Overlanding to Australia: Part Five
The newly weds explore Kyrgyzstan, the rugged Central Asian country bounded by Kazakhstan, China, Tajikstan and Uzbekistan
Most people don’t know Kyrgyzstan well enough to spell it. As it turns out, it’s utterly spell-binding
“This is its first experience at high altitudes but the Defender doesn't suffer from vertigo"
Guidebooks, internet searches and other traveller reports are not completely truthful about Kyrgyzstan. It may be because Kyrgyzstan’s natural beauty can’t really be justly described in words or even truly represented in photographs. Everywhere you look is stunningly beautiful.
After our smoothest border crossing yet from Kazakhstan, mountains that surround the bluest lake we have ever seen greeted us. The road winds its way through stunning valleys and over mountain passes and after a couple of hours we reached the highest point, at 3326 metres. As the altitude increased, the rain turned into sleet then to hailstones, and the outside temperature dropped from 28 degrees to 5 degrees within just a few hours – time for the heated seats. The drive was challenging. This was Mary the Defender’s first experience at altitude, but she doesn't suffer from vertigo; we had no issues, giving us a little more confidence for the Tibetan plateau and Everest Base Camp later in the trip.
Outside the villages, we saw nomad yurts nestled neatly in the valleys surrounded by the high mountains. We spot ted a number of hand-painted signs and, after a while, figured out they are all selling the region’s famous drink, Kymys – fermented mare’s milk. What could be a better place to try this local delicacy than from a genuine yurt? Sadly it is not quite the mind-blowing culinary experience we expected; in fact fermented mare’s milk really is as bad as it sounds. After a sip each, we decided that it was quite enough to get the true flavour of it and vowed never to try it again...
The joy of our first taste of Kymys was short-lived, however, as we were immediately pulled over for stopping without our hazard warning lights on. This is our fourth police stop that day, costing us two cold beers after an hour of refusing to pay any money. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, at least.
After a few hours we reached our first night’s camping spot around Toktogul reservoir. The rain had stopped but we could see lightning in the distance. The track is sodden, and the BFG ATS struggled to shed the mud. After getting stuck at the Aral Sea, we didn’t want a repeat quite so soon so we picked a solid bit of ground to camp on, slightly away from the water. The electrical storm that night was epic and we appreciated a lie-in followed by a lazy day’s fishing in glorious sunshine.
After a few extra days' relaxing by the reservoir making use of our solar setup, it was time to head east to Lake Song Kol. We picked a route that would take us off the beaten track and through the mountains. The track is barely more than a car’s width on the side of the mountains, so the going was pretty slow. Our progress was made even slower by the fact that there are stunning views around every corner. We managed to travel about 62 miles over 12 hours but we loved it.
The altitude is consistently high at around 3000 metres for most of our journey. We stopped at our highest camp spot to date at 3204 metres. Me-an settled in to a restless
night's sleep as her body struggled to acclimatise. It is worth it, though, as we were rewarded with a spectacular sunrise above the mountains the next morning.
We heard that Lake Song Kol would be the ideal location for a spot of horse riding so we headed for a nearby village to organise this on our way to the lake. Here, we met some backpackers from America, Tokyo and Belgium, also heading to the lake so we decided that it would be a good idea to travel together to save them the taxi fare and to quiz them about their travels.
The route to the lake is over a horse track so we knew it was going to be tough. The locals told us that this track is not passable by car but we decided to give it a go anyway, as the alternative was a 62-mile detour. With the extra weight and the altitude, there were moments when we had to hold our breath and hang on tight but the Defender performed exceptionally well with the use of low ratio.
We got our first glimpse of the lake as we crested over the hill at 3400 metres and what a view it was – crystal clear and surrounded by snowy mountains. At 3020 metres the lake is too cold for permanent habitation but there are plenty of yurts dotted around the shoreline in the summer.
We headed to one of the yurt camps to confirm the details for our horse riding excursion in the morning. The camp was quite busy with foreign tourists; the most we’ve met on our trip so far, probably because of all the hiking and biking also on offer around the lake.
After a few days having another holiday within a holiday, we reluctantly left the beautiful Lake Song Kol and headed east once again towards Lake Issyk Kol, the biggest lake in Kyrgyzstan. After a few days exploring the area, it was time to leave this amazing country and head back to Kazakhstan. We make a promise to visit again and hope that the stunning scenery so unique to this country is preserved until our return.