Excursion trips across the Western Kazakhstan

Tour to Plateau Aktolagai.

Sights Akkergeshen and Aktolagai plateau.

“We leave something of ourselves behind when we leave a place, we stay there, even though we go away. And there are things in us that we can find again only by going back there”

Pascal Mercier. «Night Train to Lisbon».

Short description of ttour route to cretaceous plateau Aktolagay and on Atyrau province:

Atyrau - Onai-ata – Dossor - cretaceous plateau Akkergeshen - bituminous field of Munayly Mola - cretaceous plateau Aktolagay – Atyrau.

Distance of route: 669 km.
Season: from April till September.
Best time for travel: April - June.
Size of group: no more than 8 person.
Duration of tour: 2 days, 1 nights.

Detailed program of an excursion trip to vicinities mountain and cave Imankara:

Trip from Astrakhan to Atyrau.

Day 1. Atyrau - cretaceous plateau Akkergeshen (255 km).
Transfer: Atyrau - the settlement of Dossor - tomb of the saint Onay-ata (64 km). Our way goes to the northeast of the city of Atyrau. Approximately in 38 kilometers from the city, in 5 kilometers to the right of the road, in the east, it is visible the settlement of Karabatan. From it in 13 kilometers there is the largest in Kazakhstan the petrochemical plant "Bolashak".
Through 90 kilometers, from Atyrau, we pass the big settlement of Dossor, here in 1911 the first oil production in Kazakhstan was begun. In Dossor there are a lot of modern monuments devoted to this event. At desire it is possible to visit some of them. Through 45 kilometers from the settlement of Dossor to the left of the road there is Onay-ata tomb of the saint, short walk in the neighborhood of tomb of the saint.
Transfer: Onay-ata tomb of the saint – cafe on the road - cretaceous plateau Akkergeshen (191 km). Further way not interestingly. After vafe on the road we turn to the left, and we move the northeast on the old highway which conducts on the oil field. From all directions we are surrounded by the boundless steppe. Soon far ahead there are outlines of the massif of Imankara, and to the left of it there is a white wall - it is the cretaceous plateau Akkergeshen. Transfer to the central part of the plateau, walk in vicinities, searches of flora and fauna of a paleontologic era. Lunch.
After lunch further transfer: Akkergeshen - bituminous field of Munayly Mola (45 km). After visit of the central part of the cretaceous plateau Akkergeshen, the road brings us to a top part of the plateau and soon we come out to the old road again. We pass the oil field and our way lies to Munayly Mola. Arrival on Munayly Mola. The most interesting, on this field, is stone spherical concretions which are on the Earth's surface.
On some spherical concretions, there where bitumen with sand under the influence of wind, a rain and the sun separated, on a stone the smooth surface opened. In decreases in the bituminous field and in the neighborhood of the lake there is a large amount of spherical concretions and several salty lakes. Walk on vicinities. Lunch.
Transfer: Munayly Mola - plateau Aktolagay (44 km). Arrival on the cretaceous plateau Aktolagay, walk on vicinities. The cretaceous plateau Aktolagay, is located on border of the Atyrau and Aktyubinsk regions, very long time ago represented a seabed. Therefore, now here it is possible to find many fossilized remains of mollusks, corals, sea hedgehogs and other sea fauna who lived tens millions years ago. Accommodation in tents, dinner and overnight.
Day 3. Aktolagy - Atyrau (325 km).
Breakfast. Walk in the vicinities of the cretaceous plateau Aktolagay. Transfer: Aktolagay - Munayly Mola - field camp - Imankara cave (73 km). We come back on the road on which we arrived to the cretaceous plateau Aktolagay. After the field camp before us the view of the mountain Imankara which towers over boundless steppes of the Atyrau region opens.
On southwest side of the mountain Imankara, there is Imankara cave which was constructed at the beginning of the XIXth century, the first British geologists who investigated oil reserves in the Western Kazakhstan. Walk in a cave and vicinities.
Transfer: Imankara cave - cafe at the road (53 km). Return to the automobile highway of Atyrau - Aktau. Here in roadside cafe, we are expected by a lunch.
Transfer: cafe at the road - Dossor - Atyrau (199 km).