Hello! After returning from Boysun, I took a week off to recover from a teribble beautiful adventure and wait for the weather to stabilize. I didn't really want to knead the dirt again.
And now in the Tashkent region, sunny and clear weather was established. "Mysterious Uzbekistan" announced a trip to the Tavaksay waterfalls and I decided to join them. Last winter I already visited this region and I was curious to see the green hills and not frozen waterfalls.
This place, alas, is very popular among the residents of Tashkent - it's not far to go, it's easy to walk, and the places are very beautiful and picturesque. Especially in spring, when mountain tulips are in bloom. Therefore, every spring hundreds or even thousands of people walk here, mercilessly trampling the grass and plucking delicate tulips. I am outraged by such barbarism - mountain tulips are "Red Book" plants and if they are plucked, they will no longer grow. Yes, and they will only stand in a vase for a couple of hours and then they will wither. For the sake of photos in social networks, such beauty is ruined ...
This time there was another full house on Tavaksai. Only "Mysterious Uzbekistan" brought about thirty people. And besides them, excursions and other tour operators lead here. On that day, a total of a couple of hundred people probably gathered at the waterfalls.
So, as usual, we met early in the morning at the agreed place and hit the road. We unloaded in the village of the same name and while the people were gathering, I found an interesting plate on one of the fence. Apparently, the owner of the site dragged her out of some Soviet canteen. In general, I really like walking around the villages - sometimes you can find many interesting and colorful things there.
Tavaksay is translated from Uzbek as "Noisy stream". And if during my last visit the water was not enough, then this time Tavaksay fully justified its name.
We walked along a path trodden by thousands of feet.
I walked and enjoyed the air and local scenery.
On the way, we came across a herd of horses grazing peacefully on the slope of one of the hills.
There I liked the horse, the black and white color of which resembled the color of a cow :).
We jumped over the merrily babbling Tavaksay.
And we reached the waterfall, which is called "Forty Braids". I have also come across the name "Girl's Hair". I believe that such an association is caused by the stream of the waterfall - they seem to be divided into many small streams, similar to the thin braids that Uzbek girls usually braid.
This is a common traditional hairstyle in Uzbekistan.
_ Credit _
After passing this waterfall, we came across the only untouched tulip. A whole line lined up to photograph him.
Another waterfall passed. As I read on the Internet - the Tavaksay system of waterfalls numbers as many as 8 pieces. True, I counted only five ...
I must admit, we got to the right time - the hills were covered with fresh grass, around there were pistachio (or almond) bushes. It was warm, but not hot. In general, sheer pleasure.
On the way, we scared off two cows basking in the sun.
We walked to the next waterfall and after the photo session we climbed up.
We passed another waterfall.
And scared the cows again.
And they came across a parking lot ... no, not Paleolithic people, but just shepherds.
And here tulip lovers were able to take their souls away. The guides strictly forbade picking tulips. It was only possible to photograph and very, very carefully, so as not to step on them.
Then we went to the plateau surrounding the Karatash canyon ("black stone" in Uzbek). Some of the tourists have already managed to fly a kite.
We took pictures and scattered along the edges of the canyon.
Someone climbed down the canyon to look at the waterfall. I decided to go around and look at it from the other side.
This is Katta Tavaksay or "Big Tavaksay" - the highest waterfall in this system. Its height is about 20m.
After resting, having lunch and even took a short nap, we began to get ready for the return trip.
For the sake of variety, we went back not along the Tavaksay river bed, but along the tops of the hills.
One of the hills looked like the hump of a Bactrian camel. And it was called "Camel"
Another hill was of a very interesting pointed shape - like some kind of tent.
We walked around the hills, came out into an open clearing from where an excellent view of the surrounding mountains opened up.
In general, the journey ended there. We went down to the village, loaded onto cars and set off on the way back. Despite the fact that we walked about 13 km, the hike was easy and enjoyable. And this is good - because next day I was expecting an intense 25-kilometer hike along the granite plateau. Looking ahead, I will say that it was difficult, but very cool. But more on that in my next post!
!pinmapple 41.579397 lat 69.657935 long Tavaksay - hike to the Valley of waterfalls, Tashkent region, Uzbekistan d3scr