Horse Trek to Song Kol Day II

It was a beautiful and peaceful morning in the Tien Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan.

Our breakfast was delicious homemade jam and homemade cream with fresh homemade bread.

Hannah found a four-leafed clover.

Last night I had watched all the sheep get herded into the pen. Now they had been released again apart from one little brown sheep who had been tied to a fencepost and was bleating and bleating a terrified and haunting bleat. Did it just hate being away from the other sheep or did it suspect that something dreadful was going to happen to it? Did it know about death? It was sad but then I very much enjoyed my dinner the night before! This is the traditional way of life... and death.

Our smiling host on horseback and his wife in the background.

And we set off up the mountain toward Song Kol, the great big high altitude lake.

There's me on my horse.

At the top of the high ridge we, or rather our horses, had a well earned rest.

Ruth takes in the view looking northwest.

Bayrambek must have been here hundreds of times. I hope he likes his job.

Our first glimpse of the lake; Song Kol.

This dog followed us the whole way. There's Ruth behind me and look how far back Hannah was when Bayrambek didn't tow her with a rope!

Ruth enjoying the horse trek; clearly over her bad horse memories now.

"Oh no its all coming back again! Please stop!"

We passed some other yurts on the way.

Kyrgyzstan feels surprisingly expansive for what looks like such a small and insignificant country on the world atlas.

The dog was still with us!

Eventually we arrived at our second yurt camp.

A young boy at the camp took our horses and tied them up.

Our second yurt and our second host family.

Our host family'e yurt. The lake in the background.

Ruth and Hannah outside our new yurt.

There were some tiny goats and a tiny puppy!

And a tiny stream. This was our supply of water.

It was cold. There were a few yurts in the Moomin Valley-style valley where we were staying. We met some other tourists who were staying in one of the other yurts. They were very friendly and came into our yurt for some bread and jam and cream and a cup of tea. They were called Simon and Amy and were really nice and told us lots of crazy travel stories.

We took a walk to the lake.

It was cold and peaceful. Ruth looking out to the south over the lake.

Hannah looking south across the lake.

Rain was round about and there was snow on the distant peaks. We spent some time just looking around at the beauty of Song Kol.

Back to camp.

Our host and his boy milk a cow. I helped them take a small calf to the cow to drink a bit of milk to get it started then I led the calf away and tied it up so that they could milk the cow.

We sat inside the family's yurt for a while where it was warm. Our hostess was preparing supper.

It was dark inside.

There were many many stars that night.