The immense blue expanse of Lake Issy Kol occupies a flat bottomed valley sandwiched between two snow capped ranges and is undeniably beautiful, and therefore popular. The north shore is more easily accessible from Bishkek and therefore more developed but the south shore is also seeing creeping numbers of tourist yurts and camping pods with the road being upgraded to a dual carriageway. As the accommodation generally sits on the lake shore and the road is generally very close by I am not sure this will create quite the 'get away from it all' experience that people might be seeking. One development of several hundred pods laid out in a geometric grid seemed to provide no other facilities whatsoever and was a long way from any villages.
Anyway after buying 8 x 10l bottles of water as a planned stop was no longer accessible due to roadworks I turned off down to a quieter section and parked up 100 yards from the water's edge and enjoyed a warm evening and pleasantly cool night with magical views.
Heading to Karakol the next morning the final 50 miles was a horrendous experience with unbroken roadworks and heavy traffic throwing up clouds of dust. At times tankers were spraying the carriageway which just produced slick mud which covered everything so that by the time I arrived in Karakol the van sported a fetching two-tone paint job. I found the P4N suggestion of the Riverside Guest House, nipped through the pedestrian gate, had a chat to a young lady and was instructed to open the double gates and park on the concrete yard. There were toilets out there and showers available in the main house but I didn't use them and set off down to town to check out options for the oil and filter change that was due. One place nearby seemed busy and had a couple of pits so I then walked back to the van and dug out my oil and filter. I also retrieved a new air filter and soon had that fitted with the old one certainly reflecting the dusty roads of the Stans. The owner's little lad came over with some of his toys and before long had them all set up in the van - he was quite engrossed in his little world but before long we had to create a building site outside as I wanted to go back in to town.
I visited the beautiful Russian Orthodox Church with it's shining domes, enjoyed an ice cream in a shady park and then walked over to the wooden mosque built a century or so by Chinese craftsmen. On my way in I got chatting with a retired teacher of English who offered to show me round and was good company with our discussions ranging across a variety of subjects. Returning to the yard I went to bed around 10 but shortly after a minibus full of guests arrived and disappeared indoors - the huge distances in these countries mean that tour groups start early and finish late with only fleeting visits to the various attractions.
Thus they were off at 6am but I figured the garage wouldn't open before 9 (if at all, it being a Sunday) so I dozed for a while. I had seen the guesthouse owner the previous evening to pay the 300som so was off out through the gates to the garage which was indeed shut....
Further down in to town though I found another place which was in fact much smarter, had a huge stock of oils and filters and were able to get on with it straight away. I had driven far enough to get the oil warm but not so far that it was at high temperature as draining the oil on a hot engine can cause problems. The lads removed the tray but decided to drain the oil using a suction tube down the dipstick opening - I was pleased they did it this way as it would be all too easy to overtighten the drain plug. Once the filter was changed they topped everything up, replaced the tray and all was well. I took the opportunity to have a quick look round underneath and all seemed well although the mud from the previous day obscured everything. They only charged £1.70 so I upped that a bit and left with everyone happy.
An hour out of town I found a perfect park up on an inlet of Issy Kol under good shade and set to to do my laundry in a bucket. A line between two trees soon saw it all dry and I enjoyed the perfect location with a couple of families a mile or so away having a picnic. With the place to myself after sunset it was a quiet evening and with no one around to be disturbed I fired up the genny, plugged it in at the end of my long lead and later enjoyed my first hot shower since mid April. The shade kept the early morning sun off me and it was very tempting to stay longer.
Fifteen miles further on with the Tian Shen mountains rising above 4,000m to form the Chinese border I stopped to take a few pictures feeling slightly melancholy that the turning point of my trip was fast approaching. Others I have met are continuing east in to China and far beyond and I hugely admire their determination and ambition but for me this has been, and will be for another few months, as much if not more, as I had hoped for and for which I am supremely grateful.
The Kegen border is only open from May to October and sits high on a lonely plateau with no facilities other than the border formalities on each side. I was through both sides in half an hour, the quickest and easiest yet and 15 miles down the road pulled up in the small town of Kegen where apparently insurance could be bought. There was no indication as to where this might be achieved so I asked a policeman via Google Translate who indicated I should jump in his car. This was as decrepit as you could imagine but he literally drove me less than 50 yards to the other side of the street where we went in to a car and tractor parts store. He spoke to the assistant who nodded and indicated that I should wait whilst he served a couple of customers. These were farmers sourcing parts for a hay turner and baler and at one point he locked up the shop and we all trooped round the back to a container full of all manner of spares. Once they were sorted out he asked for my passport, V5 and driving licence before filling in a form on his computer. He then asked for my phone number but it had to be a Kazakh one so I asked him to give me ten minutes and nipped out to a local phone shop where a helpful young man soon had me set up with a 30 day SIM with unlimited data afor £12.
The insurance form could then be completed and an activation code sent to my new number so that eventually a certificate was printed off with cover valid for a month : £20. Feeling hungry by then I had an excellent lagman in a cool cafe before pulling up at the Royal Car Wash where I inserted the hose of his powerful vacuum cleaner in to the inlet and exhaust ports of the Truma water heater which has restored it to full working order. Reversing back to line up for the car wash the guy fortunately stopped me from reversing in to a concrete power pole perfectly hidden in my blind spot. Several sessions with the foam lance and the rinsing lance saw a different van emerge and I was soon on my way north after a very successful morning.
A turn off along a 6 mile smooth tarmac road brought me to the entrance of Charyn gorge where I paid a couple of quid to get in and confirmed it would be OK to stay overnight. There were a large number of coaches, minibuses and cars parked up but I found a level spot looking down in to the gorge and set off for a look round. Most people are content with (or more likely only have time for) the half-hour walk above the Valley of Castles which is impressive enough as it looks down in to the dry side valley that eventually leads to the main gorge that contains a fast flowing river. Away to the south the Tian Shen mountains were blacked out by thunderous clouds but the afternoon sun really defined the valley's geology, partly explained by trilingual information boards. Back at the van a guy approached me for a chat, he was a Kiwi from South Island visiting the region with his Mongolian wife whilst on a break from working in a commercial gold mine in Nicaragua.....
As visitors began to head off I headed down the 250 steps to the valley floor and pretty much had the four mile walk to myself as I passed superb rocks, pillars and eroded cliffs. A couple of the 'bread vans' were shuttling visitors back up from the river where there was a simple camping area - most were young, fit western tourists who would have gained so much more from actually making the effort but as the sun set below the gorge rim I was pleased to have this remarkable place to myself. The car park was deserted and after dark I fired up the Truma and enjoyed a good hot shower. This location marked my easternmost destination and depending on the actual route plus possible sidetracking it is about 6-8,000 miles home !
An hour later on the well surfaced main road I turned off to Merkel and found a shady pull in under trees behind a petrol station. It had been a hot day and the aircon was much appreciated although being a 25 year old after market retrofit it perhaps lacks the power of more modern systems. It was a hot night, staying above 19°C, so I just used my silk liner and despite long goods trains rumbling past through the night I slept well.
Today I have only moved on a hundred miles to Taraz where I have parked up next to a mall whose cool interior encouraged me inside for lunch. The mausoleums of Karakhan and Dauitbek were worth a look - they are originally 12th century but have been restored and see very few visitors compared to the hotspots of Uzbekistan.
Tomorrow sees a longish day to north of Turkistan so I will return to my downloaded archive of Desert Island Discs to keep me amused on the journey.
A few extras sit HERE
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