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We set off for Naryn and along the mountain pass we stopped to help a family broken down on the side of the road. We assumed overheating, seeing as it was a small car trying to make it up a high pass, and when they poured some water into the radiator steam came billowing out from behind the engine - not good. After a couple of hours we agreed to tow them to the top of the pass, but not further because they had no brakes!
Naryn is a long, narrow town that was our stopover for fuel to get to Tash Rabat and Tourgart. In the morning as we wanted to get our supplies and leave the main street was closed for a parade. This is a Kyrgyz tradition for the day before the first day of school (1st September) but a bit of nuisance to us. We drove to Ak Bashy and then Fintan wanted to take the mountain road close to the Chinese border and do a loop back to Naryn. So we drove along this pass up to the top of the mountain, only to find a border post. Unfortunately there are some areas in Kyrgyzstan that require special permits and this was one of them - not shown on the map, but there you go. We had no choice but to turn around, seeing as we didn't even have our passports!
We pulled off the road and set up camp. It was lovely and warm but as the sun went down the wind picked up and blew all night long. Our poor tent is not made for such conditions but stood up through the night! Impressive for a £40 Vango from the local camping store in Helston! The next morning we were woken up by a whistling outside the tent. The local herder had come to check us out. We made tea, offered him bread and got out the honey and nutella. Wow - he loved the nutella! And he invited us to his yurt.
We had a nice conversation, with lots of pointing and miming, and his mother gave us tea, bread, cream and blackcurrants. They saddled up the horse and put Fintan up on it, then pulled out their gun for him to see. It was a really lovely morning.
We set off on the main road then to Tash Rabat, a stone fortress, and realised that originally our plan had been to drive this road into China in six days' time… what a shame… We stayed in a yurt camp last night and were welcomed by a Russian Kyrgyz lady who was having a birthday party. An afternoon of fairly intense vodka drinking, sauna, dinner, more vodka… What a great day! Fintan declined to share the sauna with the two large Russian men though! That would've been a good story!
- comments
Fi Elliott Love the photo! Looks like he's been doing that all his life lol!!
Fi Elliott Also, these place names make it sound like ye are travelling around Narnia! :)
mum ride 'em cowboy!