29th./30th.September 2019, Chimgan Mountains 2
The next morning it was somewhat cloudy and we had a relatively short an uninteresting walk. The walks bore no resemblance to what was in our programme. Any walk in the Jura or Black Forest would have been more attractive than these walks which we had travelled a long way to do. We started quite steeply up a slope which was obviously a ski-piste in Winter, although we did see one flower on the way. An open chair lift could be seen nearby. This resulted in a long discussion in several languages when we reached the highest point which was below 2000m. We had started at the bottom of a cable car instead of at the top! The cable car was of course not running and I cannot think it ever does in September. There were no other people to be seen. Yesterday we had been supposed to reach 2,900m instead of 1,890 and today 2,700m instead of 1,995m. It seemed to be a problem of communication between the German travel agency, their agency in Usbekistan, our guide and the local mountain guide agency and their guide. Nothing could now be done about it. To make matters worse the mountain guide of the previous day had become ill and was replaced by one who had very little idea of our requirements. After a pic-nic stop by some pylons we descended another less steep piste back to the valley.
It had rained heavily in the night and I feared the worst. Snow could be seen below the clouds on the nearest mountain in the morning. However the weather began to clear and we were taken to a chair lift as a result of the previous day’s discussion. It was not the same one as we had seen the day before and there were other people present. Two of the group chose to go horse-riding and after some waiting around until 11.00 the rest of us were able to go up on the lift. There were good views from the top of another snow-covered mountain but we could not walk from there. The only route, which was barred anyway, lead straight into steep rocky terrain. We came down again and after a lunch break walked for only one hour in the valley. A heard of hundreds of black sheep passed across a meadow in front of us and made a good picture.
Soon back in the hotel we changed for our journey to Bukhara and a night on the train which left at 22.20 and arrived at 6.30 the next morning. It was very cramped with 4 in a compartment but we survived and could occupy our rooms straight away in the morning in Bukhara.