

Our guide whipped out a Kazakhstan flag from her back pack - she did this with every group she escorted (spoiler: see tomorrow's blog) - which was just a great idea!

Such beautiful views everywhere.  It's a very seasonal tourist industry as, by late Autumn, this is snow covered (remember the snow gauge?) so off limits to the casual day hiker.

Back in our guest house our happy holiday peace was interrupted by a minibus full of Dutch guests arriving.  Apparently they are to share our walk tomorrow.  Boo.  We like having the spaces to ourselves!

We wandered off for a short explore of Zhabagly which didn't take long.  I found more ladas and acknowledge that I had a strange obsession with photographing them when in an ex Soviet country.  

We also found the obligatory concrete animal sculptures which were kitsch but strangely likeable.  

As we walked back to the hostel a cow cavalry arrived and marched through the village.  It was amusing to watch the cows veer off into gardens and driveways and the herder not minding too much, presuming they eventually meander down to where they are meant to be.

The evening meal at the hostel was a bit dire as the Kazakh version of gluten free vegetarian is just to remove the chicken and tell me not to eat bread: eg the gluten and meat is removed but not replaced by anything. They’d made me a nice lunch of rice, hard boiled egg etc so I was cheesed off they couldn’t manage more than a portion of rice and half a tomato for supper.  There's always tomorrow...

Shymkent - Recovery and Rest

Tuesday 26 September 2023

We pottered around Shymkent today.  JC had been keen to travel to Sayram to see some mausoleums but we couldn’t figure the buses out, and a local tourist office wasn’t that clear either.  We (OK, I) didn't have the energy to just jump on one and work out if it was the right one or not.  JC would have happily tried, but was OK with just wandering around Shymkent as I needed a day off without a car/taxi/train.

We went down to the bazaar which is massive and a hangover of the days when Shymkent was on the Silk Road trading route.  As expected, there were aisles of footwear, clothing, haberdashery, spices, vegetables etc.

There were piles of dried cheese, looking like bonbons but most definitely not sweet.  And the meat section smelt awful so I avoided.

We wandered up to Independence Park which was inaugurated in 2011 in celebration of 20 years of independence.  It had 96 steps up (trust me, I count these things), an enormous flagpole and a large trophy like statue made of 137 bars to symbolise the 137 nations of Kazakhstan.

We were looking for a MiG (like you do) but failed to find, however we found a tulip, a tractor and a phone box. Apparently the tulip was super hot to lean against!

Back down to the main city and we found Ken Baba Ethnopark where we lunched.  It was a strange place as it had lots of odd statues and models of Kazakh architecture set on plinths. Plus a small waterfall and shark attack.

 

We wandered more around the city streets and we fell into Abay Park.  This was an unexpected delight as we stumbled over the MiG we’d been looking for in another part of the city (guidebook wrong?).  Anyway, this was certainly hard to miss and part of a large and sobering war memorial containing 100,000s of soldiers who died in the Second World War.

There was another area of the park remembering those who died in Afghanistan along with a row of tanks and guns.

And we finally found the Shymkent tulip.

We ate out at a slightly upmarket restaurant where, for once, my usual three side dish order (rice, grilled veg and one other veg) arrived on a single plate so I really felt like I was having a grown up meal at last.