Hello! I bring to your attention a story about my second trip to Gidzhal. In my previous topic I already wrote about my first visit to this wonderful location. And although the first journey took place in a continuous fog, I still managed to imagine the beauty of these places and became very enthusiastic to walk about once again along this route.
That trip took place in the second half of March 2020. Oh, my God, a whole year has passed... This whole situation with the coronavirus was just beginning and no one suspected that it would all drag on for a year. And who knows how long these restrictions will last? In Uzbekistan, we joke that in this March it will be exactly one year since the two-week lockdown began.
But let's go back a year. By that time, Uzbekistan had already closed its external borders, but trips inside the country were still available, and I decided to take the chance and leave for the mountains for at least one day. It was on this day that the government decided to impose travel restrictions between cities, but we managed to leave Tashkent. And since we were all residents of the capital, we had the right to freely return home in the evening. Admittedly, this was not the most conscientious behavior :).
"Mysterious Uzbekistan" posted a photo report on the last trip on its social networks accounts and it aroused great interest among subscribers. It is no wonder - because the photos turned out to be mysterious and otherworldly. Therefore, almost 30 people signed up for the next trip.
We left at 6 o'clock in the morning and, according to my old tradition, I took a seat by the window to enjoy the sunrise.
After an hour and a half, we arrived in the village of Gidzhal - the starting point of our trip. This time the guides decided to slightly change the route and make it more picturesque. We were going to walk along the bed of the Aksakatasay River, then climb the marble plateau and go down to the cars along it.
Translated into English, Aksakata means “lame old man” - this local saint who miraculously created this river. In general, the shores of Aksakatasay are rich in archaeological and paleontological finds. It is no wonder - once, in the Cretaceous period, tens of millions of years ago the sea splashed here and all sorts of toothy "-zavors" swam. Time, wind and water have carved canyons and ravines in local limestone sediments. Here we walked along them.
Alas, I do not know how to translate the name of the village, but I read that near the village of Gidzhal, ruins of fortress houses dating from the X-XII centuries were found. Those, a thousand years ago people lived here. Moreover, in these places people lived even 30-40 thousand years ago. When quarantine will be cancelled, I’m planning to come here again and photograph the sites of primitive people, their petroglyphs and cave paintings. Oh, you cannot imagine how I want to come here...
Going upstairs, we went to one of the clearings and saw some kind of spiral laid out of stones. The guides said that it was laid out by one of their rival friends, who was fond of all sorts of quasi-religious teachings. Something related to energy, aura and the like...
Soon we went to yet another clearing, on which the tree famous in these places grows - it’s a very old nut that has almost dried up. Only a couple of branches are still alive.
This clearing offers excellent views of the Aksakatasay bed and the nearby mountains.
When we started near the village of Gidzhal, we were joined by a local dog, who followed us the entire route. We fed him, stroked and squeezed. This is not the first time local dogs have made us company. On a trip around Urikbel, dog model Muynak joined us. During a trip to the Aeolian city, a couple of local dogs protected us from other dogs. Those, our shaggy companions are called "practiced" their treats. At the same time, I got some kind of stupid and eternally hungry dog who constantly begged for food. Apparently it is still young ...
By the way, I looked at the history of my blog here and did not find on Peakd.com and Pinmapple.com a post about my last year’s trip to Machitasgon. Cool, then I can publish photos from my old trips and win some time to prepare new post :). Well, In Machitasgon was also a very smart dog walking with us, who showed us fords through streams, and in general looked after us. So the idea for the next story came up. :-)
When we climbed into the next meadow, we found a herd of sheep. In turn, the dog guarding this herd found us and with a bark rushed to defend its wards. And now, it would seem, the finest hour of our new shaggy friend has come to prove himself and show that it is not in vain that we feed him. But no, it not paying attention to the clutter, calmly went on leaving us to deal with the shepherd on our own. Fortunately, everything worked out well. The herd remained untouched and a dog didn’t bite us.
We went around the herd in a wide arc and began to climb up to the marble plateau and eagles soared above us. A bewitching sight ...
Climbing the hill, we sat down to take a breath and enjoy the surroundings. After about ten or fifteen minutes, we began to climb the marble plateau. There was scheduled lunch and a small halt. As soon as they got out their sandwiches our dog immediately appeared and again began to beg for food. But since he significantly dampened his reputation, only a couple of pieces passed him from us.
It was warm and sunny. Someone after lunch lay down to take a nap, but I decided to wander along the hills and take pictures of the surroundings.
Remember, I said that there used to be a sea here? The whole plateau was dotted with petrified shells.
And among them ladybugs crawled ...
Over there, still covered in snow, Mount Syurenata.
After about an hour or a half our improvised camp came to life, we began to pack our things and go down.
We went down slowly, taking pictures on the edge of the cliff.
Soon, we went down to the foot of the plateau to the village, where cars were waiting for us.
When we arrived at Tashkent, it turned out that minibuses were not allowed to enter the city and we were forced to disembark on the outskirts and already taking a taxi to our house. Quarantine restrictions began to gain strength.
Well, that time I thought that self-isolation would last a couple of weeks. Maybe a month. How naive I was! With short breaks, we sat in quarantine from March to August - almost six months! The best hiking period was irretrievably lost. Nevertheless, I managed to get out into the mountains a few times, but this happened much less often than I would like.
This year I plan to catch up everything. I hope there will be no more such a cruel lockdown….
Good luck!
!pinmapple 41.436047 lat 69.822885 long "I’ll be back..." or my second trip to Gidzhal, Tashkent region, Uzbekistan d3scr