From Mongolia, Kiwi Overlander Aaron Rich and his family have travelled west through Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Here Aaron updates us from the city of Osh!

When you last heard from me (in the October edition), we were in Mongolia’s capital, Ulaanbaatar, having entered that country through a tiny, remote border checkpoint in the north east and circumnavigated a portion of the Gobi Desert. 

The GPS track map provided shows that since then we’ve exited Mongolia via a long route across the north west, transited through a beautiful part of Russia, travelled the length of Kazakhstan and travelled extensively through stunning high-altitude Kyrgyzstan. 

This article was submitted from Kyrgyzstan’s second largest city, Osh, home to Central Asia’s biggest bazaar and where we paused to catch up on a few things... and explore this interesting city! 

Highlights and challenges

It’s been pure adventure all the way; sometimes highlights and other times challenges to overcome. Most of the 1,600km route we took between Mongolia’s capital and the Russian border was off-road, and we needed to complete it within a strict timeframe in order to comply with our visa expiry deadline – it’s worth noting that even a single day overstay in some of these countries can land you in serious trouble with the local Immigration Police. We had some anxious moments when, with just two days to our deadline to exit Mongolia, a local in the last village along our route claimed that rivers between the village and the Russian border were too high to cross. 

Of course, crossing rivers anywhere requires extreme care, but crossing a river completely unknown to me, deep into the Mongolian wilderness – solo – brings new perspective to the risks involved. I walk such rivers first, plotting an exact course through the braids that I know will be driveable. 

As it turned out, with the help of some locals, who turned up at the right time to confirm that the course I had plotted was the correct one, we crossed those rivers without much fuss and entered Russia on time. 

’Ive learned to be selective as to what ‘local knowledge’ I accept; I accurately gauged that the local who claimed the rivers were too high to cross was coloured by his desire to sell me something I didn’t need. I don’t have space here to explain why we were very nearly temporarily delayed overnight at the Russian border checkpoint through no fault of our own, or how I managed to avoid that scenario by playing the ‘we have small children’ card. It’s simply worth being aware that considerable Soviet era bureaucracy can affect adventurers travelling into and between Central Asian countries. 

Far more happens in our experience of life on the road than I can cover in a single article and my chosen focus for this article is Kazakhstan.

Quick progress – not!

Our initial routes into Kazakhstan were on-road and as such we expected to make quick progress towards the beautiful and cosmopolitan city of Almaty in the south. We couldn’t have been more wrong – these were some of the worst roads we’d ever driven, and we took twice as long as originally envisaged to reach Almaty. Picture a 4WD track with a thick blanket of asphalt poured over the top, but still having all the ruts and potholes – sometimes more potholes than actual road surface! 

The police here are reputed to be some of the worst in Central Asia, though fortunately we managed to avoid them all. It occurred to me however, that the police would have a really difficult time pretending you could possibly have been speeding on these roads! The official speed limit of 90km/h could only be regarded as purely aspirational and even with our Koni RAID suspension (originally designed for 4WD racing in the desert), we needed to limit ourselves to much lower speeds. 

Friendly locals

Some things we quickly came to appreciate about Kazakhstan included:

1) the incredible and abundant melons, of all types, for sale at the roadside and in markets for equivalent to just NZ$1 each. Also, huge packs of raspberries, strawberries and blackberries sold for similarly little money.

2) Grocery prices were generally as low as 1/5th NZ prices.

3) Quality diesel for about NZ 75 cents per litre. 

4) Even if its police force has a formidable reputation, Kazakhstan’s people were wonderfully friendly, helpful and genuine. We stopped at an auto parts store in a small town just over the border to buy engine oil and it turned into such a memorable encounter with locals, even if we could barely converse with them. 

Someone gave us delicious melons while a local man was called down to the store to arrange our car insurance at a fair price, even though it was a Sunday and insurance offices were closed. 

Best of all the reporter from the town’s little Gazette turned up to undertake an interview with me via the Google Translate app on my phone – the app doesn’t always give a perfect translation, but we persisted, and it was enjoyable. She said she’d never seen a 4WD kitted out like my Shogun/Pajero and was fascinated by our journey. This sort of reception sometimes accompanies our preference to take the more remote routes and border crossings, further from the beaten path than most go.

Beautiful, sophisticated

I won’t linger on our time in beautiful Almaty city too much – this this is a 4WD magazine after all. I’ll just briefly mention that Almaty is a beautiful and sophisticated ‘leafy-green’ city, with flowers blooming everywhere; not what some might picture of Kazakhstan. 

From cosmopolitan cafes serving great coffee, to museums and places of cultural significance, Almaty delivered what we were seeking after a long period overlanding through the heat, dust and isolation of summertime in Central Asia. We hadn’t entirely gotten this in Ulaanbaatar; even Mongolia’s most civilised places remain fairly wild and chaotic by comparison. 

