We drove several hours north and slightly east, taking us right up alongside the Kazakhstan border. We de-camped from Bekzod’s Chevy Cobalt and changed to a 70s Russian jeep called an ‘Owasso’. Seemingly indestructible, the driver started it by touching a couple of wires together and it literally roared to life. Harold kindly offered me to sit in the front, which I gladly accepted, while he and Bekzod rode (nearly) pillion.
It was hair-raising and on the worst possilbe roads – but totally exhilarating! 40min of unbelievably bumpy road and steep drops on one side and we arrived at the start of a short hike up a defile to the base of a nice little waterfall. Despite feeling at a very low ebb today, it was by far the most fun I’ve had on this trip so far. I shot a lot of stills, but the iphone video shows best how we drove that track. The iphone somehow automatically stabilized the video, which in retrospect was an excellent happenstance as I recall the phone jogging all over the place as I attempted to shoot with it. I’ll try to post some here.
We have some small event planned tomorrow with Bekzod, which I think involves a chairlift? And then back to Tashkent for a night, a full day and then off to the airport for the 3am (!) flight on the 23rd.
