We rose bright and early this morning and by 7.30am we were out the door and off in search of a tent, a primus, a pot and some gas - doesn't sound too hard considering we're in a trekking town with trekking agencies on every street corner. Well the town was almost completely out of gas, and their comments that there was gas in Bishkek didn't really help us at that's 8 hours away! Most of the tents and primuses were either broken or in the mountains already AND it was pouring with rain - not the perfect start to our camping trip.
By 1.30pm we had finally acquired everything we needed, but had run out of time to hike up the mountain, so we caught a discounted jeep paying only the fuel up to Altyn Arashan as the jeep had to go up the mountain to pick up some people up there.
Altyn Arashan is almost at 3000m with 4000m peaks in the distance, and the most popular thing about it is the natural hot springs there! 
When we arrived, the rain had pretty much stopped, so we decided to get a head start on tomorrow's hike, and walked 45 minutes along cattle trails, weaving in and out of forests, all the time following the river to the base of the Ala Kol (Lake Ala) Pass we want to climb over tomorrow. 
We clarified that we were in the right place with a family living in a tent by the river, and chatted in one-word sentences with the mother and young daughter (who was cuddling up to the family puppy). 
We set up our tent, which was soaked through in a matter of minutes, and got cooking. Soon we were feasting on noodles and corn, and the best thing about it was that it didn't even have a 'little bit' of meat!!
After dinner the clouds cleared and we got awesome views of Pik Palatka, which stands at 4260m, and all around us the herds of sheep came pouring down from the forest above to graze on the grass and enjoy the cool water of the roaring river nearby.
By 7.30pm it was dark outside, so with nothing much to do we get into our sleeping bags and tried our best to stay warm for the night.
Adlibing it into the mountains.
By 1.30pm we had finally acquired everything we needed, but had run out of time to hike up the mountain, so we caught a discounted jeep paying only the fuel up to Altyn Arashan as the jeep had to go up the mountain to pick up some people up there.
Altyn Arashan is almost at 3000m with 4000m peaks in the distance, and the most popular thing about it is the natural hot springs there! When we arrived, the rain had pretty much stopped, so we decided to get a head start on tomorrow's hike, and walked 45 minutes along cattle trails, weaving in and out of forests, all the time following the river to the base of the Ala Kol (Lake Ala) Pass we want to climb over tomorrow. We clarified that we were in the right place with a family living in a tent by the river, and chatted in one-word sentences with the mother and young daughter (who was cuddling up to the family puppy). We set up our tent, which was soaked through in a matter of minutes, and got cooking. Soon we were feasting on noodles and corn, and the best thing about it was that it didn't even have a 'little bit' of meat!!After dinner the clouds cleared and we got awesome views of Pik Palatka, which stands at 4260m, and all around us the herds of sheep came pouring down from the forest above to graze on the grass and enjoy the cool water of the roaring river nearby.By 7.30pm it was dark outside, so with nothing much to do we get into our sleeping bags and tried our best to stay warm for the night.
Adlibing it into the mountains.
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