Kazakhstan 2025

Kazakhstan was on my "to-travel list" since few years now. Those wonderful pictures I saw on the Internet, with horses running wild on the enormous steppes with landscape spreading up to the horizon.. Something I firstly fell in love visitng Iceland, just with a different taste to it. There was a plan at the beginning of the year to go and see Saiga antelope, but once that fell through I started looking for alternative topic, firstly looking at other wildlife options, but after that I found breathtaking region of Mangystau and thought "This is it!".

Plan was created to spend first week in and around Almaty, then fly to Aktau and go explore Mangystau with Photosafari Travel, local tourist company. And so I went..

Day 1&2

Staring my crazy flight route from Wrocław, on 14th of September, through Stockholm, Istanbul, Aktau and finally Almaty, I finally arrived after around a day of travelling. Went straight to my hostel, took a much needed shower and slept for a little bit. After that refreshment I was ready to explore the city. I walked a little through streets, saw the Panfilov Park. I must say, those monuments from soviet era, looked kinda familiar. ;) Ascension Cathedral, which is located on the outskirts of the park is very beautiful. Constructed out of wood, but without the use of nails. It was build (finished) in 1907 and survived 1911 earthquake, which destroyed most of Almaty.

After walking some more I went to the Köktöbe viewpoint to enjoy the sunset. I used the cable car to reach the top. It offers an amazing panorama of the city.

Day 3

On the 3rd day I went towards Big Almaty Lake, visiting Ayusai Waterfall on the way, and taking a short hike up the stream of the waterfall. The waterfall itself was rather unimpressive, the weather was bad, but the hike was nice.

I didn't make it to Big Almaty Lake as I didn't have enough cash on me to pay for the further access to the road, I had to go back and look for an ATM. After I found it, I decided I am too far to go back, so I went to Lake Esik instead. The road to it is quite scenic (although not on that particular day with lots of clouds). There is a parking spot (free), where you leave the car and can go by foot or use local company, that will drive in a something like a golf cart. I decided to walk, it was about 20-30 min by foot. The water colour on the lake was amazing, even in this weather. But with each minute it was getting worse and eventually it started raining, so I quickly went back to the car.

Day 6

Day 6 was mostly about Turgen Gorge. It started as a beautiful, sunny day, highlighting the beauty of the Trans-Ili Alatau mountain range. There I saw my first big herd of horses (and got stuck on the road because of them :) ). I visited well known Bear Falls (or Medvezhy Waterfall), which required a very quick hike (easily accessible, maybe 10-15 min walk up the stream). I thought maybe to hike a little bit into the mountains but after rainy clouds rolled in, when I was at the waterfall, I decided against it, which was a good decision.

Pretty much rest of that day was me driving towards Kegen village, where I would be spending next 2 days in the area. It was raining pretty heavily while I was driving there (making me pretty pissed as views are stunning along the A-351 road. It finally stopped raining just before sunset (and me being very close to my destination) and I saw the most amazing sunset on the steppes with horses in the foreground. Pictures, I've taken, definitely don't make for the views I saw with my own eyes.

Day 7

This felt like the first, real day, that I would see and experience, what the Internet had told me about Kazakhstan. Steppes, enormous spaces, horses. Aaaand heat haze. :) Most of my day was me driving from Kenge towards Kandyi Lake. It took quite the long time, because I would constantly stop to take some photos. I was absolutely in love with the landscape and horses roaming with snowy peaks behind them.

Horses were a bit uncooperative to photograph in a sense they would have their heads down, eating grass most of the time. Just to get few shots with their heads up, it required some waiting. And they are not at all like Icelandic horses that are very curious and like to come close to visitors. Kazakhi ones didn't really care for my and ignored me or walked away.

Driving through small villages I got to see beautiful, small, muslim cemetaries with all sorts of "buildings" or tombs, that just fit perfectly in the scenery. Like small oasis on the neverending grass plane. Also the gates, when entering and leaving the villages, reminded me a lot of those I saw in Romania, the difference is there they were mostly when you entered someone's property, not the whole settlement.

The drive to Kaindy was very peacefull as I only met few locals driving around. And roads were mainly in fairly good condition, nothing unusual for a bit of a remote place. The route to the lake starts in village Saty, where there is a "parking" (just a bit of dirt) where you can leave your normal car (free of charge) as the road up requires 4x4 car. When I arrived, there was a local man there who drove me up to another parking spot 3/4rds of the way, where I had to pay another driver to drive me the last part up. I could walk, but I didn't have enough daytime. Of course all rides are paid cash only! There, from the last parking, there is still about 10 min walk to the lake itself. And the lake is absolutely stunning and worth visiting. Only there I saw more tourists, even if it was a bit outside of season (second half of September). There were even some booths to buy a refreshment or take a picture with a golden eagle. :)

After coming back to my car I took a different route back and went to stop at the Black Canyon, which is fairly popular tourist attraction in the region. And one the few places that actually had some safety barriers to not fall down. In summary, a very good day!