Kyrgyzstan
Arabel Plateau
Treeless tundra at 3,800 metres dotted with fifty glacial lakes and retreating ice caps.
Nothing grows taller than your ankle. The Arabel Plateau in Kyrgyzstan's Issyk-Kul region sits at 3,800 metres — a treeless expanse of alpine tundra where fifty glacial lakes catch the sky in shades of turquoise, grey, and steel depending on depth and cloud cover. The wind here is constant and unimpeded. It crosses the plateau like it owns it, because it does.
The Arabel Plateau stretches between 3,800 and 4,000 metres across the upper Terskey Alatau, offering unobstructed 360-degree views of the surrounding Tian Shan. Fifty separate glacial lakes are distributed across the plateau, each a different colour determined by its mineral content and depth. The only road is a 4x4 track serving the Kumtor Gold Mine — the only other traffic besides grazing yaks. Glaciers along the range are retreating measurably, and parts of the plateau that were once under permanent ice are now exposed tundra. No food sources, shelter, or settlements exist on the plateau itself — complete self-sufficiency is the only option.
Solo
The Arabel demands that you carry everything and rely on no one. In return, it offers fifty lakes, no people, and a silence so complete that the only sound is your own breathing at altitude.
Friends
Cross the plateau as a team with a 4x4, camp gear, and enough provisions for days. The scale of the landscape — lakes in every direction, glaciers on the horizon — is the kind of thing a group processes together, sitting around a camp stove in disbelief.
- The plateau stretches at 3,800-4,000 metres with no trees and unobstructed 360-degree views of the surrounding Tian Shan.
- Fifty separate glacial lakes are distributed across the plateau — each a different shade of turquoise, blue, or grey depending on depth.
- The only road is a 4x4 track serving the Kumtor Gold Mine — the only other traffic besides grazing yaks.
- Glaciers along the Terskey Alatau are retreating measurably — parts of the plateau once under ice are now open tundra.
No food sources here — bring everything. The emptiness is the point.
Tea from a thermos, drunk in silence with nothing but sky and distant glaciers.
Wistman's Wood
England
Twisted ancient oaks dripping with moss in a silence so deep it hums.
Imber
England
A ghost village frozen in 1943 where wildlife has reclaimed the empty cottages.
Gilf Kebir
Egypt
Prehistoric swimmers painted on cave walls in the deep Sahara, from when this wasteland was green.
Great Sand Sea
Egypt
Sand ridges higher than buildings stretching to the Libyan border, hiding shards of cosmic glass.
Tulpar-Köl
Kyrgyzstan
Alpine pools at 3,500 metres that mirror a 7,000-metre peak at dawn like shattered glass.
Issyk-Kul (North Shore)
Kyrgyzstan
Soviet-era beach resorts with crumbling Ferris wheels, Kyrgyz families picnicking where Cold War generals once swam.
Song-Köl
Kyrgyzstan
Nomad yurts circling a lake at 3,000 metres where the only sound is wind through grass.
Issyk-Kul (South Shore)
Kyrgyzstan
A salt lake that never freezes at 1,600 metres, snow peaks dissolving into haze.