We organised to hike the trails to Song Kol Lake through the Kochkor Based Tourism Community (CBT) office. A rattly Audi taxi picked us up at the guest house and took us to the office in town to pick up our guide. We met 24 year old Aruuke, our first female guide.
It was a long dusty drive to the start of the hiking trail. Most people rode horses accompanied by their guides and we were the only ones walking. We had decided that it had been such a long time since we had been on horses that we didn't want to have sore muscles for the next week. We knew our legs were strong and used to walking so we would not have sore muscles.
In our day bags: we had one set of clothes for sleeping in, one set for walking every day, a couple of changes of underwear, rain gear, warm jackets, and water bottles.
A farmer near the valley at the start of the trail with his railway carriage on wheels
By the time we started climbing up the rocky zigzag trail the sun was at full strength and I struggled up the 500m to the first pass. I saturated my sunhat and drank a lot of water and made it up to the second last zigzag slowly. Aruuke got a passing horse guide to take my bag and leave it at the top of the pass.
Song Kol is where the local nomadic farmers come to graze their sheep, goats and horses on the summer meadow land pastures called jailoos. They live in their yurts jn the jailoo until October when they return to their villages and put the animals in barns for the cold snowy winters.
Nowadays, the family yurts double as guest houses for the horse riding and hiking tourists who come to learn about their summer farming lifestyles.
Miking the mare
After three hours hiking we dropped down to a yurt where they prepared lunch for us. We had been overtaken by a group of Korean horse riders and ended up having lunch with them. By lunchtime they were already beginning to walk like saddle sore cowboys and had a nap before lunch arrived. They were great company. We also shared our table with three young English guys who arrived on horseback. Talk soon turned to the All Blacks and Lions rugby games being played in NZ. A couple were regretting their choice not to join their friends in NZ as supporters as they read their emails about the fun they were having.
Plov was served for lunch. It is a dish of rice, carrots and mutton. A salad of tomatoes and cucumbers accompanied it. It is quite a heavy meal for us for lunch but they are very generous with tea, coffee, bread and jams.
After lunch we climbed up another pass at 3000 metres. After two and a half hours we arrived at our yurt where we would spend the night. We made it inside before the sky darkened and the thunder and lightning heralded the start of light rain. Once we were settled in tea with tomatoes and cucumbers, bread jams and honey were served.
A relocatable kitchen
Dinner was booked for 8 pm so we could refresh ourselves and look around the jailoo. Dinner was served in a separate yurt from where we slept. We had a soup of cabbage, mutton, and rice. Once we had finished dinner a group of elderly couples from Bishkek joined us. They had driven to the yurt and the men took horses and rode to the top of the peaks to go exploring. We learnt it is common for city people to come to the jailoos for health reasons. They enjoy the fresh air and drink the fermented mares' milk called kumys, which they believe cures all sorts of ailments. It is also an opportunity to escape the hot temperatures in the capital city, and catch up with their farming families.
It rained on and off during the night but we were warm in our yurt. A light bulb in the middle of the room is charged by a solar panel and we unscrewed the bulb to turn it off. The long drop toilet was a long walk from the yurt and a place to wash our hands was near the yurt. The unit had a mirror above and a small tank was filled with water. To get the water from the tank you pushed the metal plunger up and it gravity fed enough water to wash your hands. The waste water ended up in a hole in the ground hidden under the unit.
Our bedding consisted of a couple of thinly padded mattresses barely covered with a cotton sheet. A heavy quilt in a cover was very warm but made turning over noticeably an effort. Everything is narrow so you soon adapt to keeping your knees straight so they don't get cold when they are bent outside the covers. We both took thermal clothes for sleeping.
In the night we could hear the horses chewing the grass, the dogs barking, and the roosters crowing. The yurt is traditionally covered with thick felt covers waterproofed with mutton fat but our yurt had a sheet of thick clear plastic with a holey felt cover. It felt like we were in an observatory watching the night sky as the light came through the patchy felt.
The rain had stopped by morning and we had a meat and noodle dish for breakfast and headed off before 9 am to get up the next pass. It was more than a 400m climb and I huffed my way up in three hours under a cloudy sky to the pass at 3600m. I had had problem before with high altitude so this time I took the precaution of taking some diamox as a preventer. I had a lot of trouble convincing my new doctor at home to prescribe it for me but managed to get it at the last minute. I have printed off all the signs and symptoms of how altitude sickness can develop so we can keep tabs on how things are going.
Once again all the horse trekkers passed us after leaving later than us. The horses loosen the round stones on the trail and make it more difficult underfoot. John slipped coming down the pass on the small stones that build up on the corners. He took some skin off his hand and elbow. We were surprised the guide did not have any first aid gear at all. Luckily, I had some alcohol wipes and plasters to cover up the cuts. I was also surprised that the guide did not know much about altitude sickness and its signs and symptoms. It was Aruuke's second season guiding. She is at university doing her final year of a teaching degree. She will teach languages.
