Sayram Lake

Big day today. We woke up and opened our curtains to see beautiful blue sky. We were very surprised to find that we had a view of the snowy "Sky Mountains" range, especially given it was already 23 degrees outside at 9am.

After breakfast we set off, and we had endless views of plains all around us on the highway. More of the same cereal crop being farmed and also a cargo train crossing the landscape. A couple of wispy clouds also started to form, providing the sky with a bit of interest.

After driving for a couple of hours, we could see what looked like a lake in the distance. It turned out to be a solar farm which stretched on and on. We drove for about 10 minutes and still couldn't see the end of it. This was followed by a big wind farm, with towering turbines dotting the hills and plains. Really cool to see renewable energy sources being built, and the sheer scale of them was very impressive.

After the wind farm we finally made it to Sayram Lake. The lake was stunning with barely a ripple on it, making for some fun photography with the snow dusted mountains reflecting in the lake's surface. We drove around the lake to an area where the snow came right down to the water. There was a boardwalk heading up through the pine trees so we hiked up the hills a little way. We found a nice little area for a picnic, so we stopped. Today is also Vela's mums (Mei) birthday, and the girls had prepared a couple of little sweet treats to celebrate. On our way back down, we briefly spied what we think was a Bobak Marmot, before it scurried underneath the walkway.

Afterwards we hiked back down the path to the car and drove to tonight's accommodation.Read more