"Step out on the steppe" Top 5 Page for this destination Kazakhstan Off The Beaten Path Tip by TheWanderingCamel

Driving across the steppe south and west of Almaty in early summer was fantastic - not really what I expected at all. It was all very green, and the smell coming up from the ground was wonderful as the car drove over the plants, crushing them and releasing a pungent, herby scent. The bird life was amazing - flocks of little brown ground-nesting birds flew up in front of us as we drove along and there were other bigger birds, some with incredibly blue underwings.
The Ili River was fast-flowing and tree-lined.
Really interesting was our drivers unerring sense of where they were going in the trackless emptiness - most impressive.