11-11-12 A sunday hike in the mountains

After I had tried at the beginning of this year to get in touch with “Boris” who organises hikes around Tashkent, all of  sudden I got the link last week from Maricla, our Italian friend.  There was the invitation to  join a 6,5 hours hike in the Chimgan mountains (1,5 hours drive East of Tashkent, towards Tajikistan). So off we went this Sundaymorning at 07:00 to the Chimgan mountains, by now well known territory, we thought!

 

Last weekend it rained in Tashkent, so there was snow in the mountains. A nice group of 9 expats (USA, Letuvia, Germany, Italy, Ukraine) with different backgrounds and some more experienced hikers than others. We started at Chimgan, climbed the hills to 1,800 m, where we had a beautiful view of the lake ( artificial/ dam)  as well as a pretty clear idea of how far we had to go down. 

Some serious landslides, horses roaming free, some hawthorn bushes full of fruit. 

The weather was beautiful, after lunch all jackets and sweaters were off and suntan was applied liberally. 

We made good speed and were back at the bus in time, only 5 minutes later than scheduled.  But we did feel our knees and realised that our Sunday city walk along the canal cannot stand up to Boris’s hikes.