Much to Nina's relief I was back on deck this morning so we set off early for a full day of experiencing the delights and the unexpected of traveling.

Our first stop of the day was a Russian built memorial (a Museum and Park) to an early explorer of Central Asia named Nikolai Przewalski (пржевальскй). The small museum had a good dispay of Przewalksis main exploratory expeditions in Central Asia and the surrounding park had some magnificent trees as well a a few impressive stone monuments.

Perhaps equally interesting is the fact that the park overlooks a small village, that during soviet days was a secret base used to develop torpedoe technology. Today it is off limits to foriegners even though there is no signs of any kind of military activity.

Shortly after leaving the memorial we passed through the town of Karakol. This turned into a bit of a confusing exercise as the obvious route through the town (at least when looking at our GPS map) turned out to be blocked by a series of no entry and no trucks allowed signs; all as international road signs so no language skills were needed. But some quick thinking was certainly needed.

Next came Jeti-Oghuz, a small village and river valley south of the main road. The attraction of this valley was a series of deep red rock structures. From one direction the rocks look like a heart split down the middle (no good photo because of the sun in our eyes), and from the back side seven distinct rock out-croppings or bluffs are visible. There are various legends associated with both views (broken hearted lovers, and the bluffs are called "seven bulls"). To us the more interesting aspect of the valley were the number of yurts beside the road serving food and accommodation to locals enjoying an outing in the valley.

We spent much of the remainder of the day traveling along the southern shore of Issyk Kul, enjoying the warm (but not hot) weather, marveling at the many small beaches, and the number of locals swimming and otherwsie enjoying the water. The southern shore certainly provides a better view of and access to the lake.


Late afternoon we stopped by a small lake just a few hundred meters south of Issyk Kul. Somewhat later we were joined by a Red VW California van from Poland and met Pioir, Daria, and their 9 month old baby Katia. Somewhat later again we were joined by two German cyclists Wolfgang and Daniel. We all sat around chating, sharing stories and drinking beer and wine.

The cyclists had had a close shave during the day and Wolfgang showed us one of his saddle bags that had been hit by a passing car but fortunately did not knock him over.

Eventually the cyclists moved on and the Aussies and the Poles stayed for the night.