Son Kul Lake to Djety Oguz Gorge

We had an eleven hour day of travel today broken up by stops at panoramic viewpoints, a delicious lunch in a Kyrgyz family home, toilet stops, and stops to refuel. The wonderful scenery was ever changing and was a constant delight. In the morning we drove to Issyk-Kul Lake, this time Kyrgyzstan’s largest mountain lake. Our first photo stop was to watch a group of mountain bikers descend through the winding path into the valley. It was a thrill to travel down by vehicle so I can only imagine the adrenaline rush it gave the cyclists. As we rounded the southern shore of the lake we stopped to visit Fairy Tale Valley and then on towards the Tien Shan, literally translated as ‘The Mountains of Heaven’. Our track takes us up a steep gorge, lined with the famous Tien Shan Spruce, and along a mountain river in to the Terskey Alatau Range which eventually opens on to the so called ‘Flower Meadow’ where we continue to our beautifully situated yurt camp. 3 kms from camp we got a flat tire which was changed in less than 10 minutes. Roads were rough so it wasn’t entirely unexpected. We pulled into our new yurt camp around 7:30 pm and enjoyed a delicious dinner. The soup appetizer always hits the spot. We have a 4 person yurt and this one is without heat so we borrowed the extra blankets on the two empty beds to keep us warm. Tomorrow we start the 6 day trek with a 12 kg limit. Gilles and I managed to wittle our stuff down to 7 kg each. No one exceeded 10 kg. What an awesome group!Read more