Saty - Kolsay

Sun 2/6/24

After we woke up for Subuh prayer at 3.30am, it was still quiet outside, although it was already sunrise not long after at 4.15am. We ventured out by foot around the vicinity of our guesthouse at 5.30am, to the nearest river. There were other guesthouses and yurts around the field near the river, where cows were grazing and horses frolicking. We took pictures at the field and river, before returning back to our guesthouse at 7am when we finally saw movements at the dining hall, and had our breakfast of fried eggs, meatloaf, cheese and bread with the local dessert and black tea, served with milk on the side.

nearby river from our guesthouse in Saty

nearby field from our guesthouse in Saty

our breakfast in our guesthouse in Saty 

After breakfast, we set out to Kolsay lake, located just 13km away. To enter the Kolsay lake, we paid KZT 2307 for 2 persons and 1 car, which is a daily rate. We paid the same rate yesterday to enter Kaindy lake. You could use the same ticket to enter both Kolsay and Kaindy lakes also on the same day if you want to save cost.

We were greeted with beautiful views of the Kolsay lake, the first lake nearest to the parking is Lower Kolsay lake, located about 1km away, where we walked by foot. The view here is already beautiful. You could also walk on the board way on both sides of the lake to get different view points. We walked a bit at the board walk and took some pictures before more tourists start to come in. 

first view of lower Kolsay lake from the parking

lower Kolsay lake from the boardway

Since it was still early at 9.15am and we have already covered Kaindy yesterday, plus Partner In Crime wanted to do some hiking, we decided to hike to the second lake - Middle Kolsay lake, which is located about 7.5 km one way and 15km return, estimated time required was about 2 hours one way.

I underestimated the hiking level to Middle Kolsay, which was not that easy as I expected. Plus, we had to hike some parts through rain with hail and ice, lots of mud especially after rain which turned into slippery paths and also lots of horse poo as some (more like most) of the trails were shared with the horse trail. Everytime horses passed by, we had to give them the way to pass through first. They were really fast though, navigating the slippery and sometimes very steep paths. 

lower Kolsay lake from the hiking trail

lower Kolsay lake from the hiking trail

by the river that feeds the Kolsay lake

by the river that feeds Kolsay lake

hiking trail

horse trail

beautiful view of the mountains along the way

river crossing

river along the hiking trail

Total ascent for the hike was 555m, covering a total 15.13km and total time of 3h 45m going (with stops to take pictures and short rests) and 3h5m return with 2361 total calories burned. It was a bit faster returning with less stops for pictures and we just wanted to arrive back at Lower Kolsay lake before dark. We arrived back at Lower Kolsay by 5pm and was already drained. 

The view at Middle Kolsay lake was not as majestic as at Lower Kolsay, it was smaller and there were deadwood floating. However, the views along the way were fantastic with vantage point of the Lower Kolsay lake and the plateau views in between the mountains. We stayed for about an hour at Middle Kolsay to rest and snack on bananas that we brought with us. It was still raining when we arrived at Middle Kolsay, but stopped not long after. Middle Kolsay lake is located very near to the Kyrgyzstan border. We didn't fly the drone here as we couldn't find a flat clear surface for take off and landing. We also didn't get a chance to fly the drone at Lower Kolsay as there were many people there. 

middle Kolsay lake

crossing the river to middle Kolsay lake

beautiful mountain views along the hike at Kolsay

lower Kolsay lake from hiking trail

It's good enough to just take pictures at Lower Kolsay without the hike to Middle Kolsay if you don't have the time or energy for a hike. 

It was time to put back the calories on after an almost 7 hour hike. We chose the first food stall at the car park from the lake. We had plov and lamb kuyrdak which was not freshly cooked, just re-heated and tasted so-so only. We felt we were excessively charged at 7000 KZT for the 2 dish with 2 cups of hot black tea. But then again, it was a place for tourists, so do expect food prices to be higher. 

lamb kuyrdak

plov

After dinner, we headed back to our guesthouse to get a good shower from all the mud and we had an early night as we were really exhausted. Luckily we did bring our koyok patch and analgesic to ease the muscle pain. Tomorrow will be a long day to cover Charyn canyon and driving forward to Zharkent