Day 10 Naryn to Tash Rabat

This is day 8 of our ride itinerary but day 10 of our Kyrgyz  tour. Only a very short ride roday up into the mountains to  Ger camp at Tash  Rabat.  We are staying in traditional yurts for the night and were lucky enough to be able to settle in early. We had our lunch at the Ger camp  as the roadside lunchstop was closed.

After lunch we went to the old caravanserai  at Tash Rabat. It was  built betwern 1408 and 1416 and was  a resting place for travellers on the silk road. It sits around 3500m above sea level and I am having trouble breathing with the thin air.
Apart from some minor restoration work it is in suprisingly good condition  for its age. I failed to mention in earlier blogs that a lot our rides are on the old silk road route. Its hard to imagine how difficult travel would have been back in those days.

After the look in the Caravanserai we were invited  to tea with some  local people at another her camp. The spread was amazing.
On our return trip to our camp we came across a herd of horses. Ann and I had let the group  move ahead so we could absorb the surroundings and having a herd of horses pass us with incredible views was just another highlight. The sole herder appreciated us stopping for his horses and rode up to us for a photograph.

We returned to the camp where the girls and Hugo had a Russian Sauna. Had I been able to breathe properly I would have joined in but I didnt want to risk  passing out so I just waited and videoed them coming out and into the icy creek.

Our hosts appear to be Russian and Yuri has very good english and is very funny with his comments. He refers to Ann as Anya and I think he has taken a liking to her.
Apparently this is supposed to be done naked according to Yuri , but modesty prevailed, much to his disappointment.
Dinner was served at 7 pm and started with  Borsch and a type of goulash followed for a main course.  Back in our room we had a traditional Russian massage. I had parts of my body aching I didnt know existed but a few of the tight muscles werea lot more relaxed after that. It took about10 minutes to doze off after that and considering the outside temp was somewhere between 0 and 5 C it was quite comfortable on the yurt