I’m greeted with rain this morning but I’m hoping it’ll clear up by the time we start our first hike of the trip. This one will be a short one of 8km with minimal elevation to slowly work our way up to the 20km hike we have later in the week. The rain is coming down so I put on a bright yellow poncho over my rain jacket to cover my camera gear. I look like big bird with my bare legs sticking out of the bottom of the poncho.
The landscape is a mix of yellow grass and dark orange soil covering the mountains. Due to the rain, the soil has turned to mud and I have a 2” layer of muck attached to the soles of my boots which makes me feel like I’m hiking on platform shoes. There’s brief periods when the rain ceases and the misty clouds cover the valleys. We huddle under juniper trees to eat our box lunches that Ismat made the night before containing rice with chicken, grapes, a tomato, and a boiled potato. Fildous has a small burner and kettle in her pack and makes us all black tea sweetened with fresh honey.
After lunch the skies clear and it’s suddenly quite warm and we’re all stripping down before reaching our destination where Murat is waiting with the van. We find puddles to clean the mud off our boots and head to the chalet where we’re staying for the night. It fits 18 people with two levels, a sitting area, kitchen, dining area and two bathrooms. We’re sharing rooms and I bunk with MK and Claudia. Claudia and I commiserate over the hell of menopause and we all sheepishly admit that we snore so decide it’s probably best that we share a room for the remainder of the trip. Claudia is from Germany and although she’s traveling solo, she’s married but her husband doesn’t enjoy hiking so she opted to come on her own. She’s really nice and I enjoy my conversations with her. MK is a nurse from Norway and an avid hiker. She lived in Guatemala for a year working with the Peace Corps and loves to travel. Most of the woman on the tour are single so this would be the most single women I’ve ever been around. It’s fun comparing our lifestyles and how much we enjoy our independence.
The chalet is surrounded by tall, jagged mountain peaks and as the sun begins to set, they turn a dark orange. I meet a young woman who’s originally from Uzbekistan but has been living in the US for the past 20 years. She says she enjoys coming back but doesn’t think she could live here again as she’s too used to the comforts of the US. She says she feels like she doesn’t belong in either place really and it’s an odd feeling to not be at home in your own country.
Murat, Ismat, Gulnoza and Fildous make us an amazing dinner of a hearty beef stew and veggies. For desert we have a shot of Uzbek vodka that’s made out of wheat. It smells like nail polish remover but is surprisingly tasty. As the dishes are cleared, I head to the kitchen to start washing up as my rule is always that “cooks don’t clean” and I get halfway through them before Gulnoza says she will take care of the rest. Everyone is suffering from jet lag and the mountain air has tuckered us out so everyone is in bed by nine.