Upon departing Almaty, it was getting near time to leave Kazakhstan behind and make our way into our next country on this expedition; Kyrgyzstan. What better way to do it than leave the pavement entirely and plot an overland course in the direction of another of the less-used border crossings that we typically aim for. 

Therefore, the remainder of this article describes the nine-day off-road route we used to reach our chosen Kazakhstan/Kyrgyzstan border crossing. 

A good start

We began this nine-day route by venturing up a lush green valley, with an ice-cold river gushing down it. Where the river flows the terrain is green all around, but as you move away from the river the terrain quickly becomes more arid. 

A real highlight on this route was venturing into a desert that I can only describe as ‘other-worldly’. This fascinating desert landscape contained four unique areas of interest. The first was an area with big sand dunes, which although impressive, after venturing deep into a more impressive sand sea in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert (and on past expeditions into sand seas in North Africa’s Morocco) we didn’t linger too long here. 

Further on, though, an area containing highly unusual red rocky formations that looked like they would be more at home on Mars was of great interest and made for some awesome images. The kids spent a while here clambering all over these natural ‘jungle gyms’, finding all the nooks and crannies to hide in. 

Then, further on again we came across the tremendous desert landscapes seen in some of the photos provided. The formations and rich colours here were fascinating and unlike other deserts we’ve travelled through elsewhere. We set up camp here for the night.

You might notice the defined layers apparent in some of the photos from this desert, which from my limited knowledge of geology indicates the area was formed under water. Something you become acutely aware of when deep within Central Asia is that you’re an awfully long way from any ocean – and in this desert we were thousands of miles from the nearest seacoast. 

It turns out that this area is known to contain ancient marine deposits from the Tethys Ocean, which existed during much of the Mesozoic Era (the age of dinosaurs) 251 million to 65 million years ago! Venturing into a place like this serves as a reminder that in the bigger scheme of things, we are but a speck in time. 

This stunning desert also contains an area where a spring bubbles up to create a lush green oasis. I always enjoy finding these green areas amidst harsh arid surroundings for the respite they offer. But the main reason most visitors have for seeking out this place is the 700-year-old willow tree growing here. This special place is recognised as a UNESCO biosphere. 

Charyn Canyon

This proved a major highlight! Everyone is familiar with the USA’s ‘Grand Canyon’, but I suspect few will know that Kazakhstan has an equally impressive natural wonder. There exists a tightly controlled part of the canyon where tourists are carted from Almaty daily on busses – we didn’t go there. Instead we discovered little used 4WD tracks headed overland towards stunning yet seldom visited parts of the canyon, where there are no entry gates or controls in place and where we saw no one else. 

In one photo from my drone you’ll have to look closely to identify the small black dot that is our Pajero, making its way alone across arid landscapes towards the canyon edge. We found 4WD tracks that took us down to the bottom of the canyon – it got a bit tight in one spot, as one of my favourite photos shows. The river that runs through the bottom of the canyon feeds a lush green environment along the riverbanks and provides some refreshing swimming spots. 

We spent two nights camped at the bottom of the canyon, beside the river in different locations. I’ve produced a two-minute video from our exploration of the canyon, which you can find at www.5gooverland.com/videos

Kolsai Lakes

Looking at the photos from Charyn Canyon it’s hard to believe that in just two hours’ drive from here you can be winding up into the mountains, headed for a complete change in scenery and climate. 

Up here we had to wear warm clothing for the first time on this entire trip, but we enjoyed the change in scene. We visited two of the four lakes in this region – the remaining two require several days hiking to reach. Kaindy lake involved some 4WDing to reach and made for a great place to camp. Kaindy lake is also unique among the lakes in this area for its ‘sunken forest’, as shown in one photo. 

Closing Comment

Much of Kazakhstan’s vastness might be a desert wasteland to some, but this friendly country nonetheless has its share of hidden gems to offer 4WD Overlanders equipped to locate them. I regret that we needed to skip a 4WD route I originally planned to undertake from Kazakhstan’s side of the Altai mountains – a still little touristed wilderness that I’ll aim to prioritise on a future expedition. 

Again, as before, we find that a well setup 4WD makes for the ideal overland exploration tool, even if there are aspects of our camping setup that I would look to change in future.

My next article will be on Kyrgyzstan, which at the time of writing we’ve now finished exploring and are poised to enter Tajikistan. Kyrgyzstan took our family overland expedition to an all new level – pun intended – as we explored some utterly breathtaking off-road routes situated at between 3,500 and 4,000 metres, including the first of our planned routes higher than the peak of Mount Cook!