Lake Kaindy, the mystic sunken forest

110 years ago Lake Kaindy was a forest like any other.

Then the 1911 Kebin earthquake happened, which created a landslide which created a dam, eventually causing rainwater to drown the forest. The trees have taken Ariel as a role model and still appear to be living underwater as mertrees, covered in sea plants and algae, providing for an unforgettable diving experience (we didn’t go diving, but see link at the bottom of this entry if you get inspired).

Lake Kaindy is 2000m above sea level and can be 30m deep at points. The water remains a refreshing +6 degrees Celsius all year round, preserving the spruce trees.

So, we went onwards from Charyn Canyon towards this mysterious lake in the middle of the Kazakh nowhere. (Find Part 1 (Charyn Canyon) here!) See below the map of the way there from Almaty.

Scenic mountain paths ensued on our way out from the canyon area and down south, towards the Kyrgyz border, to Lake Kaindy. Special joy was brought by one of my carmate’s incredible enthusiasm which was caused by trucks carrying huge bundles of hay, looking desperately in need of a haircut. So part of the trip was keeping our eyes open for these hay trucks and competing for the best picture of them. Steve smiled subtly at the wheel.

Our whole trip was made infinitely more enjoyable with the ongoing playlist of Russian rock we were listening to. I have taken up listening to Russian rock now.

The roads were definitely generally Bad by now – often just rubble and dirt and stones and bumps. We drove through the village of Saty (some tour companies do homestays there), and watched the local life with kids on horses and men shovelling hay and women carrying vegetables.

After about an hour after we left the Canyon, a bit after Saty, we stopped on the roadside where Steve had to reduce tyre pressure. We watched Ladas whizz past on the “main” road and dusty lorries go up this steep and dusty non-road on the side of the mountain, wondering where on earth they were going.

When it was time to go, guess which road we took?

Up following the lorries.

WHERE WE’RE GOING, WE DON’T NEED ROADS.

The swervy dirt track became a swervy dirt track balancing precariously on the mountainside, one flick of the steering wheel away from plunging down into not-as-dramatic-as-I-make-it-sound depths.

Once we’d got off the edge of the mountain, we next proceeded into what appeared to be a road desperate to be a river. We followed the riverroad, and gradually noticed an actual river appearing to our left. The road ahead continued to be a riverroad… until we turned left and drove straight into the river. (Later on I read more about this “road”, and it did say “you need to cross the river twice”.)

After the river, we continued waddling down the bumpy dirt road – once being overtaken by a lorry, which had driven up behind us, then up the ledge on the side, and sped past us on the ground above us. The driver and his friend peered at us, entertained, while we peered at them, amazed. After overtaking us on the above route, the lorry dropped down in front of us and sped away.

At some point somewhere we passed Danger: Earthfall and Danger: Landslide signs following each other.

This “Road” went on for a good while, always appearing to end, but continuing as a path/a dirt way/a puddle/something equally exciting.

Eventually we got to a toll place. My understanding of Kazakh toll places are that some are legit, however most are not. So basically it’s illegal dudes pretending to be official, everyone knowing they’re unofficial, but everyone still cooperating as it’s “the done thing” and no one’s there to stop it. Earlier in the day, on our way to the Canyon, we stopped at one toll place – they even had a look at our passports.

When we got to the Lake Kaindy toll place Steve got out and found no one in the toll booth, looked around a bit, and then proceeded to prop open the barrier himself.

Roughly two hours after we’d left the Canyon, we arrived at Lake Kaindy carpark.

We parked and set off up into the forest.

After a fifteen-minute walk up from the carpark and then down, with glimpses of the lake and a scenic river, we arrived at Lake Kaindy itself. Suddenly there were people around which was surprising – I honestly couldn’t think others venturing down the “Road” we found ourselves on.

And it was atmospheric and it was ethereal and magical. It’s the kind of place that if you didn’t know the story you’d certainly have fun making one up. We sat around for some minutes and got pics and got the other humans to take group pictures of us. It was nice to have a moment just sitting there.

Then we went back up to get a different view of the lake. From here you could really see the roots of the Lake Kaindy trees, which have embraced semi-aquatic mermaid life.

A blissful happiness here was that we could take water from the stream to drink – something I’d been looking forward to for the past few hours.

We balanced over the logs to cross the stream and enjoyed once again the lake and the surrounding mountains.

Then, time to go home.

Again, I didn’t ask how long it’d take, but I’ll tell you this: we’d been sat in the dark car on dark roads for an ETERNITY when we finally made it onto my offline googlemaps map of Almaty and surrounding areas. Hooray! I could start dreaming of dinner (we hadn’t had any food apart from snacks we thought to take with us) and sleep and home. After a while we got to a road sign. Almaty 146km. A drop down from the multi-storeyed skyscraper of High Hopes. I spent the next ten minutes trying to figure out how I may have misread it – we can’t still have 146km to go.

But alas, we did, and alas, we survived, and alas, we celebrated at a restaurant Steve took us to where we had plov and shashlik and all was fine and dandy.

I showered Steve with compliments of his immaculate driving ability (the precision he was able to handle every bump, swerve round every dodgy bit of “Road”, a skill I have rarely witnessed) and perseverance (10h driving, bless him.)

“This was incredible!” I concluded.

“Yes, it was, for me too,” he said, wiping sweat off his brow.

There is a reason why the Canyon and the Lake are usually done as a two-day trip. But what an intensely unforgettable one-day trip it made.

SPECIAL THANK YOU TO MY TRAVEL COMPANIONS FOR THE DAY. <3

PS. If visiting Lake Kaindy by four-wheel drive and by foot in the comfortable climate of early September seems too tame for you, you can always go ice diving in the winter. Please have a look here – absolutely incredible.