Charyn Canyon, the little sibling of the Grand

What should you go see in Kazakhstan? Yeah, I had no idea a few weeks ago either.

But I’ll tell you.

As mentioned in my previous entry, there were certain places I wanted to visit: the Charyn Canyon and surreal Lake Kaindy topping the list. Visiting both of these would require a private and expensive all-inclusive two-day tour (300-450 dollars), which I didn’t have the time for, which I preferably didn’t have the money for, which my ankle didn’t have the ability for (I’d managed to spectacularly sprain it as my first achievement on day 1, resulting with multiple colourful bruises both deep purple and neon green).

There was not much hope in joining a group tour, as

a. it’s not tourist season

b. it’s not the weekend

c. it’s Kazakhstan.

My Almaty friends however persuaded me I must visit the canyon. So, nearing midnight I was writing an email to a tour company, when I coincidentally found out that the Japanese couple in the next door room had “found a tour for 50,000 Tenge” (about 110 euros) to Lake Kaindy and the canyon for the next day. How? I’m not sure, but they’d appeared to have found a guy who knew a guy who was willing to take them. “Do you want to come too?” they asked. I thanked them for their offer but explained that I can’t do a two-day trip.

Turned out it would be a one-day trip. To the Canyon and Lake Kaindy. These weren’t meant to exist.

Hesitant excitement started to bubble within me. I could third wheel it with this Japanese couple I hardly know, yes feel awkward but yes also have an EPIC time seeing these incredible nature phenomena? I tried to form my ecstatic enthusiasm in a calm, adult manner of “I would love to come, but if for any reason for you or the driver blah-de-blah there would be a problem, then no worries”. The guy nodded briefly in his what-I-learnt-to-become-typical-manner and said: “I will call. Wait here.”

Ten minutes later he returned and showed an OK-sign with his fingers. Leaving at 8am the next morning, arrival back at hostel “very late, 12pm”. I thanked them profusely, and sent overexcited capslock messages to people back home about my upcoming trip to THE CANYON and THE LAKE.

*

It turned out it was four of us, which made me feel less awkwardly third wheely, though I was the only non-Japanese out of the group. At 8am we were in the hostel lobby, and a guy with a big beard turned up, and introduced himself. “Hi I’m Steve, who’s ready for the trip?”

“Steve” is a Russian Kazakh with excellent English, an IT-guy but tour guide and racing car builder (literally, he orders bits and pieces from around the world) in his spare time. He drives a dirty four-wheel drive (he briefly commented apologetically that he hadn’t had time to clean it after the previous day’s trip, but I think it just added to the experience). We went to get petrol and were on our way.

We drove for about two hours outside of Almaty, us on the backseat dozing in and out, mostly through flat grounds and tiny villages, with the looming mountains still providing an impressive backdrop. Suddenly the road turned and we were driving through the mountains. I was in complete and utter awe with the sheer height of these magnificent… hills.

We drove in and out of the mountains before it started to get flat again, and then we got to a sign saying Canyon 10km. We turned off the main road onto no, not a “Very Bad Road”, but a Very New Road – it was all smooth but still in the process of being created, so we had to dodge bulldozers and workmen. Steve said this Very New Road was very new indeed – and I can tell you that my websites hadn’t kept their information up to date! (Apparently it knocked an hour off the trip!)

We arrived at the canyon and parked the car in the, er, car park. The toilets were a nice hole in the ground and I regretted not bringing toilet paper. I regretted not bringing most things (like a decent-sized bottle of water, food), but luckily some things (like sun tan lotion) I was able to borrow from Mai, the Japanese girl, who had arrived far more prepared.

Some facts: Charyn Canyon is located 200km east of Almaty, in the corner of the country – it’s closer to both Kyrgystan and China than Almaty. It’s about 80km long and formed around the Charyn River, which starts from the Tian Shan Mountains. The Charyn Canyon consists of five different canyons – our destination was the Valley of Castles, which is 3km long and up to 100m deep.

Geologically the Charyn Canyon has enjoyed atmogenic process, meaning that it’s been created from atmospheric origin – in this case water and wind. And the rock? Sedimentary red sandstone.

First we went down the steps to walk in the canyon. The weather was sunny and perfect for a mid-morning canyon wander. The formations became more spectacular by the minute, and I tried to balance on the ever-precarious tightrope of taking-epic-pictures yet making-sure-I-take-it-in-with-my-own-eyes.

We ambled up and through to the Eco Park, a bungalow system in the middle of the canyon next to the river. It was pretty and also pretty empty.

 

Then time to wander back, and Steve was very patient with us tourists, often wanting pics in the same location individually, each with a signature pose. The sun was blazing more actively now, and I learnt the Japanese for “hot”. At(s)i, pardon my strong accent.

After getting our daily dose of exercise from walking back up the steps, we made our way to the special up-top observation deck.

Then, onwards towards Lake Kaindy.

I was on my last bits of water (part of the story of no toilet paper in hole-in-the-floor-loo) and I was gonna ask Steve if we could stop by a shop on our way to the next place. As I started my utterance I managed to change it mid-sentence, and asked if there’d be a shop on the way. The answer was no. But you can get water from the stream at Lake Kaindy. Hooray, home-grown water!

“How long is it?” I asked him.

“About 100km.”

“Ah, not bad.”

“Yes, but the roads are.”

To be continued…