An alpine lake at 3016m altitude. Our glittering prize after an adventurous drive.
Coming from Tash Rabat we took a short cut heading for Baetov, crossing the mountains of Narin. Starting of with sunshine the sky was slowly getting dark. Sometimes you read that the weather can change rapidly in the mountains. Well, thats also our experience.
We had 4 seasons in an 8 hour timespan. At some point we had to turn around because the roads were closed. At least that’s what i understood from a local chevalier. Little did i knew that he ment ‘not possible by 4X4, too dangerous’. That became very clear after 1 more kilometer. Never felt silence in a car that heavy.
Suddenly it strikes you that nature has the force, not the Jedi driver.
When your 4×4 with brand new off road tires looses grip, respect physics.
Soon after the tricky part i got to clean the tires in a shallow part of a river. Very welcome since they were stuffed with some sticky red clay.
We finally made it to Baetov, half way to Son Köl, so an excellent stop to have something to eat. Thats’s if you can find a snack.
Baetov is a small village so choices are limited.
The last part of the trip went smooth, weather cleared out and as everywhere around Kyrgyzstan, nature is seductive.
Around the lake you may find multiple yurt camps, but there’s only one genuine. Silk road yurt camp from Mirbek and his family. They set up the camp in May with respect to nature and keep their footprint very low.
Mirbek is part of the CBT network. It stands for Community Based Tourism. One of their main goals is to develop sustainable ecotourism. They ie. drilled their own water well, made an outside boyscout toilet and the generator is used for a limited time during the evening.
They only live here during summertime. Remember the altitude, no comfy temperatures at night. When we stayed the night it was freezing. Getting up early in the morning to enjoy the silence and the soft sunrise, the mountain side who was brownish upon arrival, was now snow white.
The beauty of a yurt is not seen from the outside. It comes from within. Like the warm welcome, Mirbek’s genuine intrest in us travellers, and the way how we got spoiled with tea and home-made biscuits. It felt like family.
