Travel with Kevin and Ruth: 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!

The main highway was actually in very good condition.

Leaving our campsite Saturday morning.

Kyrgyzsytan mosque.

While the majority religion here is Muslim, it is more cultural Muslim than religious Muslim. Similar to the less conservative parts of Turkiye, they identify as Muslim, but "they do what they want". In fact, it is even against the law for a woman to wear a face covering. Some do wear the hijab hair covering though.

The main highway between Naryn and Balykchy.

Someone is moving house... literally!

Scenery along the way.

As expected, our next road was not much more than a track, however it was marked on the map as an actual road.

We passed by a mixed herd of animals, when we saw a female yak, and noticed that there was a black mass lying under her. This yak had just given birth, literally minutes before!

She was still cleaning her baby.

We hung around and watched for a while.

We watched as it made its first attempts to stand up.

Lunch break!

Sheep, cows, goats, and horses. Never have we seen so many horses!

This big girl was shy, but eventually Ruth managed to rub her tummy.

Kyrgyzstan is such an amazing country for just being able to stop and pull over where ever you like.

Yes, this is an actual marked road!

We had to do a muddy river crossing.

The view from Bjorn and Freya.

And we ended up free camping on the shore of Issyk-Kul Lake.

Issyk-Kul is the largest lake in Kyrgyzsten. It's a high alpine lake, at an altitude of 1,607 meters (5,272 ft) and reaches 668 meters (2,192 ft) in depth. It is the 8th deepest lake in the world.