13 kms (8 miles) and 687 meters (2,200') of elevation gain. Spectacular views of the Jryrgalan valley.
We set off from the guest house at just after 9:00am, knowing that we still had a couple of hours of driving to do later in the day. Along with Bjorn and Freya, we were joined by a single girl from Japan. We never wrote down her name, and neither of us can remember it!
The sleepy coal mining village of Jyrgalan.
But it is not going to be a sleepy village much longer as a major four lane highway is invading.
Coal miner statue.
As I explained yesterday, they are building a billion dollar ski resort area here.
Zoomed in on the installation of some of the cable car lifts.
Freya, and Bjorn.
Scenery along the way.
Ruth and the Japanese girl.
So many beautiful wildflowers.
We came across this group of horses.
Some kind of giant mushroom thing.
We made it to Turnaluu Lake.
A high alpine lake, located in the Tien Shan mountains at 2,670 meters (8,760') altitude.
But we had higher to climb yet!
A herd of horses in the distance.
More wildflowers.
We sat and took a break here.
Very nice!
Looking back the other way.
But we still had another 100 meters of altitude to climb!
Ruth and the Japanese girl.
The Japanese girl was only 42, but she seemed to be struggling. I guess that makes Ruth and I feel pretty good! Not sure that she was totally happy with having asked to join us, but we did make an effort to keep her company.
Wow.
This part was tough. It was steeper than it looks in the photo, plus it was quite windy.
Going down the other side.
More wildflowers.
Horses everwhere.
This is our kind of scenery.
Back down at the guest house, we had a quick late lunch and got on the road.
Once we passed the construction area, we were on this quiet unpaved road.
Then we were spoiled by this freshly paved road with very little traffic.
Looks like a volcano in the distance, but it's just a cloud.
We were trying to get to a campsite, and came across this bridge made out of a shipping container.
Neither one of us would fit through it comfortably!
But we ended up at another great free camping spot.
GPS 42.832964, 77.504797
Kyrgyzstan is definitely the easiest country that we have ever found for wild camping/boondocking. So many great locations, and nobody seems to care where you park. I doubt that will last with the influx of tourism, of which we were part of. But we're glad we got to do it now.
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And in Canada...
Such a gorgeous country, appreciate you sharing!
ReplyDeleteThe scenery really is spectacular here but we have to admit that we enjoyed the beauty more during our first two weeks of travel here when we were exploring the western part of the country compared to the area around Issyk Kul Lake.
DeleteLooks like a fantastic and challenging hike! Glad you got to do that and even made a new friend, though any woman above the age of 18 should be called a woman and not a girl, even if she is a lot younger than you! :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks Emily and you are right we should have referred to the Japanese lady as a lady or young woman, we don't exactly like it when people refer to us as kids, lol!
DeleteWOW. Gorgeous!!!
ReplyDeleteIt really was a stunning hike with great views in all directions despite the construction in that one area.
DeleteWow! Loved this hike with wild flowers and beautiful scenery. It sort of reminded me of Switzerland.
ReplyDeleteWe really enjoyed the hike as well, even though it was a hard one at times. The wildflowers were amazing and so abundant. Funny you should say that it reminded you of Switzerland because at one point during the hike I tired to sing "The fields are alive with the sound of music".
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