Day 30: Osh to Son-Kol

Miles driven: 274

Time in Car:13 hours

Borders crossed: 0

Per Maps.me, the route the application wanted us to take to Son-Kul lake (which is in the central part of the country) was around the center of Kyrgyzstan up north to Bishkek before going south to the lake. The alternative was through the center of the country direct - over the Turkestan Mountains of the Pamir-Alay Range. The indirect route was much longer but had better roads while the direct route was quicker and provided better views. We chose the direct. The drive consisted of two major legs - 1) Osh to Kazarman and 2) Kazarman to Son-Kul. The previous night In Sary-Tash, a fellow traveler who had just completed two weeks in Kyrgyzstan on motorcycle told us that the road from Osh to Son-Kul was rough and treacherous and definitely a two day trip. In Osh, the night before our departure, we decided we’d leave early and see how far we’d get. 

The road to Kazarman

The road to Kazarman

We left around 6:30 am from Osh and it was only 160ish miles from Osh to Kazarman but Maps.me said the drive would be close to 7 hours. We set off, hopeful yet nervous for what lie ahead. 60 miles into the journey, the pavement was still good. We were cruising in 4th gear for the most part. 90 miles left, still good. I kept glancing at the ETA and as we approached 80 miles, Maps.me said we still had 5 hours of driving. Either Maps.me was very wrong or we were about to average 15 mph for the next 5 hours of driving. 75 miles left to our destination and the pavement changed and the latter became a very real scenario. 

Atop Kaldama Pass

Atop Kaldama Pass

The drive to Kazarman did in fact take all 5 hours and even a half hour to boot. We first transversed the Kyrgyz hill country avoiding packs of cattle as we went along. Then we began to climb. Up countless hairpins we ascended for well over an hour. The road was rocky, gravel, washed out in some areas and flooded in others. It made for some testy driving. The only cars we saw on the road were 4x4 Toyota’s as they overtook us on the “2-lane” cliffside road. Winding up the mountain, we stopped every so often and looking up it was hard to imagine that we would ever get to the other side of the mountain. Eventually we reached the Kaldama Pass at 10k feet and began our descent. Same as the way up, we trepidatiously creeped down the mountain via similar nail-biting hair pin turns. 6 hours later, we reached Kazarman, the pit-stop town on the way to Son-Kul. Only after the drive did we find out the drive we just did was featured on a Deadliest Roads website...

We ate lunch on the hood of our car and decided we’d push to Son-Kul, or as close as we could, before dark. It was only 2:30 in the afternoon so we were optimistic. The second leg of the drive was again through mountain passes following sharp curves over steep cliffs, but not as troublesome as the first leg of driving. Climbing into the mountains to Son-Kul, rain clouds began to gather as the temperature steadily dropped. Our shorts and t-shirts we donned in Osh were not cut out for the terrain here. Finally, over the seemingly 10th mountain pass of the day, we reached the lake, Son-Kul. It was near dark, raining, and windy. Arriving late, we wanted to wild camp near the lakeshore and experience the wilderness of the Kyrgyz mountain country. We got that and more. 

Camping digs

Camping digs

We picked a lonely spot on the lakeshore that was as clear of cow pies as we could find. We quickly changed into our warm clothes - everyone had jeans, a fleece, a rain jacket, and a Toro winter beanie; some had long underwear that finally paid off for taking up packing space. Not the warmest gear but it worked. We threw together a makeshift shelter stretching our tent rain tarp from our roof rack to Jerry-cans on the ground. Underneath the shelter, Joe made an excellent spam fried rice (yes, we’d been packing spam since leaving USA). Luckily, before the sun set, the rain did conclude and the western sky opened up providing some incredible reddish-purple skies as the sun went down on the western mountains. But as darkness fell, it became too cold to stand outside any longer, even in our cold gear. We gobbled our dinner and buried ourselves in our sleeping bags. Finally, our below zero rated sleeping bags were going to pay-off. -FWY

Son-Kol

Son-Kol