At-Bashi – K'olsu

Duration: 9 days

Day 1

Our trip to Kyrgyzstan starts in the Manas airport located near the capital city. We pick up the guess at the airport, take them to a hotel in Bishkek. Nothing is planned for the first day, so you can rest after the flight and get adjusted to the high altitude – Bishkek is located 760 meters above the sea level.

Day 2

Early in the morning we load our ‘battle’ vehicles and start out in the direction of Naryn. Soon the road turns into a narrow serpentine. We will have to overcome several passes, one of which is more than 3000 meters high. Climbing up along narrow gorges or descending to vast valleys, we continue moving higher and higher. Along the way we can enjoy interesting views of the Orto-Tokoy water dam, ancient mazars standing out against mountains, narrow mountain gorges and picturesque valleys of the Chu River. By the lunch time we enter the city of Naryn, which is located at the height of over 2000 meters. The city is squeezed between two mountain branches and stretches along the river by the same name. The entrance to Naryn is very peculiar… (but we will let you see it with your own eyes). We will stop there for lunch in a restaurant and continue our trip to the valley of the At-Bashi river.

We pass Naryn and have to climb the narrow serpentine road again to reach a small pass, where we take a turn toward the river and say ‘good-bye’ to the asphalted road – there are hundreds of kilometers of dirt and unsurfaced roads ahead of us. After two hours of a tiring drive along dusty roads, we will finally be awarded with magnificent views of the valley of the At-Bashi river (that is, of course, if there is no haze, which sometimes reduces the visibility down to 500 meters!).
After a short drive along the bank of the river, we wills stop at a very picturesque place – the heart shaped river turn. While the organizers are setting up the camp and buy delicious horse milk from their friends, local shepherds, the safari participants can catch the sunset light and work on their first photo masterpieces of this trip.
Dinner. Horse milk. Guitar. Sleep.

Day 3

Our local friends bring horses for us in the morning and we set off for a horse stroll to the Kol-Tor lake. We will reach the old Soviet bridge, which we’ll use to cross the river, and bypassing a turn and a canyon, we will continue climbing higher and higher along the other bank. Even more stunning views open up from that bank. We will reach the lake by lunch. Quick lunch. Photo session. Rest. (You will decide on the order) And a stroll back.
Once we reach the river again, we can deviate from the original route and wonder along the river in the search of interesting angles and scenes. We come back to the camp right before dinner to have yet another incomparable photo session of the sunset. Dinner. Sleep.

Day 4

We start this day by taking off in the direction of the valley of the Aksay river. At about 3500 meters above the sea level we will have to go through a border post. Past the post is where the border territory starts – the Chinese border is less than 100 kilometers away. Descending to Aksay toward Chatyrash, we will enjoy a grand panorama of the Kok-Kyia mountain ridge with a couple of peaks that stand out at 6000 meters.
The next stop is the Kok-Kyia river. To be able to get there, we will have to cross the Aksay river, pass along a couple of flamboyant wooden bridges and a passage located at 4000 meters above the sea level. We reach the place by lunch. We have a quick lunch and set up the camp in the place, where the widest section of the Kok-Kyia river valley turns into a narrow canyon. Apart from a photo shoot in the picturesque canyon of this river, we are about to see some other wonderful sights – herds of yaks, horses and camels against beautiful peaks of the Sary-Beles mountain ridges covered with snow. You can photograph those straight from the camp.
Since the place is located at 3000 m above the sea level, it gets rather cold in the late afternoon, but there is no wood to set up the fire – alps and tundra is all that surrounds it. That is why we will have to have something serious to drink for dinner to keep us warm.

Day 5

And finally, we take off to the K'olsu lake – the pearl of our trip. Even though the lake is very close to the last camp, less than one hundred kilometers, it will take us at least half a day to get there. The cars will have to wade through the turbulent Kelsu river and past cunning highland swamps and finally we will have drive along the dead track to reach the lake’s dam.
On the way to K'olsu we will pass the Surytshash cultural center – a few ramshackle houses, remnants of the Soviet empire along its own border. But people still live there! These people are very hospitable (the farther away from the civilization you are, the better it gets). We befriended them a very long time ago, and they are waiting for us with some treats – home made local bread, yak milk sour cream and butter, horse milk. We have a quick lunch, give toys and sweets that we have brought with us to the local kids and hit the road again.
We will have lunch at the lake, right on the shore. However, the camp will be set up behind the dam – the shore is very rough and rocky, which would make it very uncomfortable to sleep, while the land behind the dam is covered with soft grass! While the organizers are setting up tents and assemble kayaks, the guests can take a walk along the dam and go down to its basis. There is still time before sunset, which should be enough to take a look at how the water rushes out from underneath the ground or small lakes and the K'olsu river emerges. There is one more interesting thing to see there – further down the track there is a ‘Rock Garden’, which becomes very picturesque at sunset.

We come back to the camp at dusk, have dinner and enjoy the starry skies. Those who have enough strength left can take pictures of the Milky way and moon traces on the water.

Day 6

A kayak trip along the green waters of the Kelsu lake – quite an unforgettable adventure! Unrealistic and fantasy-like landscapes, overhanging rocks shooting up to the sky for up to one kilometer, waterfalls, and a rocky island in the center of the lake – you have to see all this for yourself! We take some food with us and have a quick lunch in one of the bays, where no human has probably ever set his foot before. We spend the whole day on the lake – swim, come on shore, study new places, swim again taking a lot of photos all this time!

Day 7

A hike to a cavern is planned for the first half of the day. Everything around us looks like a gothic horror, or the Lord of the Ring epic or the settings of DOOM. A narrow entrance to the cavern that turns into a large hall is hidden between two walls of the rock. It is cold inside and as we walk in, we face an altar. There are a couple of corridors leading down, where it gets really cold and walls are decorated with weird textures glistering from frost and crystals of ice. All this gives you a sense of being deep down in the sea. You can try and experiment with light graffiti in the cavern, which will look very original on your photos!
In the afternoon we climb the Kit peak at 4000 meters, from where you would be able to see the Kelsu river, Kok-Kyia and the mountain ridges nearby. The climb there is not technically difficult, but very good for your health. And the hikers will be able to add yet another conquered mountain peak to their records, take unique photos of the sun setting behind the two-headed peaks of the opposite ridge.

Day 8

An extra day. If during one of the walks or hikes the group decides that there maybe some interesting photo opportunities, which it hasn’t used yet (be it because of weather conditions or a lack of time), or if someone decides that some mistakes were made during the two previous photo shoots and needs to try to fix the mistakes by photographing those themes again – this is the day to do that!
In the evening we have a farewell dinner. We may not have a bonfire, but we’ll definitely have live music! :)