then through the Dolan Pass over to the watershed of Lake Issyk Kul, the largest and deepest lake in Kyrgyzstan. Our overnight stop was in Kochkur.
DAY SIX Surprise of the day was seeing camels crossing the road. These big, smelly, hairy beasts just meandered their way across and down the highway in front of us, stopping the traffic as they went. Not an everyday sight for us! We then detoured off the highway and into some side roads. Our path was blocked at one point by men and machines working on the road. After waking the dozing digger driver, he cleared a path for us and we continued on into nomad grazing country on primo adventure tracks. We finished the day with a swim in the lake at our yurt camp in Tosor, our stop for the next two nights.
DAY SEVEN This was was scheduled to be a rest day but we all agreed to keep moving, so we went up the Barskoon( 3754m) and Sarimonok Passes( 3126m) and to the highest point of our tour, the Suek Pass at 4028m. The Barskoon valley has several monuments to Yuri Gagarin who, in 1961, became the first human to journey into outer space and return to earth. Gagarin spent time in the Barskoon valley for some R & R after his historic spaceflight. This valley is also seeing immense road construction efforts. There are three routes between Kyrgyzstan and China to the south, and this route is getting a complete makeover with a dual carriageway, all-season road. In NZ, they would close the road and keep the public out. Not so in Kyrgyzstan as the road stayed open and we were able to pass through, weaving in and out of
46 KIWI RIDER