Aug 27-31 : Arslanbob & Osh

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27-31. Wednesday 27th. Lake Sary Chalek to Arslanbob was the plan for today. Arslanbob is famous for having the largest walnut forests in the world (11,000 hectares). Local myth has it that the Prophet Mohammed in seeking paradise on earth charged a local gardener to scatter walnuts in this area, and from those small beginnings became this enormous estate. We were taken into the heart of the forest by a local jeep driver, and were impressed by the tranquility, and size of the forest. Unfortunately not a good crop this year, so the annual harvest which is due in October is going to be somewhat subdued. We also trudged 'up the hill' to visit a

small waterfall which to the locals give some spiritual significance (ie there were pilgrims doing the trudge) but to us it just looked like a small waterfall ! O/N in a local home stay GH #9 excellent food for only 180 som ($4).

Thursday 28th walk thru the village and along walk up the hill up to the Panorama point. Must have been about a 800m climb but the vista from the top was worthwhile. Struggling up the hill only to be passed by a little granny and her donkeys carrying an enormous load of wood was a bit sobering. Went past so fast I didn't have time to get the camera out!, Later that afternoon, we hired a jeep and drove slowly about 5 kms up thru the village outskirts over extremely bumpy roads to the base of a huge rockfall from where we were expected to climb/crawl/struggle up to view their more famous and much higher 80' waterfall. After about an hr we made it to the top and saw a pretty but skinny (lack of water due to the extreme dry the region is experiencing) waterfall. Was so close, was difficult to photograph, but you will get the idea

Friday 29th drive to Osh - the second biggest city in Kyrgystan, and the location of the most recent and deadly ethnic riots in June 2010 when over 200 citizens were killed, and 200,000 displaced in a two day rampage thru the city.

On the way, we stopped at Ozgon - the town that claimed 1st BC origins and one of the base camps for Alexander the Great's troops, to visit the 11th c minaret and the three connected 12th c mausoleums. With just a little restoration, this was pretty interesting original structure that we were able to climb to the top.

Back on the road to Osh could not help but notice the myriad of roadside sellers all trying to flog huge piles of watermelons, and then about 5kms of pumpkin sellers. Nobody seemed to be buying, so wondered our viable this enterprise was.

O/N Biy Ordo GH.(recommended as friendly service, good rooms and bathrooms , and lots of traveller tales from the other guests). Finally Internet works, so was able to start making the bookings for Khazakhstan. Also updated the last five entries In the travel blog, Skyped home and confirmed to our wives that we were indeed still "alive and well".

Sat 30th was just a bit of sightseeing around Osh. Osh claims to be 'older than Rome' and there is evidence of 5th BC existence. Only a few attractions to see and the key one is Suleyman's throne ( aka King Solomon) - built on a huge rock/hill just on the outskirts of Osh overlooking the city. Next door is cave museum built by the Soviets. Finally finished up with a visit to Jayma Bazaar - described as one of Central Asia's best, but we thought that claim was a bit exaggerated. Stretching nearly 1km along the river bank, it was teeming with Uzbeks, Kygyz, and Tajiks buying selling everything one could imagine. I was particularly taken with the choice of meat products one could buy, but heaven knows why anyone would want to eat them !

Sun 31 : usual 9am start as we departed Osh this time heading nth east back to Jala Alabad, from where we turned eastwards across the Fergana range to Kaazaman. How Google maps can be so misleading - what looked like a nice straight forward little highway, turned out to be 150 kms of potholed corrugated rough road culminating in a huge series of 180' switchbacks as we climbed from an altitude of about 1000m to just over 3000m. As the LP said, this is one of the great overland adventure roads as you hurtle around bends, with crumbling edges destroyed by rockfalls or waterfalls, whilst overlooking nearly vertical precipices , you would be " grabbing for your non-existent seat belts !!" Well it was really like that, except we did have seat belts! An amazing road built by the Soviet military in the 1930's across this massive mountain range - views from the summit at 3100m where the Soviets had placed a massive stone eagle were spectacular. We had a picnic lunch at what seemed to 'the top of the world '. Hope you enjoy the pics of the road below. Over the top, and down the other side was almost as scary as coming up, but soon we were down into a huge river valley.

Alongside this entire road, we saw the nomad farmers and their little yurt settlements with their herds of roaming cattle, horses and/or sheep. Seems no matter how inhospitable the pastures were, there were always farmers and their stock. We also the local families harvesting their giant sunflower crops to produce those lovely sunflower seeds we use in our bread making. Huge sunflowers the size of a dinner plate being thrown into a whirling contraption, and out flew a heap of sunflower seeds, which they then layout on the road surface to dry. Makes driving past a little hazardous. Finally arrived in Kaazaman, a scruffy little town in the middle of nowhere which is to be our base for two nights, as tomorrow we are off to visit what is described as "the pre-eminent discovery of Bronze Age petroglyphs" in Central Asia - called Sailmaluu Tash.

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