Friday, July 21, 2017

road to osh b'gosh

The drive from Karakul to the Tajik/Kyrgyz border passed by some spectacular colourful scenery. The colours in the rocks and hills were incredible and at times seemed unreal. The Tajik border crossing high up on a mountain pass was held up by histrionics on the part of the border guards. There is obviously some animosity between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan as our driver (Kyrgyz) was hassled by customs for quite a while. We had no issues.

Then we had a 25km drive down through no-man's land (strictly no photos) before we arrived at the Kyrgyz border. Another quick and simple customs and we were on our way in Kyrgyzstan - our 3rd country so far on this trip.

An hour or so's drive along a large flat open plain we stopped at the town of Sary Tash for lunch (which for me consisted of a packet of instant noodles bought from the shop/restaurant as they had absolutely nothing meat free on the menu)

From Sary Tash it was a couple of more hours drive to Tuprakol, a small locale with a series of small lakes set among some grassy hillocks and 7 or 8 yurts. It also afforded a great view of Peak Lenin in the background.












The dining room and kitchen:




Our yurt for the night:










The next morning we set off for Peak Lenin - a total of 4 hours driving to arrive at Peak Lenin Base Camp which was geographically (as the crow flies) about 3 kms from Tuprakol. But the terrain meant it was impossible to take the direct route.

View across several small lakes towards Tuprakol:






Peak Lenin:

Peak Lenin Base Camp 1:




The road to Osh:


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