Tuesday, July 9 – 346km towards Osh

Last night, the combo of sleeping mat and sleeping bag turned out not to be so great after all. When we rolled out of our tent at 6 am, it turned out that quite a few team members were already awake. The rising sun and the view soon made us forget the inferior night. We had a long drive ahead of us so we left well on time.

The landscapes are constantly changing, which is what makes the country so special. If you drive about 100 kilometres further, nature can look completely different. Osh is located a lot further south, and it shows because the green landscape from above is gradually being exchanged for more arid nature.

The first stop was at a brickworks. With us, you would never be allowed to enter the premises but after a brief question to a person in charge, we were given the freedom to go wherever we wanted.

All three of us felt like we had been catapulted back in time 100 years. Huge amounts of manual labour in really not healthy conditions. The ovens are filled by hand and then emptied. I briefly entered one of these ‘cooled’ ovens and working in it is really not possible for us weak Westerners.

The boy above made sure the furnace kept burning, using a miniscule scoop to tip some kind of coal dust into holes at the top of the furnace that were sealed off each time. You can see this in the video. Guest workers also worked here, for instance we spoke to an Uzbek who came to work here for a period of four months each time before returning home for a few weeks.

Just about everywhere we wanted to eat or drink something, we tried to go as local and small as possible. For instance, we stopped along the roadside with the intention of having a small piece of watermelon and something to drink. Instead of a small piece, they cut a whole watermelon and brought a jug of tea. I seem to remember we paid 150 sum. That’s about one and a half euros converted.

Osh is the country’s second largest city and, with about 320,000 inhabitants, only a third of Bishkek. However, it feels a lot busier than Bishkek. It is also much warmer, we saw 38° at one point. This evening we slept at the Tess hotel which is located fairly centrally in Osh.

There was parking for all cars and we could walk into town to walk around and get something to eat.

Wednesday, 10 July – 132km towards Yrgayti

After a good night’s sleep and delicious breakfast, we were ready to set off to explore Osh.

As in Bishkek, they also have a bazaar here; Jayma is the largest and most colourful bazaar in central Asia. We had also come here early to walk around in peace. I was looking for a Kalpak, the national headgear of many men. We were also able to taste and buy tea here. Other than that, this too ranges from clothes to animal entrails. You could also have your microwave oven or sewing machine repaired ‘on the spot’ here.

So a portrait of a Kirgies with Kalpak could not be missing from this report. A polite question and just about everyone willingly posed for the lens. When I asked a woman, they invariably put their hair up and put on their best smile, a proud people, these Kirgis.

As it was quite a long walk to the hotel, we wanted to go back by taxi. They asked 300 som for the ride, but we had come for 100 som. So a young lemonade saleswoman was willing to arrange a Yandex (the Kyrgyz Uber) for us. So we were able to return to the hotel for 100 som. There we picked up our clean laundry and were able to leave in the direction of Yrgayti. The road runs along a stretch of the Pamir Highway, once part of the Silk Road. This trade route was paved by the Soviets between 1931 and 1934 and is the second highest highway in the world.

It was a short trip today so plenty of time to stop here and there. Like this man who diligently gave this statue a new coat of gold.

About twenty kilometres before our campsite, it started raining, we hoped it would stop because we were sleeping at 2200 metres and it might get quite cold. Since we were the first to arrive, we already started making campfires.

The team from Urmat prepared really tasty food that night, finishing off like every night around the campfire with a shot of Vodka and a glass of Kyrgyz beer.

Thursday, July 11 – 137km towards Lenin Peak

This morning, Urmat and his team had provided breakfast. Apart from fruit, biscuits and bread, they had also provided poridge. We think it was a kind of oatmeal with semolina added, quite hearty fare. The plan is to spend two days in the base camp at Lenin Peak.

Again, and I know I am repeating myself, the landscapes along the way were breathtakingly beautiful with the occasional steep climb in between. Indeed, we were driving towards seven-thousanders.

We stopped briefly to stretch our legs and fly the drone for a few photos when Tim & Jasmijn also stopped. How they did it, we don’t really know but at 11am, we were all standing around throwing in a shot of Vodka. It turned out to be a common thread because if you stand talking to the Kyrgyz, within five minutes the word Vodka drops, and they always seem to have a supply.

The famous little blue bridge

We passed the famous little blue bridge before tackling the first stretch of unpaved 27km. Lenin Peak, here we come!

The Bukhanka invites you to drive through the puddle rather than around it, so why not 😁.

Did I mention anything about the Kyrgyz people’s hospitality? Probably yes but I want to emphasise it again here. On the way to Lenin Peak we passed some yurt camps, we decided to stop and say hello with the other teams.

