Population Kazakhstan: 18 million. Population density – 7 people per square km (India – 380, China – 150, New Zealand – 15).
Crossing the border into north eastern Kazakhstan from Siberia near Semey was a very slow and tiring process. The officials were friendly enough, just so sloooow.
Kazakhstan is all about wide open flat steppe with low population, high mountains in the east and south, several modern cities, forgotton villages and a sprinkling of nomads.
Semey is better known for the some 460 nuclear test bombs that were exploded by the Soviet military during the 40 years until 1989, east of the city. Radiation has affected the health of a large number of people in Semey. On the face of it however, life in the city seems normal, apart from the lack of economic prosperity following the exodus of large numbers of people from the city after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The plan was to travel towards Almaty, in south-eastern Kazakhstan, rather than heading 900km west to Astana, the new capital. Astana apparently has many futuristic new buildings, however for us it was not worth the effort. We have already seen many amazing buildings in our life.
The 1,200 km south to Almaty traverses the endless flat steppes along the most terrible roads. Kazakhstan has considerable natural resources providing substantial wealth. Some of this wealth is apparently being put into an ambitious road building programme and we understand that all the major roads will be upgraded by 2020. We have thus far not experienced much of this benefit.
We were warned that the police are mean parasites ready to pounce on any foreigner to augment their meagre wages. We were actually warned about this in every country north of Singapore, but have not experienced any real problems to date. Kazakhstan was different. Fifteen minutes after entering Kazakhstan, a policeman pulled us over for speeding along a strip of road under repair (no machines in sight). He was quite friendly and very pleased with himself about his command of a few words of English. He went on and on using his few words and telling us about the serious offence. He finally got to the point where he told us that he would pardon us, but would like a “souvenir”. I pictured a souvenir in the form of a rectangular piece of paper with a US$ sign on it. Barbara told him that we had unfortunately already given away all our New Zealand souvenirs, and low and behold, he let us go.
From then on, we were very vary of police. They are absolutely everywhere. We found one in the middle of nowhere on a section of straight road with restricted speed limit about 150 km from the nearest town. That is a man very desperate to boost his wages.
On our way, the high Tian Shan mountains appeared on the eastern horizon with its snow covered peaks rising to well over 4,000m, two of which are over 7,000m high. This was a welcome sight after the few thousand kilometres of Siberian forests and Kazakhstan steppes.
We were aware of a remote valley in the mountains with spectacular scenery and a beautiful waterfall located about 260 north east of Almaty. The trip included 40km of track across undulating landscape covered by wheat fields, and then closer to the valley, grasslands occur where nomads run their herds of sheep, cattle and horses. The track leads to the edge of the escarpment where one can view the beautiful valley below. The 4km track down the escarpment into the valley 700m below is extremely steep in places and appeared to be at the limits of our driving experience. We however knew that it was possible to get down the mountain because the track was well used and we had earlier met and spoke with two groups of locals that were on their way back from the valley below. We took the bit between the teeth and set off down the pass, actually without a problem. The valley apparently only sees the odd hiker or adventure travellers, which meant we camped next to the river with the valley to ourselves. We however did not sleep peacefully because we knew there was no other way out of the valley, but back up the steep track we had used to get into the valley. In the morning, we first set off up the valley over the extremely rough track to see the waterfall. The falls were worth the effort and had a lot of water due to the snow melt. Locals told us that the valley has chest deep snow in winter, hard to imagine. The trip up the mountain pass was scary, however without any problem. There was no talking or breathing from us on the way up. Our vehicle is just perfect for the job.
Nomads can be seen with their herds of animals in the mountainous areas. The nomadic way of life was changed forever during the Soviet era. Nomads were shifted to urban centres and made to follow the collective farming policy. Post independence, nomads have taken to moving to the mountains during the summer months, and then returning with their stock to villages and urban centres for the winter months.
Almaty is a vibrant city of about 1.7 million people. It was the official capital until about 20 years ago when grand plans were hatched to develop Astana in the north, the new capital, as a modern city. Almaty has however remained the commercial and cultural capital with numerous modern buildings and a large number of fine restaurants and western style cafes, i.e all the creature comforts needed after weeks on the road. Almaty also has numerous embassies and was a good base for us to obtain our visas for Uzbekistan. Almaty is located at the foot of the massive Tian Shan mountains, indeed the winter Olympics was held here recently. The Ski jump is located within the city limits and looks crazy high. It must have been a great spectacle during the games.
There are several beautiful cathedrals with their gold onion domes in the city. The most notable are St Nicholas and Zenkov cathedrals. St Nicholas cathedral was constructed in 1909 and suffered a period of decline during the Soviet era when it was used as stables for cavalry. It has now been beautifully restored complete with icons, candles and frescoes. Our visit coincided with a baptism, which was interesting to witness. Zenkov cathedral was built in the early 1900s entirely of wood, including the nails. The cathedral is one of the few surviving Tsarist era buildings and fortunately it was used as a museum and concert hall during the Soviet era, rather than suffering a worse fate.
The Ozero Bolshoe Almatinskoe alpine area is located a short 30km south of Almaty, and is a popular weekend picnic area for large numbers of people from Almaty. This area is worth a day trip as it gets you way up into the mountains. It is however crowded due to the easy access.
Cities do not hold much attraction for us, and we headed eastwards as soon as we could to Altyn-Emel national park and Charyn Canyon scenic areas en route to the Kyrgyzstan border. The Altyn-Emel national park is a small quiet nature reserve, which has as one of its main attractions, large sand dunes. It is quite a mission to reach the dunes over long rough tracks. Having visited these dunes, we would suggest you give them a miss, if you have already seen sand dunes elsewhere. Not worth the effort.
Charyn Canyon, is a 150m to 300m deep canyon eroded from otherwise flat steppe and looks somewhat like a mini Grand Canyon. The canyon is located some 200km east of Almaty and has interesting and beautiful geology, land forms and colours. Our 4WD capability allowed us to drive down into the canyon to get views from all angles. The track follows the dry river bed with a tight squeeze to get through some narrow sections. Here we also had the good fortune to meet interesting fellow travellers. One couple have been travelling overland on their tandem bicycle. They are so tough and amazing.
The road to the Kyrgyzstan border from the canyon passes through the broad and fertile Karkara valley, which is an age old summer grazing area for nomads. The green pastures are an amazing contrast to the harsh dry desert landscape only 50km west. The valley is dotted with numerous yurts (ger in Mongolia), the nomad’s transportable summer homes. Large areas of planted pastures have also been developed and many farmers were busy cutting and baling hay.
The border control point is a tiny outpost in the middle of nowhere and there was only one vehicle ahead of us at the check point. Kyrgyzstan and a new adventure lay beyond. We will come back to Kazakhstan in about six weeks time to visit the southern and western parts of the country.
