Almaty - Altyn Emel

In the morning, we leave the city for Altyn Emel National Park, famous for its reserve of rare animals and birds such as Przewalski's horse, argali, kulan and saiga antelope. The park covers an area of 520 hectares with a highly varied terrain: mountainous, sandy, gravelly and desert.

We pass the Kapchagay reservoir and continue our 3.5-hour drive into the park. We stop for lunch at a local guesthouse.

Then it's off to enjoy the magnificent natural scenery of the Aktau Mountains (80 km), aptly named "lunar" because of their unusual color. Aktau is a limestone mountain over 400 million years old, mostly white, but with blue, pink, red and green slopes that give the Aktau Mountains their unique beauty.

We take a walk around the area, passing the park's oldest tree, a 700-year-old willow. Afterwards, we return to the village.

Dinner and overnight stay in the guesthouse.