Karavshin: off-the-charts contemplativeness after the rainy gloom.

What a joy it was to wake up to rays of bright sun after a rainy, foggy day of lousy weather on the Karavshin trek in Kyrgyzstan! The weather, clearly, had seen the error of its ways and decided to make amends. Bless. Bliss!…

Breakfast, packing up our things, handing over the non-essentials (the stuff that’s only needed at the camps) to be loaded onto the donkeys, then squeezing the essentials into our backpacks – and off we popped!

Today wasn’t the toughest of days: just eight kilometers to cover, but with 500m up and 700m down over yet another mountain pass. Well it’s not going to climb itself – so up we clambered! ->

Five hundred meters, by the way, is… 200 meters taller than the Eiffel Tower! Yikes!

Up, up, up, and soon enough no trees to be seen.

It’s a long climb, so rest stops are a must from time to time.

But it was all worth it: just look at the lavish views – both far off and close up:

Over there you can make out the zigzags on the scree where we came down in the fog yesterday:

Ah, extraordinary beauty in every direction!

And up on the pass we could get a bit of work done for the camera (you guessed it – there’ll be a video!).

Up onto the pass – and there was beauty in every direction! Such a contrast with the previous day, and that went for our moods too – almost ecstatic! Yes – this is what we came for!…

And this is the day’s mountain pass – the one we had 500 meters to climb up to, and then 700 meters to descend from.

// Seasoned travelers and mountaineers will of course say: “500/700 meters? That’s nothing!” To which I’d reply: “Ok, let’s trade places. Who’d do better? Us – at upping our walking distances in the mountains, or you – doing our job?!” (Of course, there are some smart-Alecks who both work for the company and mountaineering:) Fair point – maybe. But who’s counting? And as I always say: we’re contemplative tourists!

More “desktop-wallpaper” views from the pass:

Oh, so beautiful! And so contemplative!

What goes up – must come down. For the constantly trained, 700m along the vertical is nothing; for the rest: a bit on the tough side.

The only way is… down ->

We cross the river.

Done! We’re back down in the valley. Just a bit farther and we’ll be back at the camp.

Along the way the good shots simply leap into your camera lens!

Note: these photos aren’t mine: they were taken on the smartphone of one of our fellow travelers. Actually, the photo material in all my Kyrgyzstan write-ups comes both from me and from my regular traveling companions DZ, AS, SK, and SP-O – for which I’m most grateful.

Another river crossing:

The water in the river is fast and powerful; a comfortable rafting run down it is simply unimaginable. So it’s best to walk right down the middle of the bridge – otherwise the consequences could be fatal…

And that was that: a wonderful day’s walk. No – an ecstatic day’s walk! And the scenery…