Kazachstan is an incredible big country, and that was made clear, when we heard that the normal road to the Aral sea was in a very bad shape. We were advised to take the detour, what meant we first had to take the way North to Uralsk ( a border town with Russia), and then South again towards Aral, a detour that gave us an extra 1500 kilometers, and three days driving in temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius.
But to me, that was Ok because if you want to get to know a country, you must see and undergo it, and while my travel companions thought that the journey was rather boring, I was surprised that despite all the flat countryside, there was quite a lot of variation in sorts of deserts, hills canyon, sometimes stretches with a lot of green and water, and everywhere camels, dromedaries, goats, horses and more. For me the most impressive part of the route was the last part to the Aral Sea, because we saw so many birds of prey (golden eagle, kestrels, buzards, hawk, falcons etc .etc.). i don't exaggerate that we have seen at least 400 eagles in one day.
And then we came at the Aral sea (at least what is left of it), and in these hot temperatures we were very happy to think we finally could get in!!
BUT alas, there was a large stretch of dirt, mud, quicksand, and although I tried for an hour to search for a path towards the water, in this location there was no access (later we found ca 5 km northward of this place, an access point, but that was the next day).
A disappointment true, but the experience of seeing the Aral sea, and how much it has shrunk in recent decades, that for sure is something never to forget..
20 September I came back from my journey over a part of the Silk Road to and through Central Asia. 4 months of traveling through 14 countries (Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran) before I flew home from Teheran. An impressive journey in countries that are extremely beautiful, with lovely and welcoming people and diverse cultures and history.
Intense traveling with more than 20000 kilometers in our mobile home on sometimes roads that hardly could be called that way. We saw many villages and cities (some wonderful, others very ugly), countries that are transforming from the old Soviet era into something more related to older cultures and the way people live, often funded by oil readily available around the Caspian sea. We saw the amazing mountains south of the Black Sea, the wonderful Caucasus, and the high mountains in the far east close to China with peaks over 7000 meter, and not to forget the (Bulgarian) Alps!
We crossed the great steppe of Kazakhstan. a drive of at least 5000 km, the remnants of lake Aral, once one of the biggest lakes of the world, saw a rocket launch from Baikonur (this little part is Russian owned), we crossed many high mountains passes, and drove the breathtaking canyon that comes from the Pamir, beginning at ca 4500 meter, and going down for ca. 400km to an altitude of 1300 meter, driving for 100's of kilometers along the Afghan border.
And then the numerous lakes with all sorts of different colors from deep cobalt blue to turquoise, and one rare spectacle in Turkmenistan where a gas crater is burning already for more than 40 years. And finally and certainly not the least to mention an enormous amount of wonderful, hospitable and welcoming people. The woman often dressed in wonderful dresses, and bringing a lot of color in the streets of almost of all countries we visited.
