In search of camels in the desert

 

Camels!

  Monday morning it became time to leave our beloved Bukhara and head off north to the edge of the Kyzyl Kum desert to experience life in a nomadic yurt camp and see those iconic enablers of the ancient Silk Road - the camels. Without these funny-looking humpy creatures it would have been impossible to carry all those goods through the arid hot desert. So as touristy as it is, we wanted to experience first hand what it would be like to ride a camel in the desert. But more about that later. We first had to reach the desert and to do that we hopped in our white Chevrolet driven by our quiet guide for the next few days (or so we thought).   Traveling the Silk Road nowadays is like child's play compared to how it was in the times of Marco Polo, but from a Finnish or Dutch point of view there's still plenty of excitement on the Uzbek roads, and I don't mean it in a good way. The only rule seems to be that there are no rules, lanes are non-existent and the right of passage belongs to anyone who manages to claim it first (pedestrians of course excluded). On top of the crazy traffic, seat belts are merely decoration, especially in the back seat. But maybe it's better anyways to be flung out of the car in case of an accident since most cars run on either methane or propane (don't quote my science on that). So driving here is a no-no unless you are the ultimate daredevil or come from a similar driving culture. Somehow our driver managed to weave his way through the traffic and the massive potholes and get us safely to our camp in the desert (through a few pits tops in the Gijduvan ceramics center and an ancient pile of rocks, that used to be a fort used by Alexander the Great during his conquest of the world). The latter was nothing special and a separate post about ceramics will follow at some point, so no more of that now.

Standing on Alexander the Great's fortress

  As we come from Finland and the Netherlands, our experience with desert landscapes is quite limited so we had no idea what to expect from the Uzbek version of it. Would it be pure sand or would there also be some bushes here and there? To be honest, it was quite hard to say where the steppe ended and the desert began, but our conclusion is that maybe the steppe is completely flat and the desert a continuously undulating landscape with actually quite a lot of greenery and beautiful red poppy fields!

View of the Kyzyl-Kum from the car

 

Horse outside the yurt camp

 

Poppies!

  The yurt camp was a circle of about 20 yurts with a fire pit in the middle and a little covered terrace next to the main house. Yurts are the typical tents built from wood and felt of the Kazakh nomads, and here they were simply furnished with just the mattresses on the floor, but what they lacked in furniture they sure made up in decorations and color! 

Row of yurts

Inside the colorful yurt

  We got there around 4 p.m and by about 4.30 we were sweating like pigs. Just when we were starting to wonder whether we should dig into the cooler layers of the sand, our guide comes up to us and asks if we wanna go for a swim! For this desert yurt camp was only a 15 minute ride away from the second biggest lake in the country, Aydar Kul, thanks to the Soviet Union who decided to dam some rivers and redirect the waters to a salty plain (that's also why the lake is slightly saline). Blessing the old Union for this great deed, we happily dashed for one of the best swims ever (that's at least how it felt at the time). 

At the beach, in the desert

  Refreshed from our swim, we were happy to return to the now cooler camp and walk around a bit appreciating the gorgeous nature around. And of course ride those camels! It was a nice 20 minute stroll in the setting sun, but being walked by a guide like little kids on a pony was hardly an authentic experience. Still the camels were funny and we had a good laugh about it. And I have discovered a newfound appreciation for the butt muscles of those travelers of the old Silk Road. Poor fellows. 

Ready to go!

 

Shadow selfie camelback-style

 

Maria's camel wins the best quiff competition by far!

  All in all, the desert yurt camp was nicely arranged and a fun experience, continuing the Uzbek trend of great food with lamb and topped off with a night around the campfire with traditional Kazakh music (which was actually quite good).