Horse Trekking, Kochkor, Kyrgyzstan
Central Asia, known for being the land of the nomads and keeping that tradition alive, even in a world where technology is taking over.
If you have heard of Kygyzstan, you probably already know it is predominently mountainous and full of local families who heard cattle, sheep and horses in the mountains. This country has had a troubled past, but is very welcoming of travellers.
Out of every country you could choose to spend days-on-end riding a horse through the wilderness, Kygyzstan is a definite must-do. From snowy-mountains, to windswept grasslands, to high-altitude lakes, Kygyzstan has it all.
Check out the video of our experience below!
Day 1
We had breakfast around 8/8:30am, then the driver picked us up from Happy Hostel around 9am. From here we drove for 1 hour to a small village called Kzaart. At a random point along the road we took a left turn and drove off the road onto the grassy planes, towards a huge electricity pylon. At the foot of the electricity pylon was a 13 year old girl, her father, and a group of horses ready to go.
We spent half an hour getting our bags set up on the horses and we were ready to go. From here we rode for 1 hour upwards, towards a pass of 2600m, where the mountains and valley opened up in front of us. Each of us came to the top of this pass and were in awe of the un-disturbed beauty all around us.
From here it was another hours riding along thin, sandy paths with steep drops to the valley below, before we rode down towards a small river and our lunch spot.
1 hour later, both the horses and ourselves had eaten and drank and we started off again along the river. We crossed the river here and rode upwards again, along more thin and sandy tracks. After 30 minutes we crested a hill and could see the evenings Yurt camp - another 40 minute ride away. This ride is beautiful and took us from high in the hills, down to a river in the valley, and up a slow incline to the Yurt camp - 4 yurts in total.
We arrived at 3:30pm, 4.5hours after leaving the initial drop-off point. From 3:30pm until 7pm we had time to just enjoy the surrounding landscape and each others company. We then had dinner with our guides and a Swiss couple who were on the first day of a 2 day tour. We ate meat and vegetables, with a lot of bread, jam and tea to accompany it.
Finally, around 10pm we went to bed. At this point we were around 2800m altitude, so at night the temperature really dropped. We brought thermal clothes with us just incase. It was quite warm in the Yurts with the bedding provided.
Day 2
We woke up around 8am, with breakfast soon after. Breakfast consisted of porridge, and the normal bread and jam, and lots of tea.
We set off around 9am and had a 4 hour ride up to the 3400m pass. This ride is very scenic, with a stop after around 1.5 hours so the horses get a rest. At this point we came across another, much bigger group of riders… For the first day we didn’t see another foreigner until we got to the yurt camp in the evening, but on day 2 we were in a very large group by the time we got to the top of the pass, with riding treks going both ways along the path.
The pass gave us our first glimpse of Song-Kol lake, and lead us back down towards the lake shore for another hour. Here the horses became restless and excited at the change of terrain, from steep uphill climbing to flat grasslands. All the horses in our group were trotting along, enjoying the freedom.
After an hour of nice and easy riding, stopped at a larger yurt camp (around 7 yurts) to have lunch. We were waiting around 30/45 minutes until food came, then we had a decent lunch of rice and meat (Plov), and snacks of biscuits and other sweet items. We had lunch in a group of around 20 people in one yurt, which made for an interesting and chaotic meal time.
Soon after finishing we started out for the final hour of riding, on flat grasslands, parallel to the lake and heading towards our sleeping spot for the night - a yurt village of around 3 camps with 25 yurts all together. Here we joined a group of 5 French tourists, who were doing a 3 week walking tour in KGZ.
We had time to walk to the lake and go for a swim, get settled in and talk with the other travellers before dinner around 7:30pm. This meal was a traditional KGZ dish of vegetable noodle soup (Lagman), and was absolutely delicious. We ate and drank tea and socialised until around 10pm and again had an amazing sleep.
We were at 3000m altitude here, so again was very cold as soon as the sun dropped below the hills around us - 7pm in mid-July. So thermals were our best friends.
Day 3
Day 3 started earlier, getting up around 7:30am and having breakfast at 8am. We didn’t leave until 9am, giving us time to get in the final photographs of Song-Kol lake in the morning sunshine.
We then started a 3 hour ride up to a pass, around 3200m altitude, which gave us an amazing view of our path back to the first pass crossed on Day 1. We stayed here for 15 minutes to give the horses a rest, then headed off for another 2 hours to our lunch stop.
Our lunch stop wasn’t until 3:30pm, which was quite a long time from an 8am breakfast. But lunch was amazing when it came, another decent portion of Plov (rice and meat) and a really delicious carrot and cabbage salad. And tea, of course.
After a 45 minute stop for lunch we had another 2 hours of riding to go. This section of the ride was back-tracking along the same path we came down with, so we covered the same thin and dusty tracks with steep drops down to the valley below.
After 1 hour of riding we reached the initial pass we crossed on day 1, and started the final decent to meet our driver (around 1 hour of riding). Here we said goodbye to our trusty horses and got into a car to drive back to Kochkor, which took around 1 hour.
