Bozjyra. The Zhabayushkan reserve // SAYA.UZ

Published: 2025-08-13 01:19:13 +07:00

Took place on: 2025-04-17

Continuing the theme of surreal landscapes

The Zhabayushkan reserve is located in a western part of Ustyurt plateau, which goes further east to Western Uzbekistan (or Karakalpakistan, how you wish).

It includes Bozjyra together with adjacent lowland, where saline lakes constantly dry up or fill, forming salt marshes.

This valley features a flatland with randomly placed mounts

I can compare it with broken world generation, like Farlands in Minecraft

It looks unusual, minimalistic, unnatural even

Well, that's a point of Ustyurt

A fog here would be fitting, but if it ever lays down on these grounds, it will become a beginning of the end to Ustyurt...

The attributes of the reserve:

This is saxsaul. Only such a tree can grow here

Adult species should be 2 meters or more, but I didn't meet such here

I didn't get the meaning of these structures. Guides would tell us, it's a trap for cloven-footed, but not sure how it works in this form

Something unidentified

Going down to our first viewpoint, we see more objects:

The signpost.

It's crucial to know, in which direction Astana is!

Trailer, where lives and from where comes to spectate a reserve employee

The bus with Kazakh tourists. Mainly locals. They dissipated through the whole area, some left to steppe even. Meanwhile a field kitchen is cooking some samsa and plov

What's interesting is that majority of women here wore hijabs or shawls, not a habit for secular Kazakhstan. But it's a south, so...

Now to the elephant in the room.

HERE IT IS, THE BEAUTIFUL AURORA! (or just Bozjyra)

Why Aurora exactly? Maybe, because it resembles a Russian cruiser of the same name. That's the name on Wikimapia.

Nearby sprawling slopes

So, the second viewpoint gets closer to Aurora. But it features a hike, 30 minutes long one way with regular ups and downs, including a real climbing wall. One of the more intensive parts of a tour.

👀

Someone even began to found a fortress here (but if it is all nature again, I won't be surprised)

The view here is epic indeed.

Not along the axis, of course

A giant chalk dump

Oh, how pure this white is!

Now down to the valley!

On the background is so called Armenian navel. It's a favorite place to stay for one Armenian guide.

This all is really flat

A ledge resembling ram's head

And now we're on foothills of Bozjyra.

From this angle I see, how a hand stretches to the sky

It's almost dusk, we set up a camp nearby.

This ground really is like seabed

That's me!

The rusty tone gets more saturated with a sunset

That was your favorite palette here?

Afterwards, I needed to piss. We're leaving the comfort zone to the wilderness.

Convenient

Tamarix, also known here as zhyngyl

On way back we meet a wonderful plant!

That's cistanche! The most interesting flower here, I believe. Other species of this plant also grow in Northern African and Iberia — in general, where there is a dry climate.

This specific specie, Cistanche salsa, is characterized with its bright lilac color.

The final landscapes before I get to sleep.