From the pass it was an easy walk down through the wild flowers to the lunch yurt camp stop in the valley. We met a lovely couple at lunch who had passed us on horseback. They had grown up in France but she was from Morocco and he Algeria. They were most impressed with how we had managed the hiking. They rode their horses for one day and then hiked the flat valley out the next day. Their guide would take siix hours to return the horses to the start of the trail ready for the next lot of riders.
After lunch we had a flat hike of about 90 minutes to our evening yurt stop. We were met by a woman wearing a mesh veil covering her eyes. She was the first veiled woman we had seen. We slept in her son's yurt as there was a wall covering with his name on it. She liked swans so they were in decorations in our yurt and in the dining yurt. Her husband had animals and was also a fisherman. We had some fried fish for dinner and it was a pleasant change from mutton. However, we learnt that fishing is banned on Lake Song Kol. We never found out why.
The rain came early in the evening and ran through a part of the yurt. The plastic also had a few holes so a few splashes came through and we had to move the mattresses. It was pretty cold so we were in our beds early to keep warm. The pitchka or stove was lit in our room and warmed up in no time. It was fuelled with wood chips soaked in an accelerant and then topped up with dry horse dung and coal. We were asleep in no time and never knew when it died out.
We ordered porridge for breakfast and the guide was most surprised as most tourists hate it as they were forced to eat it as children. It is so warming on a cold day.
We left with clear skies and a 20 DegC day for a three and a half hour walk along the lake to our last yurt where we would stay for lunch, dinner and breakfast. We added an extra day to our hike thinking it would reduce the distances we would have to walk each day but it didn't do that so it meant our last day was rather leisurely.
Along the lake, where fishing is banned, were hundreds of fine tangled fishing nets abandoned on the lake's edge accompanied by piles of empty vodka bottles and plastic drink bottles used as net floats. We saw an inflatable with a couple of guys in wet suits and were told they were clearing the lake of the nets. We only saw a couple of row boats on the edge of the lake so felt it would be easy to stop the illegal fishing by taking away the boats and forbidding the sale of these nets. Maybe they are not that serious about the ban.
Our final yurt was one in clusters of about twenty. Each row had a CBT number and the guide told us they took turns to host tourists. We saw three women from Switzerland arrive on bicycles and they asked around the yurts looking to hire horses for five days but none were available. They headed off to pitch their tents by the lake and try again another day. One row of yurts had touring motorbikes parked outside while another had a big truck with a tour group. It is such a busy place that the guides have named it New Yurt City. The big grass space in front of our yurt we named Times Square and watched goings on there during our stay.
Action in Times Square- a mouse burrowing.
Our dining and kitchen area was in a huge green tent. We saw a few families arrive for the day and eat and drink the mares milk before heading off back home for the evening.
We had a relaxing time talking to a Japanese lawyer in the yurt next to us and watching the farmers shearing sheep and weaning the young.
On our ride back to Ainura and Dosumbe's house we planned our time to have hot showers and get our washing done after a visit to the CBT office to check on the condition of the road to our next stop in Naryn.
It was a long dusty drive to the start of the hiking trail. Most people rode horses accompanied by their guides and we were the only ones walking. We had decided that it had been such a long time since we had been on horses that we didn't want to have sore muscles for the next week. We knew our legs were strong and used to walking so we would not have sore muscles.
In our day bags: we had one set of clothes for sleeping in, one set for walking every day, a couple of changes of underwear, rain gear, warm jackets, and water bottles.
A farmer near the valley at the start of the trail with his railway carriage on wheels
By the time we started climbing up the rocky zigzag trail the sun was at full strength and I struggled up the 500m to the first pass. I saturated my sunhat and drank a lot of water and made it up to the second last zigzag slowly. Aruuke got a passing horse guide to take my bag and leave it at the top of the pass.
Song Kol is where the local nomadic farmers come to graze their sheep, goats and horses on the summer meadow land pastures called jailoos. They live in their yurts jn the jailoo until October when they return to their villages and put the animals in barns for the cold snowy winters.
Shadows in the evening
Nowadays, the family yurts double as guest houses for the horse riding and hiking tourists who come to learn about their summer farming lifestyles.
Miking the mareAfter three hours hiking we dropped down to a yurt where they prepared lunch for us. We had been overtaken by a group of Korean horse riders and ended up having lunch with them. By lunchtime they were already beginning to walk like saddle sore cowboys and had a nap before lunch arrived. They were great company. We also shared our table with three young English guys who arrived on horseback. Talk soon turned to the All Blacks and Lions rugby games being played in NZ. A couple were regretting their choice not to join their friends in NZ as supporters as they read their emails about the fun they were having.
Cheese draining
Plov was served for lunch. It is a dish of rice, carrots and mutton. A salad of tomatoes and cucumbers accompanied it. It is quite a heavy meal for us for lunch but they are very generous with tea, coffee, bread and jams.
After lunch we climbed up another pass at 3000 metres. After two and a half hours we arrived at our yurt where we would spend the night. We made it inside before the sky darkened and the thunder and lightning heralded the start of light rain. Once we were settled in tea with tomatoes and cucumbers, bread jams and honey were served.
