Kazakhstan Special

In a special programme from Kazakhstan, Mike Corey explores the significant role of nature on the people of Kazakhstan and the travellers who visit there. He begins by having his journey blessed by a shaman, discovering how the ancient shamanic beliefs worshiping the power of nature are undergoing a resurgence in post-soviet Kazakhstan. He heads east to see the scale of the loss of the Aral Sea - once one of the world's biggest environmental disasters - before going in search of the waters which are now returning and fishing with the local fisherman whose lives have been transformed by the sea's return.

Mike returns to Almaty where he meets local guide Karla, who explains how her life was saved by sharing with travellers the mountains surrounding the Kazakhstan's largest city. She takes Mike to see the UNESCO World Heritage site of the Petroglyphs - bronze age carvings depicting how even millennia ago people there's lives were intertwined with nature, before finally sand boarding on the famous 'singing sand dunes'.