{"id":2104,"date":"2017-06-06T10:59:15","date_gmt":"2017-06-06T10:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mak.iqt.com.au\/?p=2104"},"modified":"2017-06-06T10:59:15","modified_gmt":"2017-06-06T10:59:15","slug":"2nd-june-toktogul-to-arslanbob","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mak.iqt.com.au\/?p=2104","title":{"rendered":"2nd June – Toktogul to Arslanbob"},"content":{"rendered":"

We leave the Ozon guest house on our 310 km drive to a small village called Arslanbob in the middle of the world’s walnut forest. \u00a0Our drive takes us down through the valley passing cows & sheep.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We have to drive around Toktogul reservoir which is quite long, but the views are glorious, with the water contrasting with the surrounding rocks, snow capped mountains and green hills that look like someone has laid felt over rocks.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0\u00a0\"\"\"\"\"\" \"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0\u00a0\"\"\"\" \"\"<\/p>\n

We stop for morning tea overlooking the lake amongst the wild herbs including chamomile and marijuana.<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\"<\/p>\n

After morning tea we pass by a reservoir that has the most beautiful turquoise water that contrasts beautifully against the stark rocks.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Our lunch stop is beside the road sitting under mulberry trees for shade as its quite warm today.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The road into Arslanbob deteriorates with lots of pot holes in the bitumen, roadworks and many animals on the road so it’s slow going. \u00a0The scenery is lovely though with the green trees and snow capped mountains.<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

Once we enter the village the road to our homestay is up quite a steep rocky road which we bump our way over. \u00a0Burgundy has trouble on this section as the car stalls and then won’t start. \u00a0Shamrock hits its exhaust again and knocks off the bracket that had previously been fixed in Bishkek.<\/p>\n

After investigating Burgundy the mechanics of the group discover that one of the cells in the battery has collapsed and a new battery will need to be bought tomorrow.<\/p>\n

Shamrocks exhaust is fixed this afternoon at local repair while we take a truck to a water fall and the walnut forest.<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We have to climb up a very steep gravelly path to get a close look at the walnut trees. \u00a0It is reputed that Alexander the Great visited this forest and took walnuts with him to Macedonia. The trees are very old with gnarled trunks which makes a good place to stop for a seat in the shade.<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\"<\/p>\n

The nuts have started to grow but they are still quite small and they will be ready for picking in September.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The village we are staying in has a large Uzbek population and most of the women and young girls dress in a more conservative Muslim way with long sleeve dresses to the ground and a head scarf. \u00a0Horses are used by the men as a means of transportation.<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\"<\/p>\n

The home we are staying in is accommodating 10 of us, the other 6 are staying across the road. \u00a0All of the cars are parked in the courtyard of the home we are staying in behind tall gates. \u00a0There are 3 buildings which overlook this courtyard and a small pasture for growing vegetables. \u00a0The rooms are decorated in a traditional way and we sit on colourful Uzbek cushions on the floor to eat our dinner which they have prepared in the kitchen. There is no plumbing in the rooms we need to go outside to get to the bathrooms, which isn’t a problem as it’s not that cold here.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We leave the Ozon guest house on our 310 km drive to a small village called Arslanbob in the middle of the world’s walnut forest. […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mak.iqt.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/DSC05404.jpg?fit=3648%2C2736&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8qvHY-xW","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mak.iqt.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mak.iqt.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mak.iqt.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mak.iqt.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mak.iqt.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2104"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/mak.iqt.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2240,"href":"https:\/\/mak.iqt.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104\/revisions\/2240"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mak.iqt.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mak.iqt.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mak.iqt.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mak.iqt.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}