The day dawned fine with clear skies so we packed light, I took a light flannel shirt and not even a poncho. We walked out to the main road, bought two bottles of mineral water, and flagged a cab. The car was a rattletrap, the driver was poor but friendly, spoke no English, but by using my notepad and jotting down numbers and times we reached an agreement. He asked $30 as well but easily came down to $20, and this included his waiting for us till we did our walk. We agreed to return to him at 4:00 p.m. and the deal done, we all piled in and drove alongside pastures and then into mountains very reminiscent of the pyranees in summer. From Bishkek at 900 meters we drove to the 'alpenlager' or accommodation area of the Alarcha Park at 2140 meters where the driver parked.
Russian trekkers were leaving the accommodation area loaded with gear but we went into the hostel and found a huge warm kitchen where we were greeted warmly but perfunctorily and shown where to sit for a meal. We ordered from the menu and were brought instant coffee (3 in 1 whether we ordered it black or with milk) and a couple of dishes with goat meat, kuurkuk or something like that (meat and fried veggies) and russian plov (rice with carrots and meat).
At the agents' the day before we had picked up a map of the gorge area and this helped us interpret the trail signs. It seemed we could head straight south up the Alarcha River or go east up a trail marked Ak-Sai which I could see from the map climbed and approached a glacier. That was appealing and shortly on our way, as we rose up the shoulder of the mountain we were mounting, we could see that two rivers converged from the east and south in a torrent of whitewater that laced the gorge floor in resounding rivulets, and the south trail would have taken us up that but lower down. The east trail climbed and turned up the gorge coming in from the east, and in the distance there we could see a waterfall which was a day-trip destination here.
We reached the falls in two hours but the trail to it climbed up the right hand side of a mountain toward the snowy peaks just distant and we passed the falls on this trail and grunted our way past the russian trekkers on their way to their base camp just over the cols we kept mounting. It was a steep climb, from 2800 at the height of the falls, to 3114 when we finally decided we had to turn back in order to meet our rendezvous with our driver. To continue to the next col would have taken half an hour, or an hour round trip, and as it was we barely returned to the car park by 4. On the way we made a side trip to the falls before making our way back over the two river crossings and descending back into the gorge we had earlier climbed out of.
It was quite a walk actually, a lovely day out but also a tantalizing taste of what we hoped was to come as we got more attuned to the mountains and how to navigate them. The atmosphere was sublime, alpine, smelling of pine below the treeline, spacious with unlimited skies in a world dominated by the sound of raging water fed by the glacier beyond the cols, guarded by the snowy peaks that beckon the adventurous to come ever closer.
And back in Bishkek, the dollar beers went down a bit too freely, and we sloshed off to bed without packing. Bobbi and I were awakened in the morning by the lissom Kyrgyz chambermaid opening our door, perhaps by mistake. She apologized, but it was a good thing, since we had to get up, pack quickly, and catch a bus 8 hours to Karakol, in time to find accommodation at the other end.
Navigate back Home
or on to
or back to
No comments:
Post a Comment