Day 3. Bishkek to Son Kol

With a relatively civilised start time, our group board two very sturdy looking minibuses to head out into the wilds.

Shortly after getting beyond the edge of  Bishkek we cross briefly into Kazakhstan. Sadly no sign of Borat or “mankini’s”. Eeeez a nice though. And I don’t care what you say, it counts as a “new country” for me. No questions , no debate; I’ve been Kazakhstan.

Our first stop was Burana Tower, one of Kyrgyzstan’s only two ancient buildings. We get the full historical spiel, and climb it. The stairs were incredibly steep, and there were no lights! Oh how I laughed, especially on the descent.

We had a nice lunch stop, eating in a family house, then we headed to the mountains. Bishkek sits at around 2600 feet, and our destination, a yurt camp on the shore of Son Kol (a 360 square kilometre lake), at 9600 feet. It was in the last 50 kilometres, when turned on a pretty bumpy metalled road, that the real ascent began. 

We drove through a small village where the local Kyrgyz children came out waving and beaming at us. Lovely of them.

The road got bumpier, and narrower. The hairpin bends followed rapidly after each other. We stopped at Kalmak-Ashuu pass. Over 11,000 feet up. The views suitably spectacular. 

Ten minutes on, and our minibus gets a flat tyre. The driver tries to reinflate it using a little pump. Not a chance. It’s shredded. However the drivers have radios, so the leading minibus is able to come back, and more importantly, big enough to fit all of us in it.

The sun slowly descends beyond Son Kol giving a spectacular sunset. Sadly, by the time we get to the camp we’ve missed the best of it. But hey; we’re at 

Yurt Camp in the sticks in Kyrgyzstan. We’re here for real, out in the land of the nomadic Kyrgyz people. We’re just under 10,000 feet up, and you can sense how cold it’ll get during the night.

We’d never stayed in a Yurt before. Getting all cosmic down at Glasto had always passed us by. But if the Yurts there, or elsewhere at home are this good, e might give them a go. Of course these really are the traditional thing with magnificent brightly decorated interiors, and complete with a log burner!

The toilets are more traditional, but better than expected. So far, so good; but let’s see how we sleep before coming to a verdict. When we return from dinner, the log burner is on, and it’s bloody roasting in the yurt. The omens for me are very bad. I like it on the cold side. Cate though, likes it toasty. But, will it be toasty or toasty???