Tien Shan to the Altai

The eastern Kazakh border with China has been a closed book for a century or so and even with the opening up of Kazakhstan the lack of roads and even towns of any size has kept this region remote from outsiders.

For two millennia the Dzhungarian Gate was a major line of communication between western and eastern Asia and through it passed some notable armies as well as trade. A flat valley floor is hemmed in by precipitous mountains on both flanks so completely that any other route through them is incomprehensible. The adjacent peaks reach a heady 14,500 feet! This tour leaves the eastern fringes of the Tien Shan mountains and passes through the Taukum and Akdala Deserts to the Dzhungarian Alatau. From there we pass Alakol Lake before entering the species-rich Tarbagatai Mountains. Then we head north across the Zaissan Depression before reaching the more Siberian habitats of the Kalbinsky Hills on the western fringes of the Altai. Simple hotels provide accommodation throughout. There will be much travelling but always through wonderful vast central Asian landscapes, varying from endless rolling montane steppes to high mountain peaks, and from bird-rich wetlands to sandy deserts. You’ll experience the largely uninhabited wildernesses of the mountains and explore what are, in terms of fauna and flora, very little-known regions. Indeed you’ll soon note that several of the plant names bear the name of your guide, as Vladimir has discovered new tulips and fritillarias when guiding groups through this region in recent years.

We’ll have many wonderful botanical encounters in these mountains, such as drifts of fabulous Erythronium sibiricum that decorate the Marble Pass in fetching shades of yellow and pink and swathes of golden Tulipa altaica on the high Tarbagati Mountains. There’s pale Fritillaria pallidiflora, equally pale Fritillaria pallida (actually now thought to be a cream-coloured form of meleagris), newly-minted Fritillaria kolbintsevii, and an eye-catching ivory form of Fritillaria verticillata. There are shows of pink Primula kaufmanniana and yellow Primula macrocalyx, steel-blue forms of Clematis integrifolia, the local columbine Aquilegia vitalii, and the pretty shrub Caragana camilli–schneideri. By late snow patches are beautiful forms of Corydalis schanginii and the butter-yellow Gymnospermium altaicum. Most unusual are the pretty lilac tomato-relative Physochlaina physaloides and a sub-shrubby cress, Dendroarabis fruticulosa. Being Central Asia we might expect more Tulips and sure enough we’ll soon find yellow Tulipa heteropetala, Tulipa corynestemon, pale rose Tulipa patens, and Vladimir’s own tulip, Tulipa kolbintsevii. Middle altitude rocky valleys will yield Allium inderiensis, Fritillaria meleagroides, Pedicularis dasystachys and stands of bright pink Paeonia intermedia. Even low-lying desert sands have a fascinating flora with lots of Astragalus species, beautiful yellow Chorispora sibirica and pink and white Pseudosedum lievenii blooming amongst the curious ‘mini trees’ of Anabasis truncata. There’s a whole bunch of onions in the shape of elegant Allium tulipifolium, Allium subscapum, Allium tschulaktavicum the spherical pink or white heads of Allium caricifolium. And even more tulips – the rather unassuming Tulipa annae, and the elegant golden goblets of Tulipa lehmanniana.