A disappointing end to a great trip...

I decided to make this a separate blog post because there's a bit of story to tell.

Regular readers might remember this blog post where I mentioned possible glitch in our travel plans. In fact, I'll explain the whole story again for those who might have missed it.

Last day in Kyrgyzstan... playing tourist in Bishkek

We woke up Saturday morning and had a relaxing couple of hours in the guesthouse with breakfast and hot drinks. Then we went our and wandered around to some areas that we didn't make it to last time we were here.

Heading back to Bishkek

Well, our time here in Kyrgyzstan is quickly coming to an end. Yes, it's been almost a month already! We arrived on May 20th! Time flies when you're having fun, and we've definitely been having fun.

On Thursday, we did the drive along the north shore of Issyk-Kul Lake. As you get closer to the western part of the lake, it's not a very nice drive. And they are building huge resorts on that part of the lake.

Best hike this trip...

And it was bit of a tough one! Or maybe we're just getting older!

13 kms (8 miles) and 687 meters (2,200') of elevation gain. Spectacular views of the Jryrgalan valley.

In two years, all of this will be totally different!

We took off from our spot near the hot springs... but in different directions. Bjorn and Freya wanted to go to Engilchek... a ghost town high up in the mountains. To be honest, we wanted to go too. But it was going to be another 150 kms each way, and I'm getting tired of driving Vladdy. 

We should have named him Bouncy Buhanka!

There's no question, it's a beautiful area.

Unfortunately Bjorn and Freya were still having vehicle problems, so they headed into the larger city of Karakol where there is more choice of mechanics.

While they were doing that, Ruth and I took a detour up to the Seven Bulls Rock scenic area.

There are currently two problems with this part of Kyrgyzstan

We were on the south shore of Issyk-Kul Lake. It's a pretty enough lake, with lots of accessible beaches. Historically, it's been the only major source of summer tourism in Kyrgyzstan. But even then, tourism in Kyrgyzstan has been nothing to speak of. The current government is trying to change that.

And we don't blame them... of course tourism around the world has a lot of economic benefits. But improving the infrastructure comes at its own cost... at least temporarily.

We did two separate viewpoint hikes

We woke up to a beautiful day on the shore of Issyk-Kul Lake. The others decided to go for a morning swim, but the water temperature was far too chilly for me!

Issyk-Kul is a saline lake... so it is salt water, but not as salty as ocean water. And because of the salt and depth, it never freezes in winter, despite the cold that Kyrgyzstan experiences.

Beautiful drive down to Issyk-Kul Lake

We left Naryn and headed down to Issyk-Kul Lake. There was no choice but to take the main highway part of the way, but then we had a choice... stick to the main highway, or take a little traveled path through the mountains.

I bet you can guess what we chose!

Well that didn't go according to plan... stuck in a snowstorm?

High up in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan, there is a gorgeous glacial lake surrounded by steep cliffs. It's become a bit of a tourist attraction despite the remote location about 20 kms from the China border.

It's early in the season still, so we had decided to drive up there and do the hike to the pretty lake.

The road to Köl-Suu... 20 kms from the China border!

We left our beautiful campsite beside the river in Naryn, and drove into town to pick up a few more groceries and top up the fuel tanks. 

We had a 150 km (93 mile) drive one way to get to Köl-Suu on some pretty rough roads, so it was going to be an all day event just to get there.

Will we run out of gas?

Another beautiful day for our drive from Song Kul Lake to the small city of Naryn. 

The only problem might be the lack of a gas station along the way!

Kok Boru... the national sport of Kyrgyzstan

In order to get to our campsite, we had already driven 9 kms along a road that leads to Song-Kol Lake, a high alpine lake that lies at an altitude of 3,016 meters (9,900').

We hadn't planned on going to the lake at this time, so if we did, I wasn't sure we had enough fuel to get to the next fuel station afterwards!

We've got a lot we want to see over the next two weeks!

We woke up Sunday morning at our beautiful spot by the river. Had some breakfast and got going on the hike fairly early because we knew this is a busy canyon and it was a Sunday and we wanted to beat the crowds.

Lots of places to explore!

Next stop for us was Konorchek Canyon. Unfortunately there was nowhere to overnight so it was just a stop along the way, but that's okay because we ended up with another great overnight spot anyhow!

But the canyon itself was a really worthwhile stop.