Kazakhstan & Grand Canyon's little brother

Today we made our way to Kazakhstan, the last country of our whirlwind tour through the Five Stans.

We drive through the beautiful Karkara Valley before reaching the border checkpoint. The route at an altitude of almost 2000m is very scenic, with broad grassland, mountains and traditional summer grazing areas.
We see plenty of herds - mainly horses - being driven down to the winter pastures and looking closely, we spot the first signs of autumn colours 🍁 🍂

After about 90 minutes, we reach the modern international border in the middle of nowhere. It's a small, less busy crossing which will be closed after the summer/autumn season.
And it's nothing like any of the other borders we passed through. We are done in 15 minutes, gain an hour too 🕙 and pick up our guide Alyona.

Todays activity is to walk through the Charyn Canyon but it's at least another 90 minutes drive before we get there.

To keep us on our toes, Alyona shares with us some information about KZ. It's
☝️the largest country in Central Asia, the 9th largest country in the world and the world's largest landlocked country.
☝️more than twice the size of the other four Central Asian countries combined. It stretches all the way from Siberia to the deserts of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
☝️a country of extraordinary landscapes: vast steppe, desert and semi-desert, the Caspian coast, forests, lakes and the mountains of the Tien Shan and Altai
☝️It's rich in natural resources: oil, gas, uranium, coal and many other minerals being major parts of the economy.

Also,
☝️It has an extremely low population density - just six people per square kilometer
☝️the world's first human spaceflight began here. Yuri Gagarin launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in 1961. The facility is still used for space launches.

The time passes quickly and we reach the famous Charyn Canyon, in time for lunch and our first introduction to Kazakh food.

Charyn Canyon is one of southeastern KZ's great natural landmarks. It was formed by the Charyn River cutting through layers of sedimentary rock over millions of years. The canyon system is around 154 km long, with cliffs reaching roughly 150–300 m in places and sometimes referred to as 'the Grand Canyons little brother'.

The way down starts with 256 wooden steps into the canyon. Looking down from the top, the scale was already impressive, but nothing really prepared us for being inside it. As we descended, the towering walls seemed to grow around us, revealing layer after layer of warm reds, oranges and golden-brown rock.

We followed the canyon for about 2.5 km, walking deeper into the famous Valley of Castles. The name quickly made sense. The rock formations rise into strange towers, turrets and walls, shaped over millions of years as the Charyn River gradually carved its way through layers of sedimentary rock, with wind, rain and temperature extremes helping to sculpt the dramatic forms.

It was one of those walks where we kept stopping to look up — every bend seemed to reveal another extraordinary shape. The colours changed constantly with the afternoon light, and the sheer walls made us feel very small against the landscape.

By the time we reached the Charyn River at the base of the canyon, we felt we had a lovely walk but we're glad tha they way up was via an old Soviet truck, nicknamed 'loaf of bread' even if it was a bumpy ride.

It was just absolutely stunning and yes, it does remind us of its big brother 😬

Sadly, time goes quickly and we have to set off for our 3 hour drive to Almaty, the final stop on our tour.

The late-afternoon autumn sun seemed to soften everything — fields glowing in shades of green, yellow and gold, with the mountains quietly following us in the distance. Hay bales lay scattered across the fields, while herds of horses and cattle wandered across the open countryside, guided by shepherds on horseback - just a wonderful peaceful rural landscape ...

... until we hit the outskirts of Almaty and joined a huge traffic jam getting into the city.Read more