A relocatable kitchenDinner was booked for 8 pm so we could refresh ourselves and look around the jailoo. Dinner was served in a separate yurt from where we slept. We had a soup of cabbage, mutton, and rice. Once we had finished dinner a group of elderly couples from Bishkek joined us. They had driven to the yurt and the men took horses and rode to the top of the peaks to go exploring. We learnt it is common for city people to come to the jailoos for health reasons. They enjoy the fresh air and drink the fermented mares' milk called kumys, which they believe cures all sorts of ailments. It is also an opportunity to escape the hot temperatures in the capital city, and catch up with their farming families.
It rained on and off during the night but we were warm in our yurt. A light bulb in the middle of the room is charged by a solar panel and we unscrewed the bulb to turn it off. The long drop toilet was a long walk from the yurt and a place to wash our hands was near the yurt. The unit had a mirror above and a small tank was filled with water. To get the water from the tank you pushed the metal plunger up and it gravity fed enough water to wash your hands. The waste water ended up in a hole in the ground hidden under the unit.
Our bedding consisted of a couple of thinly padded mattresses barely covered with a cotton sheet. A heavy quilt in a cover was very warm but made turning over noticeably an effort. Everything is narrow so you soon adapt to keeping your knees straight so they don't get cold when they are bent outside the covers. We both took thermal clothes for sleeping.
In the night we could hear the horses chewing the grass, the dogs barking, and the roosters crowing. The yurt is traditionally covered with thick felt covers waterproofed with mutton fat but our yurt had a sheet of thick clear plastic with a holey felt cover. It felt like we were in an observatory watching the night sky as the light came through the patchy felt.
The rain had stopped by morning and we had a meat and noodle dish for breakfast and headed off before 9 am to get up the next pass. It was more than a 400m climb and I huffed my way up in three hours under a cloudy sky to the pass at 3600m. I had had problem before with high altitude so this time I took the precaution of taking some diamox as a preventer. I had a lot of trouble convincing my new doctor at home to prescribe it for me but managed to get it at the last minute. I have printed off all the signs and symptoms of how altitude sickness can develop so we can keep tabs on how things are going.
Once again all the horse trekkers passed us after leaving later than us. The horses loosen the round stones on the trail and make it more difficult underfoot. John slipped coming down the pass on the small stones that build up on the corners. He took some skin off his hand and elbow. We were surprised the guide did not have any first aid gear at all. Luckily, I had some alcohol wipes and plasters to cover up the cuts. I was also surprised that the guide did not know much about altitude sickness and its signs and symptoms. It was Aruuke's second season guiding. She is at university doing her final year of a teaching degree. She will teach languages.
After lunch we had a flat hike of about 90 minutes to our evening yurt stop. We were met by a woman wearing a mesh veil covering her eyes. She was the first veiled woman we had seen. We slept in her son's yurt as there was a wall covering with his name on it. She liked swans so they were in decorations in our yurt and in the dining yurt. Her husband had animals and was also a fisherman. We had some fried fish for dinner and it was a pleasant change from mutton. However, we learnt that fishing is banned on Lake Song Kol. We never found out why.
The rain came early in the evening and ran through a part of the yurt. The plastic also had a few holes so a few splashes came through and we had to move the mattresses. It was pretty cold so we were in our beds early to keep warm. The pitchka or stove was lit in our room and warmed up in no time. It was fuelled with wood chips soaked in an accelerant and then topped up with dry horse dung and coal. We were asleep in no time and never knew when it died out.
The Samovar
We ordered porridge for breakfast and the guide was most surprised as most tourists hate it as they were forced to eat it as children. It is so warming on a cold day.
We left with clear skies and a 20 DegC day for a three and a half hour walk along the lake to our last yurt where we would stay for lunch, dinner and breakfast. We added an extra day to our hike thinking it would reduce the distances we would have to walk each day but it didn't do that so it meant our last day was rather leisurely.
Along the lake, where fishing is banned, were hundreds of fine tangled fishing nets abandoned on the lake's edge accompanied by piles of empty vodka bottles and plastic drink bottles used as net floats. We saw an inflatable with a couple of guys in wet suits and were told they were clearing the lake of the nets. We only saw a couple of row boats on the edge of the lake so felt it would be easy to stop the illegal fishing by taking away the boats and forbidding the sale of these nets. Maybe they are not that serious about the ban.
Our final yurt was one in clusters of about twenty. Each row had a CBT number and the guide told us they took turns to host tourists. We saw three women from Switzerland arrive on bicycles and they asked around the yurts looking to hire horses for five days but none were available. They headed off to pitch their tents by the lake and try again another day. One row of yurts had touring motorbikes parked outside while another had a big truck with a tour group. It is such a busy place that the guides have named it New Yurt City. The big grass space in front of our yurt we named Times Square and watched goings on there during our stay.
Action in Times Square- a mouse burrowing.Our dining and kitchen area was in a huge green tent. We saw a few families arrive for the day and eat and drink the mares milk before heading off back home for the evening.
We had a relaxing time talking to a Japanese lawyer in the yurt next to us and watching the farmers shearing sheep and weaning the young.
Fat tailed sheep
On our ride back to Ainura and Dosumbe's house we planned our time to have hot showers and get our washing done after a visit to the CBT office to check on the condition of the road to our next stop in Naryn.
