Holiday in Central Asia (4): canyon & lake in Kazakhstan
After a day and a night in Almaty to rest and recover from our jet lag, on Day 3 we left the city for two days to visit some nature locations in the very south-east this huge country.
Our guide Svetlana never stopped talking while we were on the road and we learned so much about the country and the people. Her personal story is symbolic of post-Soviet Central Asia. Her mother’s family was Ukrainian kulak and banished to Sakhalin Island, while her father’s family was Don Cossack kulaks who were sent to Siberia. Thank you, comrade Stalin. They grew up in the Soviet Union before finding themselves in independent Kazakhstan. On our road journey, we passed close to China and Kyrgyzstan and went through a Uyghur village. It is a complicated region of the world.
Leaving our Almaty hotel at 7.30 am, we travelled around 200 km to arrive at our first destination just over 3 hours later (there was a comfort stop at a service station that served coffee). Our destination was the spectacular Charyn Canyon where we spent three and a half hours. The canyon consists of rocks varying in age from 23M to 60M years old. Today the canyon is 154 km in length with cliff sides of up to 300 metres high.
We walked the 1.3 metre trial along the top, walked all the way back, and then took the 2.3 metre trail on the floor of the canyon all the way to the rushing Charyn River, so we covered around 5 metres. The lower part of the canyon is known as the Valley of the Castles because of the striated and coloured cliff faces on either side. The weather was glorious with a temperature of around 40C made bearable by a breeze. But, in the summer, the temperature can hit 50C. Understandably we all took a open lorry back (thankfully with sears) from the river to the start of the trails and found some shelter for a picnic lunch.
Our next destination was a further 100 km and took almost another two hours on increasingly winding roads. This time our destination was the Kolsai Lakes. In fact, we only viewed the nearest and deepest (70 metres). We were higher now so the weather was milder and the views were simply beautiful. After a coffee, I took a walk half way round the large lake, during which I befriended a Kazak couple who wanted to video me (no problem) and discuss English football (a subject on which I am totally ignorant).
We are not returning to Almaty yet because we have another local sight to visit, so we spent the night in the very simple but clean Alban guesthouse in a tiny village called Saty. Ten of us the group plus driver & guide – shared two toilets and two showers. Here the WiFi was so slow it reminded me of the days of dial-up when we watched that blue bar edging barely perceptively to the right.