Wild Kazakhstan

Here are some images from our first trip to Western Kazakhstan last May. My camera was broken, so only pictures from my phone I’m afraid! Highlights from the tour were first and foremost the incredible landscapes and the wildness of the whole region. We didn’t see many people! The rugged Ustyurt scenery was quite spectacular. Fossils and geological specimen rocks were everywhere – the rocks covered in the footprints of 10 million year old mega-fauna were mind-blowing. We had to cope with very unusual weather conditions with extreme winds, especially early in the trip, and with the consequences of major flooding in the Ural basin when many boats (including the one we were expecting to use) washed away in a freak wave that came across the Caspian as water disgorged from the swollen Ural River! And we learnt a deal about how we would run the tour next year. Our drivers were fantastic, working so hard to drive us across the often trackless landscapes and to make camp and cook. And as career geologists they were certainly a great asset in the field too. We hoped for mammals and though the weather undoubtedly had an impact early in the trip we still have several highlights – Caracal up close and right near our camp on the Tukaragan Peninsula, and nearby a superb Steppe Wild Cat. A Wolf was watched hunting up and down seemingly vertical canyon walls after whistles from a Urial had given it away. We saw all sorts of Jerboas (five species) and Gerbils. Steppe Polecat, Golden Jackals, Black-tailed Gazelle…. Another highlights was Caspian Seal which we managed in two coastal locations even though our boat was no longer available to take us out to the Tyuleniy Archipelago. Birdwatching was fabulous. The Karakol wetland right e edge of Aktau must have the potential to record more species than almost any wetland in the Western Palearctic. Flocks of Broad-billed and Terek Sandpipers were really something. And the diversity of migrant passerines in the canyons on the Tupkaragan was amazing.