Day 86. Barskoon - Lake Son-Kul

What an amazing but challenging day we have had.

Spectacular mountain and lake scenery as we traverse the southern shores of Issyk Kul. The weather is much clearer than yesterday and the temperature is mid twenties, lovely.

Watering the bushes - looked thirsty.

Not sure about this but clearly it was of significance in the past.

Last look at the lake in the distance.

As we turned south away from the lake the landscape became very barren but once again very beautiful in a different way. 

The road became better and better and we hit some perfect tarmac with lovely sweeping corners through a spectacular gorge.

We then hit the turn-off to Song- Kul lake, the 2nd largest lake in Kyrgizstan and at an altitude 3000 metres. 

65km to go and just after lunchtime, how bad can it be.

Pretty bad as it happens. The first 25 km was a gradual climb but the road corrugations were as bad if not worse than any we have encountered. Usually with corrugations you can ride at a certain speed and it’s not too bad but these ones varied so much in amplitude it was impossible, so a pretty uncomfortable time.

The road then narrowed and began a really steep ascent, a pretty tough and rough road with tight hairpins.
 Definitely a challenge for me especially with being two up with luggage. 

Then a beautiful view from the top looking down onto Song-Kul and a gentle descent. Unfortunately we weren’t done yet, maps.me indicated a turn off to the right and another 14km to go.

So we bid farewell to the gravel road and set off along a dirt track, but before we really got going there was a river to ford. We decided that it would be better if Robyn wasn’t on the bike for this one as there was a foot crossing not far away and this was a serious looking ford.  So with a deep breath I took the plunge, whew, made it.

So then off for 14km of dirt track, not too bad actually and the open country with yurt camps and horses everywhere was a stunning sight. I have to hand it to maps.me, it guided us to a small yurt camp in the middle of nowhere, amazing.

So we are sleeping in a yurt tonight, it has 5 single beds and a wood (dung) burner.

We wandered down to the lake and I had a swim, very nice and the only wash I’ll be getting until Naryn tomorrow.

The boy on the horse did a big circle around Mark - just checking him out maybe?

When we returned to our yurt, mine host invited us into the dining yurt where we had a couple of  rounds of Russian vodka, this could have got messy but fortunately the bottle ran dry. He sent out for more but niet. Thank goodness.

Sunset was stunning - hard to choose which photos to put in.

Dinner was served in the dining yurt which was traditional home cooked noodles with meat and vege.

 Then off to bed as it was cold.