May 17 The mountains beckoned again

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 Ugam-Chatkal National Park

Today we headed to the Ugam-Chatkal National Park just an hour out of Tashkent in the mountains the tallest of which is ~3,200m. They are part of the western Tianshan mountains and are just stunning. I got a stiff neck from swiveling back and forward gaping at the view. Here we took a cable car to the top of one of the mountains - 2.5km took about half hour - the ride was just a tad unsettling as the 'chairs' were rather minimal in design and had a thin metal rod over your lap to keep you in, but the view was magnificent. It was a tad ‘exhilarating’ to say the least.

Not somewhere you would want to be on a high-wind day!

We flew high over Matble creek - a very long way below us.

In these hills and mountains there are many species of Juniper trees which we flew past on our way up the mountain. It felt as if we could have almost reached out and plucked some. Not surprisingly they put the berries in alcohol too. 

The cable car deposited us on a plateau but we could have gone higher by horse if we'd had the nerve. Instead we wandered looking at birds and flowers and the many bushes with strips of cloth recently tied into them - harks back to a Shamanic and Zoroastrian past not so far from the surfaces for many.

Evidence of the continuing ancient Shaman culture

Almost every bush had scraps of rag tied to it; similar to what we saw on the hills around the shore of Lake Baikal, Siberia in 2016. Shamanism is still part of the culture here and there with touches of Zoroastrianism evident also. All around were wild flowers of many different colours.

Coming back down the mountain

We eventually had to descend and after a stop by a huge lake we called into a teahouse for a refreshing cup of delicious lemon tea. I fell in love with it and asked for it everywhere we stopped from then on. That night we were treated to dinner and a floorshow of traditional Uzbeck dancing and music compliments of Sundowners Overland - thank you! 

The teahouse sat over a gurgling creek

One happy man!

Next morning it was on to Samarkand ......

We travel not for trafficking alone

By hotter winds our fiery hearts are fanned

For lust of knowing what should not be known

We make the Golden journey to Samarkand

Extract from: Golden journey to Samarkand

By poet James E Flecker