Basshi

The northern entry to the Altyn Emel National Park is located in Bas’shi village, 300 kilometres from Almaty. The northern gate is used to reach the famous attractions of the Park: Singing Dune, Aktau mountains and Katutau. Thus, we start early and via Konaev and Saryozek towns to Bas'shi, where (at the Park's main office) take the permissions.

Singing Barkhan

We enter the Park and head to the Singing Dune, with a stop at Oshaktas dolmens. Singing Dune is located in the valley of Ili River, about 2 kilometers from the river in its right bank, between small mountain ranges – the Greater and Lesser Kalkans. It looks like huge sand dune with overall height of 150m and length about 3 kilometers. The ridge is sharp as a blade, the sand crumbles underneath your feet, but the ridge does not get blunt. Two smaller sand dunes continue the big one. The whole complex has an area of about 10 square kilometers. Other similar sand dunes in Kazakhstan can be found only in Mangistau region (eg.Sam sands), but the main difference of Semirechye dune (other name of Singing Dune) that in hot windy weather it is capable of making sound resembling low hum of jet aircraft. If the weather is good, we can take a hike along the Dune's ridge and serve lunch with Dune's views.

Aktau Mountains

After visiting the Dune, we either drive back to Bas'shi, accommodate at a guest house, take dinner and stay overnight (if you prefer a guest house accommodation option and it is available on your dates). Or drive deeper inside a Park and by the end of the day arrive in Aktau colorful mountains. Here we set a tent camp: living tents with sleeping bags/mats, modern outdoor kitchen, table/chairs, lighting and other camping facilities. A guide cooks and serves your dinner and you enjoy the sunset with Aktau views along with freshly prepared meals in the open air. Stay overnight in tents (tent camping) at a glade in Aktau mountains.

Aktau Mountains

Morning plan will depend on the accommodation type. If we stayed overnight in Bas'shi at a guest house, then after a breakfast we enter a Park again and drive to Aktau Mountains. If we camped in Aktau, then a breakfast will be served early and after it we will start hiking. The hike's length will be adjusted to the time we have and accommodation type. But in both cases you will be able to explore the incredible beauty of the colorful clay mountains. The Aktau Mountains are the bottom of the ancient Ili Lake, from which the huge Balkhash now remains on the territory of Kazakhstan. For millions of years, amazing processes took place at the bottom of the ancient reservoir, and they left their mark in the form of multi-colored layers. Each color and layer represents its own era of development of the planet - we still find fossils in the sediments. After the disappearance of the lake, the wind and sediments completed the work on the landscapes. So now we can admire the incredible views.

Katutau Mountain

After Aktau hike, we go for lunch to the Katutau volcano crater. The word Katutau translates as "harsh mountains" from Kazakh. This is a very old, badly eroded mountain exits of volcanic rocks. Volcanic rock is very brittle and easily shatters by physical impact. Water, time and wind carved in the rock bizarre shape.

Almaty

After a lunch in Katutau, we start heading back to Almaty.