First up is a photo of the towel in our guesthouse, which, for some reason, I feel the need to share...
We had a lovely breakfast on the veranda of the guesthouse. It had a bountiful orchard which we raided for apple, peach and apricot. There is nothing quite like a freshly picked apricot with breakfast (except two apricots maybe).
We drove east to Skazla Valley, commonly known as Fairy Canyon. It is an amazing canyon of weathered sandstone outcrops and cliffs. Reminded us of the geoparks we visited in China last year.
The most impressive feature was the Great Wall which we photographed from a great vantage point.
Getting down was harder as it was a steep ridge with a thin layer of skiddy sand. Timur is keen on photos/social media etc so was always taking photos of us - we now appear on his instagram. I actually quite liked this as he captured images of us we don't usually get, such as this one of me trying not to fall off a narrow sandstone ridge.
JC launched his drone and took some nice shots (you can just see Issy-Kul in the background).
Visitors could roam freely and with no restrictions. I was not convinced this was for the best as continued footfall will add to the erosion. Some nations would fence it all off except a viewing platform. China would lay concrete pathways and steps everywhere. There is certainly a balance between accessibility and protection.
We were hurried along as the guys wanted to leave by midday and then, as we left, Timur and Jusup spotted an archery challenge so spent 10 minutes aiming, and sometimes hitting, bullseye. JC wasn't as proficient - understandably so!
King JC and his helpers ;-)
Back in the local restaurant it was omelette and rice for lunch again (I had it yesterday lunchtime too). There were no other veggie options except salad or cheese pizza. Yesterday's omelette came with a garnish of wavy ketchup too so it must be a Kyrgyz thing.
We stopped at Orto Tokoy Reservoir for a break and found a herd of camels. We surmised these were owned camel, eg not wild. They were very smelly and had attracted vast swarms of the local fly population. I asked Timur if they ate camel. “No, too important” he replied - of course, stupid question.
Their cute tails pendulumed beautifully https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ng-MXV3LKbE.
Timur taking a photo of JC taking a photo of a camel.
We stayed at a guesthouse in Kochkor staying in a basic room. I had thought yesterday’s guesthouse wasn’t fancy but it had en-suite with a chair and table in the room. Today there was just a room - no pictures, no mirror, no furniture except a bed and two bedside tables and obviously, no en-suite (hark at me the fancy traveller). Fortunately the establishment had a washing machine they allowed us to use so we did a load which was a treat.
We had a short stroll before supper and found the Lenin statue.
Most towns have one and this one features in the guide book as a highlight of Kochkor. That gives an indication of how exciting some of these towns were - really handy hubs to sleep, buy food and fuel, but nothing you'd want to write home about.
Finally, we were at our most easterly point of our tour today, 77 degrees 21 minutes East. Stay tuned for the most westerly and southerly.
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