Thursday 23rd May - Singing Sand Dunes

Thankfully we slept well and felt much more human when we woke. The missing suitcase had been located in Heathrow and overnight had been flown to Almaty and was waiting in hotel reception 👏 Today we travelled to Basshi, a journey of 260 km.

This gave me a good opportunity to think about my first impressions of Kazakhstan.

Almaty was a green and clean city. Lots of green spaces with mature trees and many of the roads are tree lined as well. This gives a feeling of space. It feels like a modern city although there is plenty of evidence of the Russian influence. Starbucks and KFC are here, along with other major brands so there is a feeling that you could be almost anywhere.

However the roads are crammed with traffic making short journeys much longer than they need to be! Pollution from exhaust fumes is also an issue and many of the cars are old. Electric cars are beginning to make an appearance but only slowly. As yet I have seen no solar power.

There is a lot of development going on. Kazakhstan benefits from huge oil reserves as well as mineral wealth making it one of the more wealthy Stans. However our local guide had informed us that much of the development would be too expensive for the local people to buy or rent.

The first 2hours of driving once we were out of the city was on good dual carriageway that was not busy at all. We then turned off that main road and it was a slightly different story! The road surface was much more potholed making some of our potholes look minor. I’m glad I wasn’t driving the mini bus!

The landscape was gently undulating, very green with added colour from the wild flowers. I recognised poppies! In the distance were mountains but with low cloud cover the view was a bit obscured. At times we drove for miles without so much as a house in view. So different from India where you always seemed to be able to see a house, let alone a village. It really is sparsely populated!

Around lunchtime the minibus pulled over and parked up on the edge of a field. As our guide (Janybek) stepped out you could smell the grasses and herbs. There was such a variety! And there were loads of insects buzzing around. Maybe this is similar to how our wild flower meadows used to be? Not necessarily pretty but full of life! I’m not sure if we were in a meadow, whether it was a wild margin or what. It had been difficult to work out as we had been driving, just what the land was used for. Some fields had obviously been planted with cereal crops, there were occasional cows, sheep or horses but not a lot of anything in particular, other than scrub.

Having all got out of the minibus to help with sorting out a picnic lunch it started to spit with rain. There was a flurry of activity as we all grabbed what we wanted and got back into the minibus. By the time lunch was finished the rain had stopped and that was all the rain we had for the day🙄

We arrived in Basshi mid afternoon, dropped off our luggage and then headed to the Altyn-Emel state natural park. Here, at the entrance there was a small hotel and some solar panels! On entering the park the road became a gravel track. We had been told the journey time was 50minutes. 1hour and 45 minutes later we got to the little car park that was our destination to visit the singing sand dunes. It was remarkable that we arrived unscathed as the bus had rattled and shaken its way along the track. At times the noise of the rattling bus drowned out any conversation!! And we are being driven in a modern bus too. How there was no damage on either journey I will never know!

We only had an hour at the dunes and the challenge was to climb to the top and get back down. Walking on sand is always hard work. Factor in a very steep slope and a ridge and it becomes even harder. By this time the sun has come out which made it hot, hard work! But it was worth it for the views, which included a wind farm. Coming down was much easier!!! We didn’t hear them sing though!

It was late when we got back to our guest house so it was straight into dinner. Again a tasty but simple meal of soup and bread, followed by the same sort of dumplings we had the previous night. We had been told that it would be shared bathrooms here so we were delighted to find that we had our own little en suite and plenty of hot water for a shower!

Unfortunately my body clock hasn’t adjusted and having missed a nights sleep, then cat napping all day in the bus, I was wide awake at bedtime 🤷‍♀️ Geoff was out like a light!!!