On more than one occasion we have spoken of our curious mind that has led us to know of extravagant places from any corner of the planet. There are, in the world, sites worthy of any film of Science fiction . If you follow our blog you will remember places as curious as the dunes that sing in Morocco or the lakes that exploded in Cameroon. Today we are going to talk about a lake again but, this time, it does not explode, but it houses an incredible forest in its depths. Today we bring you Lake Kaindy.
Surely you have seen, throughout your life, many forests and also many lakes, so many that you surely can not remember the exact number. What we are sure of is that you have never seen the one inside the other, curious truth? That is the reality of Lake Kaindy in Saty, Kazakhstan . The cause was a simple landslide, about a century ago, that created a lake on the top of a fir forest. The result? A disconcerting landscape, strange and tremendously unusual.
On Lake Kaindy, the trees shade the depths.
It happened in 1911, just over a century ago, when an earthquake struck the Tian Shan Mountains, causing a huge landslide that blocked a gorge and formed a natural dam. As the years went by, the rainwater accumulated and ended up filling the area and, consequently, submerging the forest of firs that existed and giving rise to Lake Kaindy, 400 meters long.
To this day all the fir trees are dead as their roots are drowned in those depths, but their upper halves rise above the water in a bizarre optical illusion that reminds you a bit of the masts of the ghost ships of the time of the pirates or, even, to a ghostly field of giant spears taken from some war scene of the Middle Ages.
The landscape becomes even more disturbing if a slight mist falls over the water or when, during the winter season, the lake freezes and the trees change from navigation beacons to poles where fishermen can lean on.
The best is below
Although all this image that we describe to you seems to be taken from a fairy tale, the most surprising and fascinating landscape of this forest is just below all that water. In the depths, the trunks of the trees have resisted decomposition, leaving needles perfectly preserved in their branches. It's amazing with all the years that have passed!
The reason why the trunks of these firs are conserved so well, is because of the temperatures reached by Lake Kaindy, cold temperatures that rarely exceed 6 degrees Celsius, even during the summer.
The good news is that you will not have to take a dip in these cool waters to contemplate the spectacular scenery. The waters of Lake Kaindy are so extremely transparent that you can see the deepest part from the safety of the shore.
If you plan to visit Lake Kaindy in winter, you should know that it freezes and its icy waters become a very popular and popular place for trout fishing or even for ice diving.
Adventurous travelers and even locals prefer ice fishing to get an idea of the landscape surrealist of Lake Kaindy from crystal clear and frozen waters.
What seems incredibly curious is that this strange place does not receive millions of visits per year. In fact this place sees very few visitors, despite being close to the city of Almaty, the largest in the country with 1.5 million inhabitants. The reason why this fantastic place goes unnoticed, is that nearby are the famous Bolshoe Almatinskoe Lake and the Kolsay Lakes National Park. These places have a lot of tourist activity and are much easier to access. On the contrary, if you want to visit Lake Kaindy, you must have a utility vehicle designed to travel through difficult terrain, but although it is difficult, it is not impossible.
So if we have aroused your curiosity and are already planning to visit this little-traveled lake, be it in summer or winter, it is more than likely that you will be stunned by an idyllic scene like no other you have ever seen in your life. You already know that you can easily contemplate it in summer from the shore or diving and in winter from above the ice. We, curious and adventurous by nature, prefer to sign up for the second option. And you? Which one do you prefer?