We left early for the four hour drive from Samarkand to Hayat in the Nuratau Mountains. The drive is quite uneventful. The road is good in the beginning but the occasional villages nondescript and very functional not pretty at all. Roofing of choice is always corrugated iron, house walls are either exposed grey ytong blocks or painted wite. Many buildings give an unfinished impression as if the owner had stopped the work as soon as they moved in.
Wherever we go lots of new construction can be seen. Industrial, commercial and redidential. We drove through as few smaller cities and again it stuck us how clean everything was here. No rubbish on the road side, not flying plastic bags across the steppe. No glass or cans rolling across the roads like we see in so many other countries. Uzbeks really keep their country clean and tidy.
The land we‘re driving through is dead flat and while in the beginning many fields were visible, the further north we came the more arid the landscape became. Agriculture went from crops to livestock only.
Herds of brown and black sheep and goats , some cattle, not much more could be seen. The further we went from a large city, the worse the road became until it was nearly as bad as Zimbabwe with so many pot holes that our driver needed to swerve to the oncoming traffic lane in order to avoid the largest holes.
Slowly a mountain range to our left emerged. Nurata Mountains are supposed to be Uzbekistans first try at Eco Tourism. Lots of hiking paths here and pretty valleys and peaks. Unfortunately it started to rain, so noch much of a panorama so far. After four hours drive we arrived at our Guest house in Hyat, a small mountain village in the middle of the mountains.
We arrived right at lunchtime as enjoyed a simple lunch with fresh salad and dumplings. A group of Swiss travelers were already there, and a large group of Russians arrived as well. Looks to be a busy place. Our room is simple, two beds, one bright, bluish LED bulb lighting the room and apparently no socket to charge anything (Later, we actually discovered two power outlets by the door, hidden behind the towels). Reception in the mountains is zero, but to our surprise, there is internet through WIFI.
After that long drive and lunch, we felt we needed to stretch our legs, so we donned our hiking gear, rain coat and all and started just walking uphill from our guest house. Just wandering higher up we chose a path that passed a few farm houses until we climbed up t a lookout platform. From here the view was great despite the rain. Lots of green hills, small farms and lots of grazing aninmals.
The braying of donkeys and bleeting of little goats crying for their moms is everpresent. After about 45 min we were back to our guest house, wet but we felt better having done at least some exercise.
Due to the weather and our original guide Inom only joining us for dinner, we decided to spend the rest of the rainy afternoon napping, writing and reading.