After all, we were curious to know what such a Yurt looked like inside and how they lived in it. We had divided into small groups and when we arrived at our chosen yurt, we were kindly welcomed with bread and dips. Know that our visit was completely unannounced and we had never seen this lady before.

We were on the road for almost four hours from the little blue bridge to the base camp. We were allowed to pick a spot on one of the Teletubbies hills and pitch our tent there. We are above 3,600 metres here and we all felt that even small physical exertions took more effort than usual. That said, we got to explore and enjoy the beautiful surroundings.

We also walked briefly through the base camp where climbers could prepare to climb the 7134-high Lenin Peak. I got talking to a Russian climber who managed to tell me that climbing and descending again takes a total of 16 days. It apparently happens a bit like a yo-yo. Up a piece, down again, then up again but higher and then down again and so on until they finally reach the summit. This man also said it might be between -5° to -10° the next night. So all put on our thermal underwear.

That Kyrgyz are a horse people can be seen everywhere, even on Lenin Peak horses are everywhere. They often carry the mountaineers’ luggage up the mountain a bit.

Friday, July 12 – 274km towards Osh

Loïc had a birthday and the other team members had provided a nice surprise. So he could still enjoy a fun 23rd birthday far from home. Our sincere thanks to the whole group for taking care of this 🙏.

As I had suffered from diarrhoea during the night and had quasi not slept at all, we decided not to stay a second day on Lenin Peak but to leave again in the direction of Osh. The plan was to stay at the Tess hotel again the following day anyway. Anyway, this was a free day so we spent it in the city and the rest of the group on the mountain. On the way to Osh, we took time to stop regularly to take some nice pictures.

So we arrived at a broadcasting station for radio & TV. Here, too, someone soon approached us and invited us to come for tea. This station was manned by two engineers who stayed there for three months before being relieved. They were there without a car and had to be self-sufficient as much as possible.

This is not the first time we have experienced romance in the air during such a road trip. Today it was apparently another winner when Tim proposed to Jasmine at the foot of the glacier. Fortunately, she said yes 😉. Congratulations to both of them in the future!

A bit of playing with the Bukhanka is always nice AND it produces beautiful images. The drive to Osh went smoothly.

At noon, we could enjoy delicious freshly made Dimsum at a tiny roadside restaurant for a few hundred som.

Saturday, July 13 – Day in Osh

As we had a fair amount of free time in Osh, we headed to Sulaiman Too mountain on the outskirts of the city. This sacred mountain dominates the Fergana valley and is a Unesco world heritage site. The mountain lies at the crossroads of the important chariot of the Central Asian Silk Roads. On the mountain, you will find numerous ancient worship sites as well as caves with petroglyphs of people and animals.

Inside the mountain is a small museum with numerous artefacts arranged to depict past life here. The way to the museum is via a staircase with several hundred steps so some physicality is required. You are then treated to a nice view of the city though.

By evening, the other group members had also all arrived at the hotel. We were treated by Urmat with the entire group at the Navat restaurant. After dinner, some headed into town to explore the nightlife in Osh. The Belgians and some Dutch decided to go to sleep….

Sunday, July 14 – 254km towards Kazarman

We are over halfway, but the best is yet to come we are promised.

Today we swap tarmac for gravel roads, driving via Jalal Abad towards Kazarman. But first we visit Osh’s famous cattle market. It is a coming and going of small vans with open bodies. These are usually filled with live animals that just stand there upright while driving. It goes from a sheep or lamb to cattle and horses.

There is a lot of discussion back and forth about presumably the price because we couldn’t really understand much of it. And here too, they immediately pose for a portrait.

Once we passed Jalal Abad, the rest of the day would be off-road, keep those gravel roads coming 😉 . By the way, it wasn’t just gravel, we had to cross several mountain passes where one hairpin turn followed another.

While driving, we noticed that the sky was becoming more threatening, there was clearly thunder in the air. Not much later it was prize, Lightning and thunder combined with a variation of very heavy rain interspersed with hail. At times we could not see twenty metres away.

Loïc was at the wheel and even with windshield wipers barely making three movements a minute, he guided us safely over the mountain pass.

We turned out to be the only team to cross the mountain during this thunderstorm. The other teams got stuck between two landslides.

All in all, we were quite lucky that nobody got caught in such a landslide. The other teams were stuck for two and a half days because detours would have been hundreds of kilometres. Fortunately, they did not take it too much to heart as evidenced by the picture above.

We made it to our final destination with a bit of luck. The plan was for us ‘the Belgians’ to make food for the whole group. So we had six chickens and three kilos of pasta for the three of us. We did not starve to death 😉.

If you want to learn how to plan, you’re definitely in the right place at The Lost Boys. Preparing food in the middle of nowhere with one stove and two pots ‘no problem’

Above, you can see a short video of the second part of our road trip.

Did you miss the first part? Then click here for the link.