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Published: August 6th 2013
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From Kakakol we continue our circumnavigation of Issyk-Kul lake. We're heading up the eastern shore and our 1
stdetour soon arrives. Some sketchy instruction and a GPS co-ordinate take us down a gravel track to what should be an old Soviet submarine/torpedo testing base. We don't really expect to find it but, amazingly, the co-ordinates lead us straight there!! The derelict main buildings and rusting cranes are all fenced off but by the shore are the old jettys and all sorts of strange slipways and pipework. None of the locals cycling past seems too bothered by us wandering round taking photos.
Close-by is the Przewalski Memorial to the man the horses were named after. He was a polish born Russian geographer, biologist, spy, explorer and enthusiastic Great Game combatant. He made his home here on the edge of the lake.
As we reach the north shore more snowy mountains come into view - the Kyungey Ala-Too, another branch of the Tien Shan. They're all folded and runckled and with the morning sun on them they look like they are draped in green velvet.. They run parallel to the northern shore of the lake and form the border between Kyrgyzstan &
Kazakhstan. We are heading for Kazakhstan and Almaty which is just on the other side of the mountains but the local borders are all closed to foreigners so we have to go the long way round: along the north shore of the lake, back through Shoestring Gorge and past Bishkek.
The north shore is far more developed than the southern shore – we pass several trendy western style hotels. The area has been inhabited since pre-historic times as evidenced by the Stone Age caves, the art galleries of petroglyph’s stretching for hundreds of km around the lake and the huge burial mounds of the Scythian kings. Beneath the water are the ruins of ancient cities which prospered in the times of the Great Silk Road, Timur even made his summer camp here. All this is explained at the museum in the small town of Cholpon-Ata – its looks like a small local museum but turns out to be an amazing place with beautiful artefact, they even send out for the English speaking guide who explains it all to us.
Just down the road is one of the many petroglyph fields. Its strewn with boulders as far as the
eye can see and many are covered with petroglyph back to 6
th century BC. The best are the Saka-Scythian animals, especially the deer with the flowing antlers just like the tiny pieces of gold jewellery we have seen in the various museums. And its not just petroglyphs, there are also stone circles, tombs and balbals. Its a nice place to wander round wondering what you will find next.
From Cholpon-Ata it gets even more inhabited – lots of fish sellers at the side of the road, lots of kiosks touting the various hotels, lots of derelict ex-official buildings with sorry looking Lenins standing guard. Finally we are back at the Soviet, ex-industrial town of Balykchy and heading back through Shoestring gorge towards Bishkek and the border beyond.
We arrive at the border at 3:30 and are very efficiently out of Kyrgyzstan by 4:00. Getting into Kazakhstan is slower but still relatively efficient as we are all through by 6:30. As soon as we enter Kazakhstan everything suddenly changes – the houses are European style, the snowy mountains have gone and the vast, undulating steppe land is back. Having had to take the long way round to the border
we can't make Almaty tonight so we head out into the steppe land and set up camp for the night.
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