Our first yurt is a surprise. It’s a bright white ring in a field of green. And soon fistfuls of yurts gleam all over the place …

Yurts are sturdy portable tents. They have steam-bent wooden frames and walls made of lattice. Layers of sheepskin felts weatherproof the outside and thick carpets insulate the inside.

YuRtS are the face of Kyrgyzstan in summer!

Slowly their logic unfolds. They go up and down the mountains. They go up and down with the seasons. They twinkle, on slopes, only in summer. Kyrgyz herders and horses, cattle and sheep migrate vertically! They move up to mountain pastures in summer and come down to the sheltered valleys in winter. Only an occasional yurt for a herder of the hardy, hairy yak hangs around in winter.

Yurts don’t argue with the seasons. They don’t brace blizzards on wintery mountain-tops. They simply roll up and go home.

And it’s been like this forever.

Today, a herder still charges for every animal head he takes up the mountain to feast on the summer pastures.  Land belongs to every-one. Livestock belongs to one. Goats, sheep, cattle and, above-all, horses! Drink the milk of a mare, and you will be strong like a horse! Called ‘Kumiss’  it ferments to  3% alcohol  and Harry and I don’t like it.

But YuRtS are cozy places!

Harry and I live in a yurt, with a Kyrgyz family, for 3 days on the lake-shores of Issyk-Kol. Harry fishes and I swim. We eat like kings … pancakes, pink wild berry jams, clotted cream, little yellow apples in syrupy sauce, heavy breads and yak butter, spicy large flat noodles topped with meat, noodle soups, stuffed dumplings and crammed meat pies.

Here is to Yurts and Yaks … and the lovely family of Zamira …

 

Summer brings beautiful pastures high up in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan.

 

We spot our first Yurts!

 

Herders bring livestock to these high altitude pastures in summer and live in yurts.

 

There are yurts all over the place.

 

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There are also a few old railway coaches like this … but they just don’t weather as well …

 

Winter snow washes away …

 

… and leaves beautiful pastures for animals to graze away …

 

 

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These huge, hardy and hairy bovines are called Yaks.

 

Yaks up close.

 

Mares are milked in spring and summer and ‘Kymys’ is a national drink (slightly alcoholic).

 

This is ‘Kurut’ made from tart, dried yoghurt …

 

… and here is the other half of the only one I managed to eat …

 

 

This lady has been a summer herder her whole life long.

 

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And so have her ancestors. This is a cemetary and here we found these interesting tombstones …

 

They look like herders too …

 

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And here is the YURT along lake Issyk-Kol that is our home for 3 days.

 

Here is lake Issyk-Kol with the snow capped mountains on the other side.

 

And the snow capped mountains on our side of lake Issyk-Kol.

 

Here is our wonderful host, Zamira.

 

… and the neighbour’s little girl …

 

… takes such a fancy in Harry …

 

Zamira’s daughters ready the shower … boiled water from kettles into a drum with a pipe dispensing  it over the stony floor.

 

The cozy inside of our yurt.

 

The roof of the yurt (which is also the symbol on the Kyrgyzstan flag).

 

For 3 days long, we swim (in rather chilly water) and …

 

 

… and let fish get away (Harry bought this collapsible rod in Instanbul)…