Bilderverkauf aller 50 km / Pictures on Sale every 50 km

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Relaxing out of Bischkek in a nice Warm Valley

11th-12th of September

 

During breakfast a 60 year old cowboy comes with his cows. He has the traditional Kyrgys cap on his head and his face is brown from the everyday sun out there. We have a nice chat and he explains that in his village a lot of Germans lived before. After independence of Kyrgyzstan most of them went back to Germany. Finally he gives his horse and I have to bring back 3 cows which are on the wrong side of the field. That was fun, but it was also nice weather. He has to be out there every time, does not matter which weather.

 

We get our things ready and before we leave he explains us the way over the mountains to the lake Song Koel. Even so almost al the streets are in our map it is sometime hard to navigate especially away from the main routes. I have two maps where in both the villages names are different to the ones that are written on the street signs. But mostly there are even no signs. Anyway everybody knows where to go, so way but stupid street signs. That means in most cases I ask the people and they still know the old Russian names of the villages that are written in my map. But it is useless to show them the map since mostly they can read only Cyrillic.

 

94 % of Kyrgyzstan are mountains. A little agriculture in the valleys with the good water of the mountains, in the mountains they have there Jurts and animals during 6 month summer. Kyrgyz and Kazakh have the same father but two diffrent mothers some say. Both are nomads, but the Kyrgyz went into the mountain and the Kazakh went into the steppe. We want to go South, which means we have to cross our first mountain pass of around 3000 m height. The road we choose is the main connection between the "developed" North and the "undeveloped" South. In the winter North and South are almost separated during the high mountain ridges. We driving up through a really narrow valley, which I do not want to pass in the winter. Even in the summer you can see small stone avalanches. I guess in the winter this road has to be closed very often. In the end of the valley we go 1500 m up in serpentines. To reach the other side you have to drive through a tunnel which is just below the snow covered mountain ridge. Being on the other side you are in another world. Along the way down to a wide plateau you pass several Jurts. Most of them sell Кумыз and Курут. I buy one bottle of this Кумыз and it is since long time, since we made the trip with Арман in Kazakhstan, a really good one. We fill up our water tanks with the water from the melted snow and go on the plateau. Since we want to go to some mountain lake in 3000 m height we are leaving the main road with go to the south to Osh. We turn left the asphalt disappears and we dive into a steep and narrow but hot valley which leads us to the East. In one village I just see a woman taking out her self-made Нан (Nan, White bread, same as in India) from the oven, which is in the garden behind her house. I ask if I could buy some. Really fresh and tasty. In this region almost all people make their own bread. In most of the small магазин you can only get sweets and alcohol, but no bread. We go on and find a nice place in this warm valley, under the trees, beside the river. Here we stay one more day, washing, repairing, and I was writing almost 4 hours Blog about our time in Kazakhstan.     

 

(N 41.92558°, E 74.15661 °)

 

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