Mountains and steppes of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan

In their fifth adventure story, our Sixglobetruckers left Uzbekistan to head for the steppes, lakes and mountains of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. Discover their journey through these countries below.

Kyrgyzstan: the land of yurts and horsemen

Having arrived in Kyrgyzstan without any problems, we start as usual with the trio: finding cash, a SIM card and local insurance. No luck on the insurance front: the system simply doesn't exist in the country. So off we go without it on the road to the capital, and the scenery changes immediately… it becomes rolling, turns green, the country is much less populated and straight away: horsemen everywhere! One of our first bivouacs in the country was on the shores of Lake Toktogul, finally cool at last, before crossing meadows full of yurts, horses and streams against a backdrop of snow-capped peaks. We take another short garage break to weld the crack in our compressor, which kept leaking air with use, ahead of two big mountain passes waiting for us on the way, the first at 3,000m and the second at 3,500m. We arrive in Bishkek, the capital, just in time to pick up our first guest! Arriving loaded with supplies we'd ordered (a refill of wood chips, printer supplies, sausages, pâtés, cheeses, mustard, bigger sandals for the children), we get ready to spend a week travelling together, 7 of us in our 13m2!

Roadside checks… not always justified

Keen to visit the capital, we were quickly put off by a police officer who stops us and makes us pay a fine (12 euros) on the pretext that trucks are banned in the city (no sign in sight). He offers to reduce the amount if he doesn't file the official paperwork, hoping to save time and pocket the money himself. We stand firm and make him come into town with us to pay what we owe at the post office… costing him 1.5 hours of "work" targeting other motorists.
The day before, the same scenario had already played out: according to one officer we were driving at 56km/h instead of 50km/h… a fine, with the same offer to reduce it without paperwork. Quickly realising this was a well-oiled way of doubling their salaries, and seeing officers well hidden and particularly zealous with their radar guns every 10km, we soon fell into line. 40km/h in the many villages, often even 20km/h near schools – even during school holidays – 60km/h on the bigger roads, much less on the country's many dirt tracks… in the end we set our record for slowness in this country, with an overall average of 36km/h!

Breathtaking scenery

Once again, things worked out well… it gave us time to enjoy the scenery, which is absolutely stunning! We started with a few days on the shores of Lake Song-Kol, one of the most beautiful lakes in the world, at an altitude of 3,000m and surrounded by snow-capped peaks. A few yurts dot the shores, sharing the land with numerous horses and fields of edelweiss. There we met up again with a couple of friends we'd met in Iran and then run into again in Uzbekistan; here we all were, reunited for a barbecue (fuelled by packed, dried dung… not a tree in sight) in a dream bivouac! We then made our way to Lake Issyk-Kul, the largest in the country, around which the valleys reveal magnificent and varied landscapes: red cliffs here, colourful ones there, fir trees and waterfalls elsewhere… We also visited a yurt-making workshop, unfortunately closed the day we were there, because of "apricot-picking week".

In Uzbekistan we mainly enjoyed the towns, as the scenery has nothing exceptional to offer… in Kyrgyzstan, conversely, the towns hold very little interest compared with the countryside, which offers countless hiking opportunities. We made an exception by exploring the small town of Karakol, which has a zoo with examples of local wildlife, including the Przewalski's horse discovered in the region, a regional museum with a room dedicated to Swiss explorer Ella Maillart, an old wooden Orthodox church, and a surprising pagoda-shaped mosque.

For our last bivouac in the country, we approached a family of shepherds and asked their permission to sleep nearby their summer camp. Delighted, they took the opportunity to invite us for tea, and their 10-year-old son patiently took the time to walk each of our children on his own mare.

Entering Kazakhstan

After yet more dozens of kilometres of track, we reach the tiny border crossing that only opens in summer, getting us into Kazakhstan in record time. We stop at Charyn Canyon, one of the most popular spots in southern Kazakhstan, strongly reminiscent of its big American cousin. We then head on to Almaty, the country's former capital, to swap a friend for a sister.\

Between these two visits, we spend a night in a hostel and take two days to apply for our Mongolian visas, find car insurance (compulsory in the country, and not sold at the border), give the truck a thorough clean, do a round of laundry and take proper showers, which we'd gone without in Kyrgyzstan (too cold). We also look into changing the shock absorbers, but the parts are nowhere to be found. In between these errands, we meet another mother in a park who insists on inviting us over: she's determined to have us try "Beshbarmak", THE Kazakh national dish… made with horse meat! Luckily we'd left our preconceptions behind, because it was absolutely delicious!

Between steppes, mountains and lakes

We then set off for Altyn-Emel Park and its "singing dune" 300km away: when you slide down it, a deep rumbling sound can be heard! We were planning to head on to Russia via the eastern route, but we're terribly tempted: the World Expo is currently taking place in Astana and we hadn't had the chance to see it yet… so we turn back, return to Almaty and set off on the 1,200km that separate us from the capital. Along the way, several stops await us: the site of Tamgaly, with more than 4,000 petroglyphs dating back to the Bronze Age, the steppe where we celebrated our youngest's 6th birthday, Lake Balkhash, where we were able to swim, and the former Karlag gulag headquarters in Dolinka – now turned into a museum, it tells the story of the Stalinist purges and the period of Russian occupation in Central Asia.

Astana: a capital with a Western feel

Having finally arrived in Astana, we can hardly believe our eyes… it feels like reaching Las Vegas after crossing the desert! Having spent dozens of hours travelling through steppes with no villages, we now find ourselves in a city glittering with a thousand lights. Having parked at 10pm, we look for something to eat and, dumbfounded, end up in one of the many gigantic shopping centres, packed with people: we find all the brands we know from back home, and even Belgian waffles! The Expo lives up to its promise, with a remarkable museum on the energies of the future, as well as a pavilion dedicated to solutions already on the market. The rest of the city of Astana includes numerous contemporary buildings and works of art, with construction sites still under way everywhere… evidence of the current president's determination to turn it into a great city comparable to Western capitals.

To reach Russia we pass once more through the area used for Russian nuclear tests – we wisely avoided visiting the still-irradiated site itself – and then through the city of Semey, where Dostoevsky was exiled for a few years. In the end, we were very surprised by Kazakhstan, by far the most developed of the Central Asian countries. The flatness of the steppes, spread over huge uninhabited areas with no crops and no trees, made a big impression on us. There we left behind the mainly Muslim territories to gradually move into Orthodox ones… and, as everywhere, we were touched by the impressive hospitality of the people we met!

To be continued...

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