Unfortunately, border clashes between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan occurred in 2021 and 2022 and tensions remain. The border was closed for awhile and is now only open for international travelers. This meant our driver (and his car) could not cross the border. So, we navigated through Tajik border controls, had a soldier jump in with us, drove through half the no-man's land to the border itself, then waited for about 30 minutes for our new driver and car to arrive.
Our new driver, Mohammad, drove us for several more kilometres and down several hundred metres through no-man's land to the Kyrgyz border controls. It was immediately obvious that Kyrgyzstan is a richer country than Tajikistan, because the border infrastructure, was significantly newer and more sophisticated. However, I had longer than I would have liked to observe the infrastructure, because they apparently check with "headquarters" (or something) to ensure each border crosser is on the "approved list" (or something) before letting them cross, and this takes some time. A Dutch couple with an impressive camper truck had been waiting overnight to get their embassy to get them on the list! Luckily they seemed very chill and were well equipped to wait out the bureaucracy. We, on the other hand, only had to wait less than an hour before we were able to enter Kyrgyzstan.
We descended fairly quickly once we were in Kyrgyzstan and, although there were impressive mountains around us, we began to see fields of greenery again.
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Also, in the middle of the photo below, we saw old Soviet observatory domes.
After lunch (and SIM card purchases) in the first town (Sary-Tash), we began heading west, leaving the M41 for a detour to Lenin's Peak, a 7,134 metre tall mountain on the border between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
At a town called Sary Mogul we turned off the highway, passed through the town . . .
. . . and along a gravel/dirt road south towards the mountains and our first glimpse of Lenin Peak--the tallest mountain I have ever seen. By the way, the mountain range is so white in the bright sun, that it is easy to think the mountains are clouds on the horizon!
We are staying at this yurt camp, at the foot of Lenin Peak and the Trans-Alay mountains
This is the yurt I slept in, along with the driver.
I stayed in a yurt before, in Mongolia (there they call it a "ger"), but I enjoyed the experience all over again.
What I did not see in Mongolia is a yurt being pitched. School got out yesterday, so yurts are popping up all over the place as families head out onto the land with their animals or, in this case, to host tourists. This yurt was being set up when we arrived, and here it is with just the framing.
There was a significant snowfall prior to our arrival, and while much of it did melt around the camp, further up there was still a lot of snow, and even where there wasn't it was muddy and slippery.
There are a few good hikes up towards Lenin Peak's base camp, and some other spots, but when I explored the trails after we arrived yesterday, I decided with all the snow and mud it was not the type of trekking I was prepared to take on. Rick and Sarah certainly did not want to, either, so we decided to stick close to camp.
There were a lot of marmots around the lake, and I managed to zoom in and capture one before he darted into his hole.
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