Adlibing Asia: Day 469 - Wandering to the waterfalls

Bed and Breakfasts are our new favourite thing!!! We woke up to bread, homemade apricot jam, pancakes, cookies, chocolate, nuts and tea - what a start to the day! Once we finished eating (which took us nearly an hour and a half) the three of us set out for a day of walking around the village. We first headed for the Big Waterfall that began with a wander along the riverside before we cut into the hills to weave our way past the homes that dot the land outside the centre of the village.

Along the way we were steered in the right direction by helpful locals, always waving and smiling at us - the women dressed in colourful dresses and headscarves while doing the gardening and other chores, and young boys and their heavily-laden donkeys traipsing down the stony path.

The river is such a large part of life here as it plays a vital role in nourishing the lush gardens and forests, and the amazing irrigation system makes sure that almost every home has a small stream running into or past - creating the need for cute bridges at many front gates.

After a couple of hours we made it to the 80m high waterfall and clambered our way up the gravelly mountain for close up views. It's not one of the waterfalls with a nice pond at the bottom, which disappointed Adam as he was ready for a swim, but he and Simen climbed even higher up the cliff face beside to get a view down the sheer drop that the water tumbles over.

On the way down Adam managed to climb an apple tree to pick some apples, at the same time putting a massive rip in the bottom of his pants - yet another rip for Liv to sew up tonight!

Back in the village we headed for the smaller waterfall, and once again the friendly locals who at every chance posed for photos made sure we were going the right way. Along the path we watched a couple of young boys throwing stones to gather some sweet apples as treats (not the kind of sweets us westerners would search for). At the waterfall we ate our lunch of cheese and bread and lazed on some rocks in the sun, drifting off to sleep to the sound of the water splashing its way down the rocks to the pool below.

After our rest we climbed up a hill hoping to find ourselves in a walnut forest, which we eventually did, where Adam especially enjoyed helping a woman gather nuts.

The process of walnut collecting is quite cool - it involves a monkey-like man climbing to the top of the high trees and stomping and jumping to cause the tree to release their payload to the ground. Here mum takes over and collects the hundreds of fallen nuts!

We spent a couple of hours in the shade of the gorgeous forest, its leaves slowly changing colour, all the while smashing open the occasionally walnut to snack on. With the evening approaching we made our way to a vantage point to look out over the Uzbek village we currently call home!

We followed a donkey and its owner down the hill, one of us slipping every few minutes down the steep, slippery slope, until we made it back to our guesthouse, and of course were welcomed like we were family.