Hello again! Today I would like to share with you photos from my trip to Arashan Lakes. Unfortunately, when I first time learned about these lakes, the travel season was already over. I waited almost a year and as soon as "Mysterious Uzbekistan" announced a trip, I immediately signed up.
A little information about Arashan Lakes. In general, the word "Arashan" in Turkic languages is translated as "source". As I understand it, this name appeared due to the local thermal spring. It is very curious because these lakes are located on the outskirts of the Angren Plateau, on the southern slopes of the Tien Shan and the Tien Shan mountains were formed by tectonic processes, but not volcanic. This is confirmed by geologists. So, the water from the local glaciers in some strange way seeps through the mountains to the earth's crust, it heats up and returns back to the surface.
The group of Arashan lakes includes Lake Arashan, Khoja-Arashan, Big and Small Lakes. Frankly speaking, there is a mess in toponyms - I met such designations like Long Lake, Big Arashan, Middle Lake, etc. Therefore, I will call them as our guides told me.
Arashan lakes are high-moraine-type lakes lying at an altitude of 2774m to 3365m above sea level. There are no permanent settlements, as nature is very harsh to man. In warm time, shepherds come here and live in yurts or tents. Also here come pilgrims as well as tourists like me. The nearest settlement is located about 60 km far from the lakes and is called Ertash. I don’t know how to translate it from the Uzbek language - either “man-stone”, or “man’s stone”. "Er" from Uzbek is translated as "man, male", and "tash" - as a"stone".
This is a border territory (it borders with Kyrgyzstan), so you must first obtain permission to visit the border zones and pass control at the border post near Ertash.
I was warned that the road would be difficult. Actually, there is no road at all. And for three hours it will be necessary to drag along SUVs along a broken track. But then the landscapes are very beautiful and the received impressions will compensate for all the inconvenience. I have already seen photos of these places on the Internet and wanted to see them live.
So, the tour is paid, the rucksack is packed and I am ready to travel. We left Tashkent at three o'clock in the morning and the next two and a half hours we had to go to the Kamchik pass, which is connecting the Tashkent region and the Ferghana Valley. We met the dawn on the road.
We drove a beautiful Angren reservoir
We stopped at the Kamchik pass.
At the entrance to the pass, near the village of Ertash, three Niva (Russial SUV model) was waiting for us, we unloaded, stretched ourselves a bit, had breakfast. We also visited a "rocket" (as the locals called a roadside home-made toilet), plunged into the Niva and drove on.
I must say that the weather on this day at first was not very good. Closer to the mountains it became cloudy and cool. The trip was in mid-June and usually in Tashkent at this time the summer is in full swing and the temperature in the city is already almost 40 degrees. Therefore, I was a little surprised when the organizers of the trip told to bring jackets with me, because expected temperature is about 5-10 degrees and rain is possible. 5-10 degrees in the afternoon at the height of summer in Uzbekistan?! Seriuosly?! Looking ahead I will say that it was seriously! In general, during this one-day trip, we survived all four seasons.
We plunged into our SUVs and set off. Actually, Soviet and Russian vehicles are terrible in comparison with German or Japaneese cars, but I will tell you - "Niva" is a wonderful car! It can drive on almost any off-road and at the same time quite comfortable. And if you take care for it, then in general it is an ideal machine.
So we set off. The icy air blew through the open windows and we had to cover them a bit. In addition, light rain began.
The landscapes looked stern and gloomy because of the formidably overhanging clouds. I must say that this was in very contrast with what I saw in the photographs. Usually, Arashans at the announcements looked bright, colorful, sunny and picturesque. Something like that:
That day they looked like this:
But I believe that this is even better - we saw the harsh and gloomy beauty of these places. I don't know why, but I had associations with Iceland - especially when we went up to the upper lakes.
In the meantime, we just went to the lakes and alpine landscapes flickered outside the window:
Sometimes the wind dispersed the clouds and the sun broke through them. Alas, no any photo will convey the feelings you experience there - cold and tasty air. Yes, yes - it is delicious! Mountain coolness, even cold. The smell of grass, the noise of the wind and a feeling of remoteness from civilization.
We continued to slowly but surely climb up.
SUVs rose to a height of more than 2700 m above sea level. It got much colder and a piercing wind blew. Our little caravan of three Niva finally approached Lake Arashan.
Having crossed to the other side of the lake, we unloaded from vehicles. Further it was necessary to walk. And here that jacket (about which the organizers warned me) was very useful. It was very cold. It is very unusual to plunge from hot Tashkent if not in winter, then in early spring or late autumn. Chattering my teeth from the cold, I pulled on my jacket and we climbed up the mountain to the Small and Big Lakes.
The clouds hung so low that it seemed that it is possible to touch them.
We reached the Small Lake, beyond which lies the Big Lake.
Around snowfields, drizzling rain turning into snow. The slopes of the mountains are hidden by clouds, the icy wind - it seems as if it is not Uzbekistan, but some kind of Scandinavia or as I said - Iceland.
We came to the Big Lake, took pictures there. Two participants from our group even ventured to swim in the lake. Although the water temperature here rarely rises above 5-6 degrees. However, with screams, they dived and swam a few meters. Honestly, I also seized bathing accessories but I did not dare to swim. It was painfully cold, even in a jacket.
The wind was getting stronger and we decided to go down to the cars. Soon, the place of our stop was cloudy. We went down the snowfields and the approaching clouds were catching us. Very cool sight!
We went down to Lake Arashan. We got into cars and drove to a hydrogen sulfide (someone says that to a radon) thermal spring. The water temperature there is almost like that of the human body - 36.7 degrees, regardless of the time of year. Unfortunately, for some reason my own photographs of the thermal spring didn't save, so I found on the Internet a photo of another author.
The guides told us that in the first years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was planned to run pipes from a thermal spring to the Namangan region and use water for heating. But, fortunately, the project was failed.
Some participants undressed and plunged into the water, some just sat on the edge of the pool and lowered their legs into it. After sitting like this for about half an hour, we got out, wiped ourselves and drove back. Having driven off a bit, we saw that the clouds completely hid the mountains from sight. Surely there began heavy rain or even snowfall.
But below the weather was better. The clouds began to disperse, the sun appeared and became much warmer.
Downstairs, on the Angren Plateau, it was generally wonderful :) Of course, we stopped and took plenty of pictures.
Every time after such trips, I am convinced how beautiful and diverse Uzbekistan is and how much of everything unknown is waiting for me. And that's great! I made a note to return here again and take photographs of the lakes in sunny weather.
And finally, my long-time friend Ilya (here he is known as 
!steemitworldmap 41.364639 lat 70.517459 long Arashan lakes - a walk through the clouds. Uzbekistan d3scr