Zharkent - Altyn Emel

Tue 4/6/24

The next morning I was feeling a bit better but still having stomach ache and diarrhea. For breakfast, which starts at 7am, we were served with bread, eggs and porridge, which I could eat to replenish from my last meal at breakfast the previous day. I suspected the source of diarrhea was from the milk I had during breakfast yesterday as Partner In Crime only took a sip of it and was not effected.

There were 2 types of porridge served - rice and oat porridge, but mixed with butter. I didn't really enjoy the taste of porridge with butter though - I prefer it with soy sauce and anchovies.

porridge with butter

Since Zharkent mosque is located very near to our hotel, we thought we shouldn't miss it, but it only opens at 9am. We still had an hour to kill after checking out, so we tried our luck to see if we could enter earlier. Unfortunately, we were denied entry, so we went to the petrol station to fuel up then returned back to the mosque for a second time and waited until 9am.

The entrance to the mosque cost KZT 500 per person. The mosque was built in 1887 to 1892 with a style of Chinese architecture with wood beams inside. It was a small mosque so we only spent 30 minutes here.

inside Zharkent mosque

inside Zharkent mosque

outside Zharkent mosque

Our next destination was Altyn Emel national park which we planned to reach the ticket office before 1pm when the office is closed for break from 1pm to 2.30pm. The entrance to the park is located at the small village of Basshiy, located 118km away (about 1.5 hours drive). There were steppe fields surrounded by mountains along the way from Zharkent to Altyn Emel. 

horses resting under the tree

view of steppe fields along the way

view of steppe fields along the way

We arrived at the Altyn Emel national park office around 11am. The 1 day pass cost KZT 2910 for 2 persons and 1 car. There are 3 routes at the national park - Singing Dunes, Besshatyr Mounds and Aktau Mountains. We would be taking the Aktau Mountains route with a driving distance of 72km from the park office. There is only a 16 km stretch of paved road until Aktobe village and then it was off roading for the rest of the 56km. A 4WD or SUV is required to drive comfortably through the dirt road.

offroading to Aktau mountains

We stopped first at the 700 year old willow tree before proceeding towards Aktau. There is the Zhagalbaily post on route to the mountain for a pass check by the park officer. We finally arrived at Aktau mountain at 2pm after off roading for almost 2 hours. We underestimated the off road part, as we expected for only an hour's drive. Since we were advised to return to Basshiy by sunset at 7pm, unfortunately we did not have enough time to hike. There were only 2 other cars there when we arrived, and they left not long after we arrived.

700 year old willow tree

offroading to Aktau mountains (left) and red mountains (right)

We flew the drone here to capture the views of the Aktau mountain which previously was the bottom of a huge ancient lake which once filled the Ili depression. (from Altyn Emel website). It would have been better if we could hike to a higher location to take aerial view of the mountain, and the red mountain located next to it. On hindsight, it would be better to spend 2 nights at the national park for a full day at Aktau and the day of arrival could be spent at the Singing Dune which is located nearer at 46km. 

Red mountain

Aktau mountain

Aktau mountain

Aktau mountain

Since we still had time, we stopped by at Katutau mountain on the way back, which is just a 15km diversion from the route back and flew the drone here too. Katutau is a frozen lava mountain. 

Katutau mountain

Katutau mountain

Katutau mountain

We returned back by 4.30pm and reached our yurt by 6pm to spend the night. We booked the yurt at the Caravanserai campsite online via the Altyn Emel website. The yurt cost KZT 34000 per night which we paid by cash. The yurt is actually quite spacious and can accommodate up to 5 people.

inside the yurt

outside the yurt

For dinner we booked through the Caravanserai campsite organiser. We had home made dumplings and black tea which cost KZT 2200 per person for the dumpling and KZT 1200 for tea. We paid by cash.

home made dumplings

I still had episodes of stomach ache and diarrhea that night and had to go to toilet located outside of the yurt in the wee hours of the cold morning. Fortunately, the common washroom (toilet and shower) was clean and comfortable to do our business.