Good day! I was surprised to find that more than two weeks have passed since my last post. Well, I hasten to share my story about a rather intense passage along the granite plateau.
This hike took place the day after my hike to Tavaksay Waterfalls. I returned to Tashkent at about 6 pm, had a quick dinner, repacked my backpack and fell asleep. When I went to bed, a loud feast began at the neighbors. With loud music and hyena-like (or baboon-like) laughter. In fairness, I must say that they did not make noise for long, but they interrupted my sleep. Therefore, I managed to take a nap for only a couple of hours.
At one o'clock in the morning, I was already standing in my usual place, waiting for the rest of the participants. There were not many of us - together with the guide there were only six people. The route was long and demanded good physical shape from the participants, so Sharof refused many who wanted to and enlisted in the group only those who had already gone on hikes with him more than once and in whom he was sure. It is flattering to realize that I am already one of those people. :)
So, we got into cars and went on a long five-hour drive. Although it flew by quite quickly for me - as soon as I got comfortable in the passenger seat, I immediately fell asleep. Only once woke up halfway at the gas station.
I finally woke up already at the pass between Samarkand and Shakhrisabz. By the way, the Demon Plateau is located nearby ... In fact, the Demon Plateau is an extension of the granite plateau.
So, we got out of the cars. Yawning and shivering from the morning coolness, we unloaded from the cars and reluctantly went upstairs. Frankly, the day before after returning from the waterfalls, deep down, I did not mind if this trip will be cancelled. But it didn’t ...
But we were rewarded with a magnificent sunrise.
After admiring the dawn, we went on. Like the Demon Plateau, there are boulders of bizarre shapes and sizes.
With proper lighting and rich imagination, is possible to see various monsters in the boulders.
For example, the stone looks like Loch Ness monster ...
The place is amazing and unique. Samarkand and Samarkand region are quite popular places with tourists, but not that. It is not easy to get here and most tourists do not even know about such places. It's for the best.
There were also mountain tulips, only smaller than on Tavaksay.
On the way, we came across small fenced areas and houses made of stone or adobe - these are shepherds' camps. Livestock is usually kept here during the drive.
I must admit that the houses are quite colorful.
We climbed one of the hills with beautiful panoramic views.
While my companions were resting, I went to look at the surroundings.
And I found many interesting stones. Wind and rain have carved bizarre shapes out of them. At first I mistook one of the stones for the bone of some kind of animal - a scapula or something like that. However, upon closer examination, it turned out that this is a stone with a hole.
After resting, we walked on. And we walked quite briskly. If for the first hour we literally forced ourselves to walk, then our mood improved and our legs carried forward on their own.
And the legs suffered so much that we were ahead of the schedule by three hours.
On the way, I noticed an interesting pile of stones - one large and several smaller ones around it. From a distance it looks like some kind of altar ...
And so, soon we entered the home stretch. Ahead was the hill on which they were supposed to dine. And the time was only 10 o'clock in the morning. Although, on the other hand, we started at 5 am and all these five hours were quite active. You can also dine.
And we climbed this hill.
We had lunch, lay down for a while on the heated stones and having enjoyed the surrounding landscape we went down.
By the way, as you already noticed, on my trips I try to actively photograph all local living creatures, especially ladybirds. Unfortunately, this time I never came across a single ladybug. But all the way was just strewn with dung beetles. They were absolutely everywhere and there were so many of them that I often saw beetles fighting among themselves for a piece of donkey or lamb manure. Shortly before the trip, I was surprised to learn that these beetles navigate the Milky Way when they drag balls of dung into their holes, which are sometimes at a very great distance from the place of extraction of so called useful resources. In addition, it is generally accepted that ants are the most powerful creatures on Earth, since they can lift a load hundreds (or thousands) of times greater than their own. If my memory serves me, then by this indicator the dung beetle is superior to the ant. Here is such an interesting and wonderful insect this dung beetle :).
On the descent, we met local fauna like donkeys and cows.
Curiously, local cows feel very comfortable on rocky slopes.
After about an hour and a half, we went down to the local village, where cars were to pick us up. Passing the houses, I noticed that they were all covered with some kind of cakes. I was so tired that I forgot to ask the guide - but it seems to me that it is dried dung, which the locals then use as fuel. It is curious that dung is compressed manure. But I, somehow, smelled the smoke from a burning dung - and there was nothing in the smell that would betray the origin of this fuel.
A few minutes after we descended to the agreed point, cars drove up and we set off on our way back.
On the way, storks nested on poles. In my opinion, they have already hatched chicks. In general, several birds sat on almost every pole. There were not so many of them as dung beetles, but also a lot.
Every time, passing by Gulistan, I ask myself a question: who and why put this old Soviet little runabout on a pedestal. I still can't find the answer. But cool :). By the way, it is not a Fiat – it is Zaporozhets – Soviet copy of Fiat.
And although we stopped for lunch on the way, we still returned to Tashkent almost two hours earlier than planned. It was a very, very intense hike. In general, the weekend was very busy. I thought that then the whole week I would be recovering from such half marathons. But to my surprise, on Monday morning, I felt great.
A week later, I passed these places again when I went to the city of Shakhrisabz - the birthplace of the famous ruler and commander Tamerlane. But more on that in the next post!
!pinmapple 39.344719 lat 66.971908 long Half marathon on a granite plateau, Samarkand region, Uzbekistan d3scr