Etappe 108: From Kyzyl Beyit to Toktogul Reservoir

The rain had stopped the next morning, but it was still windy. We had both hardly slept as the wind was hitting our tents. Everything was wet in Aman's tent, he had turned on his camping stove in the middle of the night to warm up. Luckily, everything held up in my tent and we were able to make some coffee in the morning for motivation. My power bank was also running low, so we had to rely on our instincts without the GPS or recording. But we were always just following the main road anyway. Our goal today was to make it to the Toktogul Reservoir. That meant we had 75 kilometers and 1500 meters of elevation to overcome. We continued along the Naryn River, facing strong headwinds as we rode deeper into the mountains. At Karakul (not to be confused with Karakol in the northeast of Kyrgyzstan), we took the opportunity for a longer lunch break and to stock up on supplies. After that, we crossed the pass, which turned out to be not as difficult as we thought. Aman, with his lighter load, was naturally faster than me. During the fast descent, we could already see the reservoir from afar, which we were both looking forward to! Once we arrived at the lake, we didn't feel like riding further along the lake, so we found a nice camping spot directly on the beach. We weren't bothered when two families came by later to take a short swim. In Kyrgyzstan, no one would really think to send campers away. It started raining again later, and we moved the cooking area into the vestibule of my tent. This increased our desire to visit a hostel in Toktogul the next day.