En route to Jalal-Aabad we stopped overnight in Naryn, another identikit Soviet town, devoid of character or interest. We joined forces with a french couple, and hired a car to take us the 350k to Jalal-Aabad. The journey was quite an undertaking. Our driver was extremely good, and his car a comfortable old Audi, which frequently sounded to be on the verge of breaking down. It was very hot and very dusty, and the windows had to be kept shut to keep the dust out, and, of course, the heat in! The roads were little more than tracks, often strewn with boulders, and we wound up and down numerous peaks, with only a couple of stops. The landscape was stunning, and the geology ever changing. Sometimes we were surrounded by sandstone weathered into fantastic Cappodocian-type formations
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