KL Glasgow Overland: Son Kul Lake to Naryn via Moldo Ashuu Pass

We had our half boiled egg with bread and tea breakfast by the lake and prepared a simple lunch to have later on our way through the mountain pass.

Today, we leave Son-Kul Lake and make our way down to Naryn city via the Moldo Ashuu pass.

After driving for about 13km, we are at Moldo Ashuu Pass.
At this point the elevation is 3,250m. Moldo Ashuu Pass goes up to 3,346m above sea level.
From here, the dirt road zig zags, jumping from the side of one hill to the next as we make our way to lower ground.

The seven hairpins that will take us down to the valley which is at an elevation of 2,600m above sea level.

Our Sorento and the hairpin turns on the left.

At Moldu Ashuu Pass

A video of us driving down one of the hairpins

Alpine forest and the Tien Shan mountain range. We have reached the bottom of the pass.

Driving in the valley with the rocky mountain towering on either side.

Alpine forest on rocky mountains

At an elevation of about 2,500m

Locals having a picnic by the river bank.

We stopped a little further up to have our lunch.
We are now at an elevation of about 2,280m.

After about half an hour, it started to rain and the whole area where we were was covered in mist and cloud. The rain went on for another half hour as we continued our slow drive.

Still cloudy and a little misty... but at least the rain has stopped.

Thought a waterfall was up ahead but it was just the wet road...

Elevation down to 1,700m now. Crossing River Naryn near Ak-Tal village.

Old tractor at Ak-Tal village

Cemetary outside of Ak-Tal village.

View about 15km west of Naryn.

Naryn town in the distance. The town is on the banks of Naryn river and in the olden days, it was a fortress along the caravan route from China.

View of the mountains on the opposite side.

Entering Naryn town.

Freedom statue in the main square.

We parked here to look around. Then an old man approached us and was pointing to our car. As ours was the only car parked here... we though he was trying to tell us that we were not supposed to park here. As it turned out, his keen eyes had spotted the puncture on one of our tyres and he was actually gesturing for us to quickly drive to the tyre shop before the tyre goes completely flat..

We left immediately in search of a tyre repair shop after getting some directions from the old man.
Found this shop with a very tiny doorway.

X marks the spot. The puncture was quite big.. We must have picked it up when we were going through a long stretch of puddle earlier one.

Repairing our puncture.. the old fashioned way.. Our tyre was taken off the rim and the inside lining inspected.

The puncture is then sealed with a plug and placed on this machine that applies both pressure and heat to bond the repair patch to the tyre lining. Took a bit of time but it was a good repair. Unlike dad, I have only ever seen a puncture repaired with the simple puncture kit which takes a couple of minutes and does not require the tyres to be taken off the rim.. so this was a good experience.
For good measure, we also had our spare tyre checked before leaving.

Back on the road..

Beautiful blue mosque in Naryn

This is Naryn's central mosque

We stayed the night at Naryn.

Fresh veges at the local bazaar the next morning.

Lunch at a noodle shop.

We had a bowl of laghman with tea and bread. Just nice as the weather is cold outside.

After changing some Som and fueling up, we left Naryn to rejoin the A365 and head south to visit Tash Rabat Caravanserai.

Waiting for the bus...

Street vendor selling veges and melon at Naryn.

Better road ahead. Local cemetary up the slope on the right.

Back on the A365. Torugart is our end destination in Kyrgyzstan.

Statue of a prancing horse near the junction to Ak-Muz

View near At-Bashi village

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At-Bashi village

At-Bashi Town in the distance. In the background is the Bashi mountain range (part of the Tien Shan mountain range) that stretches all the way to Torugart Pass and the Kyrgyz border with China.