Kazakhstan - Crossing the Assy Plateau

I had read somewhere that there was a fantastic back road to our next destination, Turgen Gorge. It seemed like a very adventurous route, climbing through mountains and across the Assy Plateau, something that immediately appealed to us. We asked a few people about it trying to work out if it was doable. It turned out that our host’s husband had driven it a month ago, so he gave us great info. It was about five hours’ drive; two hours on good sealed roads then three hours on remote, four-wheel-drive roads. It was the three-hour leg that was the interesting part. We decided to do it and left at 10am, allowing plenty of time.

For those of you who follow with a map (I’m thinking of you, Don and Bee!) the tricky road starts at Kokpek and finishes at Batan.

First, we backtracked past Charyn Gorge along the long, straight roads that run through the plains, dodging the occasional rain shower.

We turned off near Kokpek towards Bartogay Reservoir (google maps calls it a lake). We played dodgems with the potholes on this stretch of road.

The reservoir was a stunning light blue.

It was a scenic spot to pull up and eat leftovers for lunch.

Layla, our host at our previous accommodation, said she felt the lake was mysterious, like Loch Ness. I can’t say we felt that but there was mist rising off it occasionally.

From here the road got rougher. To our amazement, just as we started dealing with the first of the difficult ascents and descents, a cyclist appeared coming from the other direction! What a feat it was to cycle this road!

Soon we hit really rough patches, particularly in gullies. Steep, rocky tracks curved down the sides of hills. Sometimes I had to get out and guide John as the huge bonnet of the Chinese tank obscured some of the view of the road. Sometimes I stayed in the car and hung on for dear life. The highest speed we reached for a couple of hours was 20km/hr.

The scenery grew more and more spectacular.

We started coming across mobs of horses. There were sometimes hundreds in a mob. By then end of the day, we must have seen thousands of them!

Further on, we arrived at a series of water throughs, just as a mob of horses arrived.

The horses were always shaking their heads and swishing their tails. You can see why in this pic. I'm not sure if they were flies or bugs, but they sure annoyed the horses.

We soon passed shepherds on horseback with large flocks of sheep. We had to slowly move through them as they were all over the road. We always gave the shepherds a smile and a wave and we got some wonderful smiles back.

In one mob were a few goats and one lone young bull, dragging a rope from a halter.

There were so many animals! But sometimes, the plains were just empty and awe-inspiring.

The scenery became more spectacular as we climbed through the rugged hills. It was amazing! Every time we turned a bend, another stunning scene opened up. My camera was running hot from taking so many pics.

The sometimes steep, sometimes tricky roads continued to make sure we kept our wits about us.

 

Finally we descended to a river where there were actually trees growing along it. They were the only trees for miles. There were some gorgeous spots there.

The scenery kept changing – now there were craggy rock formations.

Out of the blue, we came across a house next to a boom gate across the road. We had no idea what it was for. To our amazement, a young boy appeared, undid the rope that held the boom gate down and lifted it up to let us through. We’re still none the wiser.

View after view unfolded and I had to keep remembering to look behind us too.

We found a bit of a lookout point on the edge of a cliff. Two Aussies in a foreign and beautiful land.

After some more treacherous roads, we climbed up to the Assy Plateau. The mountains we were driving through disappeared and long, flat green pastures stretched on forever. A river snaked and spread slowly across the plateau.

The Kazakh nomads spend the summers here in yurts, looking after their animals while they graze on the vast plains. Green pastures dotted with white yurts spread for mile after mile. Most of these nomads only spend the summer here and they winter in ‘real’ houses at lower altitudes.

Each yurt seemed to have some sort of shed, a large set of yards where the grass had been turned to mud from being trampled down and one or two horses fully saddled up and hobbled 100m or so from the yurt. It’s amazing how consistent these three things were.

I assume that the herds of animals were brought into the yards each night. Shepherds usually stayed with them out on the plains during the days.

There were huge flocks of sheep here, and again there were hundreds in a flock. They were fat-tailed sheep with large pads of fat each side of their bums that wobbled hilariously as they walked or ran. There were also a few goats and a good number of cows.

Only the poor horses got hobbled, although most in the large herds ran free. The horses were generally gorgeous. How cute is this little fella?

The road, like the river, branched out into numerous tracks across the grassy plateau. The tracks were much smoother here and we sometimes sped along at 40km/hr! We crossed creeks multiple times.

At one stage the shallow river was the road.

 

It was truly amazing to see such an ancient lifestyle still happening today. There must have been a few hundred families living there. As there are no fences, and the yurts aren’t permanent, I don’t know how they work out who camps on which piece of ground. These were very genuine nomad camps We both felt privileged to have been able to witness this.

The grass was all eaten low but there was plenty of it. The animals were mostly in good condition.

It wasn’t all traditional of course. Some yurts had 4x4s parked outside and one lone renegade rounded up his sheep on a motorbike. But he was definitely the exception. Horses still reigned supreme here.

Some yurts were set in spectacular locations!

The trip was supposed to take nearly five hours. Five hours came and went, and we were still passing yurt camps on the plateau. The plateau and yurts went on for hours at our slow speed. As excited as we were with everything, the day was getting long and we were getting tired. It was difficult driving and poor John did it all. Six hours came and went, and we were still passing yurts on the plateau. Finally, we started to descend. I kept expecting the road to improve but it didn’t. We descended right into Turgen Gorge, our destination, on really rough roads.

Seven hours after we started, we drove into the small village we had planned to stay in. I had the exact co-ordinates of our accommodation from a link they sent me. The link took us out of the village, however when we arrived there was nothing but a river and a few scrubby trees. We drove back to the village and found the visitor centre, which is where our national park accommodation was supposed to be. It was closed. We asked a number of people about it but nobody spoke English. I couldn’t call the National Parks head office as there was no phone signal or wifi. Finally, I found a lady who spoke a bit of English and she showed me where I could pick up wifi. I called the parks office and learned that not only was the link they sent me wrong, but so was the address. Our accommodation was in the next village! Finally, 8.5 hours after we left Saty, we found it.

I found a man standing behind a desk in the dark. He spoke no English but by showing him my booking on my phone he could work out which room was ours. In the dark we couldn’t see much of what would be our home for the next three days. We put our gear in our room and went straight to dinner. I then received another message from the parks head office. They had double booked and we had to leave the next morning! We now had to find accommodation for the weekend at the last minute, and we were close to Almaty, where everything books out on weekends. We finally booked something. To be honest, it’s the only place available in the whole area so we hope it’s ok!

We need a shower and bed. Goodnight! 

Heather and John