Kyrgyzstan

Entering Kyrgyzstan was still a mountainous high altitude affair… After three different stations on the Tajik side on the pass (typically bureaucratic but friendly and no hassle) the Kyrgyz border appeared almost like a miracle… 5 minutes, small stamp and I had to open the gate myself to enter the country…really cool after all the other border affairs so far.

Just coming down the pass something was different already…the color green did reappear again…. Obviously more precipitation on this side of the mountain which manifested itself pretty quickly by the melting layer of up to 50 cm of snow that must have come down in the last couple days. It was melting quickly but descending towards Osh required going over another small pass and I am happy to not having done it during the snow storm ( I heard from others later that it was quite an undertaking).

The next obstacle ahead was a road block….the only road to Osh was blocked since 10 days by some locals that were upset about some guy that was arrested…that’s what I heard beforehand.

I needed to get to Osh to send off my passport for the Russian visa so I needed to see for myself.

Arriving there, indeed the road was entirely blocked with Jurts and tons of people around. No way to get through on the road. So I first checked out the surroundings because a crossing through the river could be done unfortunately only next to all the people… They could get mad….

So roaming around between the people some lady started talking to me in English…she was the village English teacher. Before short I was introduced to her family and then the family of the guy who was in jail and heard the entire story from the local’s point of view… I was invited into the jurts and was fed…a really nice first experience of Kyrgystan, especially when they suggested I should pass the block through the river and so I went…

In Osh the different character of Kyrgyzstan started revealing itself pretty quickly…. It definitely appears to be much more wealthy that the previous countries, at least judging by the cars driving around. Hardly any old Russian style cars at all any more. The entire second hand fleet of west European Audi’s and Merc’s and Sprinter Minivans and light trucks must have found its way here. In some areas really 90 % of the cars one encounters are old Audi 100’s. Well and then there are all the nw luxury 4WD’s and I have never seen a place with so many stretch limo’s….

The people as well seem at first glance better fed…. With progress come obesity ;-)… and a bigger gap between the poor and wealthy and so the atmosphere in the city feels just a bit less safe than before.

The next objective was the walnut forests on the Northern slopes of the Fergana valley. It was a beautiful alpine scenery, very green as the entire surrounding of the valley with really fertile soils. The forests are pretty wild though and the image of rich groves with a paradise of fresh fruits and nuts did not really materialize. Instead I was off-roading in heavy rainstorms in the mountains up beautiful valleys but it was to early in the year and avalanches had destroyed the track way up so I had to go all the way back and it was too wet for hiking... I know i became a wimp….;-)

Eventually I was x-ing Central Kyrgyzstan West- East through the mountains, rarely being below 2500 m, all the way to the Southern shores of Issyk Kul lake with a few days stop at Som kul situated at 3200meters altitude.

In the end I got even snowed in at 3800 meters within 1 hour over lunch break which made the descent of the Kosor pass 4WD track quite a gamble…

I got blocked by family in their broken down Lada on their way to the high pastures on the other side for a few hours while they fixed the broken fuel pump Kyrgiz style…After the rescue arrived in form of a 6x6 Russian Zil monster truck they designed a gravity driven fuel supply out of a Coke bottle…

Getting into dusk just getting down around the snow like I got myself almost completely bogged down desperately searching for a flat night spot. The dust of snow on the grass covered that it was completely sogged with almost standing water…and soft mud. I almost thought Rachael would have to come and search for me in the mountains…

But I am still amazed of the Unimogs capabilities, I did eventually extract myself and crawled up - all differentials blocked – steep, snow covered, soaking wet grass slopes…. Amazing, as the expert knows that’s almost the worst…