Kyrgyzstan Field Trip Day 3
Tuesday 10 June 2014
Almaty Office, Kazakhstan
+20°C Sunny
The last day of our 3 day field trip to a proposed mine site in the remote western mountains of Kyrgyzstan again started before dawn with a 6 a.m. departure on Sunday 23 March from Ala Buka in Western Kyrgyzstan on the return leg to Kyrgyzstan’s capital city, Bishkek, after another reasonable night in Ala Buka village hotel. Of course there was still no breakfast for us and we once again tucked into the fruit bought from the local market the night before.
Today was a reasonably easy day, as we had already checked this route. We re-checked a few structures (bridges and tunnels mainly) and also revisited Shambesai Station and surrounding facilities with a more positive outlook on establishing a presence here.
The trip back to Bishkek was uneventful and we arrived back in Bishkek late afternoon weary and satisfied. We lunched next to the toll booth south of Toktogul at a truck stop. The hot food – Manti again – was served quickly and again with the local flat bread swilled down with Ayran was filling and kept us going until Bishkek. Kyrgyz fast food at its best.
The following day saw us reviewing the findings of our trip, followed by the start of the long preparation of the required report. Pity that my computer hard drive chose that moment to crash! I flew back to Almaty the following day after an evening at a great restaurant in Bishkek. It’s surprising just how good the restaurants are there.
Kyrgyzstan Field Trip Day 2
Thursday 5 June 2014
Almaty Office, Kazakhstan
+20°C Sunny
Day two of our 3 day field trip to a proposed mine site in the remote western mountains of Kyrgyzstan again started before dawn with a 6 a.m. departure on Saturday 22 March from Ala Buka in Western Kyrgyzstan, after a reasonable night in Ala Buka village hotel. Of course there was no breakfast at this time and we made do with fruit bought from the local market the night before and water. The second day saw us checking the route from Al Buka to the site and back again to Ala Buka, a distance of around 200km each way, 400km round trip.
We passed through the narrow Devil’s Tower gorge in the dark, with its overhangs and a narrow road alongside a fast-flowing river with tight bends. We decided to view this more closely on the return journey later that day.
