A bit more altitude

We continued for some distance this morning along the Kekemeren Gorge with more spectacular mountain views before emerging into a wide valley with a couple of small villages and wide spread cultivation. Once into the wider valley we could see in the distance the highway M41 (the main Bishkek to Osh road) as it descended from the 3500 meter Too Ashuu Pass. Our route to Osh would take us left/south at the M41 but initially we chose to go North and climb to the pass, partly out of curiousity and partly to start our altitude acclimatization - or at least to see how we would react to some serious altitude.

The roadway to the pass was quite scenic as the mountainsides were without trees. There were a series of long switch backs at a grade of 12% (or so the signs said) which the truck climbed easily in 5th gear at 20 mph. At an alititude of 3100 meters we came to a tunnel entrance and a line of trucks waitiing to enter the tunnel. We eventually worked out the the tunnel was 2-way for small vehicles but 1-way for large trucks (which we thought also applied to us). Truck traffic was controlled by traffic lights at either end. Once our turn came we followed the line and eventually emerged at the other end at a slightly lower altitude. Having now "done that" we waited our turn to return. We guessed the tunnel cut off the top 400 meters of the pass.

After descending from the tunnel the M41 followed a wide river valley on a good road surface. Interestingly there were many yurts dotted (clustered might be a better term) beside the road selling food, offering cafe services, selling oil, offering horse rides and generally trying to "make a buck" from the passing traffic. At times these yurts were so numerous that we felt like we were driving through continuous small villages.