KAZAKHSTAN and UZBEKISTAN Adventure Tour – 01/09-30/09.2020

We will drive 600 km towards the sacred Mount Sherkala. In some old tales we find definitions that look like a bowl, perhaps of a giant ”tourist”, others that the mountain looks like a tent on one side, and on the other a hidden beast, clearly a sleeping lion who has put his head down huge on the legs and the name means ”The Lion Castle”. Difficult and capricious mountain that does not tolerate the curious. It is difficult to climb, even more difficult to descend, humans are not allowed in its caves: they are inhabited by spirits. This has assured us a group of local elders intent on looking at us with suspicion and curiosity. Camp on the Caspian Sea.

Today we will arrive in one of the largest depressions in the world: Karagiye. Karagie is a unique natural site. Its name is translated from Kazakh as ”a black cavity”. And although it is not black in color, but with the dominant yellow and white, it is considered one of the lowest points in the world: it reaches 132 meters below sea level. They say that once upon a time there was a salt lake, Batir, instead of the cavity, but now there is only a lifeless desert surrounded by what were huge cliffs. Further on through the sandy desert with dunes we reach the mountains of Bashir. Camp.

Ustyurt plateau, with its incredible reliefs of an ancient seabed. The steep edge of the Ustyurt plateau is made up of limestone and chalk. Among the chalk rocks there are many marine sediment samples which once again demonstrate a scientific theory that in the past there was a sea.
We will cross steppes and deserts without horizon with numerous depressions, where the beds of the ancient rivers can be traced. I think here we will have the highest temperature of the whole trip. It will be curious to think that only in the ”near” Middle Ages was the Ustyurt plateau crossed with commercial caravan routes. Before the 15th century, cities thrived there. When the bed of the Amu Darya river dried, many of them thinned out over time, and today there are only ancient ruins that remind us that life once existed. Bivouac.

We will cross the desert areas towards the Kazakh part of Lake Aral. A huge environmental disaster caused by man who left a great sea dry, the polluted land and the locals flooded with disease. The destruction of the Aral Sea is a strange legacy of the American Civil War, when the United States cut cotton exports to the outside world. In Russia, the decision was made to irrigate the land in recently assimilated Central Asian countries and develop their own cotton industry. At the time, the Aral Sea was the fourth largest inland sea in the world. By 1937, the area had successfully become a major cotton exporter with little impact on the natural environment. But starting in the 1950s, the aggressive Soviet irrigation projects from the Aral Sea began to have a negative impact. Between 1960 and 1980, the water level dropped 20 meters, exposing the seabed and increasing the salinity levels of the lake until the death of the fish population. Today the sea is almost dry and has separated into two much smaller seas. Fishing boats get stuck, rusting in a vast contaminated desert. In 2000, UNESCO developed a rescue plan for the area which attempts to recover water for the sea by 2025, but is considered unrealistic by many. The people with the most ability to directly influence this is the government of Uzbekistan, where the cotton fields are located, but are reluctant to make changes since their country’s delicate economy depends on the success of cotton cultivation. The World Bank funded a small dam that protected and even raised water levels in the northern part of the sea, but most agree that the rest could completely disappear within 15 years. The remains of the sea are remote, reachable after a day of travel through the desert. Night  in a hotel in Aral.

Bayanaul National Park. Camp

Karkaraly national park. Spectacular mountain range where we will reach two lakes located at an altitude of 1200m. Camp.

We will move to Lake Balkhash today. Camp on the lake or optional  in an  hotel.

Transfers and view of Altyn Emel Park considered one of the best places in Kazakhstan to see herds of wild mammals with hooves. The park boasts a population of approximately 6,000 goitered gazelles, known as jieran. In the 1970s, a small population of wild donkeys from Central Asia, or kulan, were brought here from the Barsakelmes Nature Reserve, in response to the ecological problems associated with the drying of the Aral Sea, which transformed Barsakelmes from an island. in a peninsula and the salinity of Aral increased considerably. The Alttyn Emel National Park also boasts some amazing archaeological and natural sites, of which the two most important are the iron age Besshatyr mounds and the great barchan, or more precisely barchans, known as the Sand Dune singer. Camp

We will leave for Sharyn Canyon. For millions of years, wind and water have carved Sharyn’s red sandstone to form today’s fantastic shapes and shadows. The history of the Charyn canyon dates back 12 million years, when the river slowly began to erode the stone that surrounded it. The oldest and darkest layers in the lower part of the canyons are volcanic lava rocks, on top of which debris slowly accumulates to form natural sculptures. Lizards, snakes, steppe hares, foxes and especially marmots thrive here. We then move to the Tien Szan mountains where we will see the Kajndy and Kolsaj lakes where we will spend the night in a camp. The unique feature of this lake is that, formed due to an earthquake that suddenly created a natural dam submerging the forest, it created an icy microclimate that allowed the plants to continue growing. Also called ”reverse forest” because the trunks are often bare outside the water, while under the surface of the water they are seen growing luxuriant.

Today long road transfer to the city of Taraz. Overnight in a small guest house.

Transfer to the border with Uzbekistan Zhibek Zholy KAZ / Taszkient UZB and we will reach Samarkand – visit of the city. Overnight at Hotel.

Transfer to Bukhara – city tour. Two millennia of history are shown with all the sadness of the numerous monuments that will make it difficult for us to remain concentrated. Considered a real medieval jewel on the Silk Road it was included in the UNESCO Heritage in 1993. Overnight at the hotel.

We will cross the desert territory of Karakum towards Khiva and remain fascinated by the ancient fortresses that we will find along the way. If we close our eyes we can review Genghis Khan’s raids or think of the ancient caravans of the silk road! And along the Uzbek side of Lake Aral we will be able to see the wrecks of sanded ships. Camp

We will leave towards the Kotyayevka KAZ / Astrakhan RUS border where we will arrive on day 25. Camps along the way.