The central part of Altyn-Emel, in south-eastern Kazakhstan, is a landscape of space more than anything else. The national park lies between the Ili River and the Dzungarian Alatau, a couple of hundred kilometres east of Almaty, and its name is often translated as golden saddle. The land is steppe and semi-desert in broad swathes of dusty yellow, broken here and there by dry gullies, clumps of saxaul and the strange coloured hills of the Aktau mountains, where layers of white, pink and orange clay look as though they were painted on. This is the geology of an old sea bed, tilted and eroded.
There is wildlife here that you can actually see if you are patient. The kulan, or wild ass, is common on the plains. Goitered gazelle bound away from the vehicle, and the Przewalski's horse was brought back into the park in the early 2000s as part of a reintroduction effort. Saker falcons and eagles circle overhead, and the Singing Dune, a long sandy ridge that hums in dry weather when the sand slides, is one of the park's best-known sights. The Saka people, who were nomadic horse riders, left burial mounds across the area that go back more than two thousand years.
Being honest, this is not asphalt riding country. The roads inside the park are tracks, sandy in places and rough in others, and much of the best of it is in a protected area where you will need permission to enter, and in some cases a guide. The border with China is close, and special rules apply, so check what is needed before you set out. Summer is hot, with temperatures often passing forty degrees, and winters are bitterly cold and windy. Spring, when the steppe is briefly green and flowering, and early autumn are the best seasons.
The area sits at the edge of the Cold Winter Deserts of Turan, and the sense of emptiness is the very point of coming here.