Why this ride
It goes by way of Altyn-Emel Central, Cold Winter Deserts of Turan and back through Altyn-Emel Central. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,250 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Altyn-Emel West and Cold Winter Deserts of Turan
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 172 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 58
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Altyn-Emel West
Altyn-Emel means golden saddle, and when the evening sun hits the ridge it is easy to see why. This national park, in the south-east of Kazakhstan, sits in a bend of the Ili river, in the dry country between the Dzungarian Alatau and the Chu-Ili mountains, and it is a place of enormous quiet. Colourful badlands, white chalk hills, a field of wild flowers in spring and an expanse of dry steppe fall away to the horizon. The park's most famous feature is the Singing Dune, a sandy hill a hundred and fifty metres high and several kilometres long that hums or booms when the sand slides in dry weather, a sound that has been compared to an organ or a distant aeroplane.
Read the complete Altyn-Emel West write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Altyn-Emel West is where the day begins. Next is Altyn-Emel Central.
2. Altyn-Emel Central
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.
Read the complete Altyn-Emel Central write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Altyn-Emel Central comes up about 41 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cold Winter Deserts of Turan.
3. Cold Winter Deserts of Turan
Turan is the name of the great lowland that stretches across Central Asia, from the Caspian to the foothills of the Tian Shan, and its cold winter deserts are one of the continent's lesser-known biomes.
Read the complete Cold Winter Deserts of Turan write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 87 km into the recorded legs you reach Cold Winter Deserts of Turan. Next is back through Altyn-Emel Central.
4. back through Altyn-Emel Central
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Altyn-Emel Central write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Altyn-Emel Central, late in the day. Next is Altyn-Emel West.
5. Altyn-Emel West
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Altyn-Emel West write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Altyn-Emel West. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Altyn-Emel West to Altyn-Emel Central
Altyn-Emel West → Altyn-Emel Central is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Altyn-Emel Central to Cold Winter Deserts of Turan
Altyn-Emel Central → Cold Winter Deserts of Turan is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cold Winter Deserts of Turan to back through Altyn-Emel Central
Cold Winter Deserts of Turan → back through Altyn-Emel Central is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Altyn-Emel Central to Altyn-Emel West
back through Altyn-Emel Central → Altyn-Emel West is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.