A day out – Ala Archa and Alamedin
Sunday was a rare “day off”.
Tatiana, my accountant, has a friend, Anna, staying from Russia, and suggested going into the mountains so we decided to make a day of it.
The obvious choice for a day trip from Bishkek is to go to one of the valleys in the Kyrgyz Krebet, just South of the city. A favourite place to visit, for both locals and visitors alike, is the Ala Archa National Park. Although it is beautiful and has a variety of landscapes and a range of walks of differing levels of difficulty, I prefer the next valley, Alamedin because there tends to be fewer people there. We decided that because it has been cold and there has been snow recently that we would go to both valleys and spend a shorter time in each, returning to the vehicle and warming ourselves up on the journey between the two.
Unfortunately, February is not necessarily the best time of year as many places are inaccessible because of the snow which persists in the mountain. We wanted, for example, to go along the road through the foothills between the Ala Archa and Alemedin valleys, past the ski bases. However, it is not open for the whole length of the road so we decided to take the lower road, past Chon Tash and the Ata Beyit memorial.
We gathered a crowd of people from the office and four of the kids and left the office at nine. Although the sun had been up for over an hour, it was still pretty cold. The snow was not too bad in the city center, but as we left the suburbs it lay on the road making conditions a little tricky for Rustam, our driver, which meant it took us a little longer than usual to arrive at the park.
Once there we decamped from the vehicle and went off our separate ways for a walk. It would have been nice to have gone up to the Ak Sai waterfall, but it normally takes two hours and so we decided to take the easy walk up the main valley instead. Victor soon disappeared to take some panoramic photographs, and the kids ran off into the trees. Vlad decided to throw snowballs and I warned him that he would soon be without a job if one of them hit me. Fortunately, when the kids rejoined us and stopped playing photo models, they made suitable targets.
There was quite a wind which added a chill factor to the temperature, but I was well wrapped up. Unusual for me, I even had a scarf and a hat – a baseball cap made of felt. Unfortunately it didn’t cover my ears which were soon feeling frozen.
It was interesting to see the park in white rather than the usual shades of green. The branches of the trees were all caked with snow about an inch thick and looked really attractive.
We returned to the vehicle for a packed lunch and a very welcome cup of hot coffee from the Thermos flasks, before setting off for the second valley.
Once again the going was slow due to the slippery road conditions. At Chon Tash there was quite a crowd of people skiing and tobogganing down the slopes.
We pulled up in the car park of the Hot Springs sanatoria, (Tyoplie Kluchiy), and went for a walk past the swimming pool, (with natural hot water from the radon springs from which the sanatoria takes its name). No-one had taken me up on the suggestion and brought their swimming costumes, which was just as well because it looked as if the pool was closed. Normally, I take the higher path above the sanatoria, but this time we walked through the resort and along the river bank to the rickety bridge across the river. From the bridge there is a path which goes to another waterfall, but, once again, we decided that we didn’t have the time to go looking for it. I was the only one to cross the bridge and I am not sure that we would have found or been able to follow the path given the snow cover.
It was later in the day, the sun was higher and so it wasn’t quite a cold as in Ala Archa, although the winder was stronger and so the wind chill much more noticeable when in the open spaces.
After a gentle walk it was back to the vehicle another cup of coffee to warm ourselves up, and the drive back to the city – for much of the way following a car dragging a toboggan behind it, swinging dangerously, (so it seemed to me), from side.
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I have posted some photos from the trip in the Photo Galleries section and there is a panorama uploaded to www.see.kg – we’ll put some more up later.
Bishkek