Moynak & Aral Sea (Day 3) - sad and impressive

Day 3 started at 7:30am. In addition to the yurt tour, we had booked a transportation service to Moynak with 'responsible travel'. And let me just say at this point, the driver did an excellent job on both the outbound and return trips; he was always very attentive and skillfully navigated the countless road damages or chose the least damaged areas of the road. The trip to Moynak took just under 5 1/2 hours with a short stop. We saw a lot of the landscape, cities, and people of the so-called Autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan: Nukus, for example, with its Soviet-style shopping street full of small shops, women in colorful dresses, donkey carts carrying agricultural goods along the roadside, children looking with big eyes at our minibus. There weren't many signs along the way, so our driver even had to make a small honorary round :)) When we arrived in the former fishing town of Moynak, we walked to the monument and viewpoint, from where we could see the old rusty ships on the dry bed of the Aral Sea. 40 years ago, there was a dock on the shore of the Aral Sea at the viewpoint; today, you can look about 30 meters down and see sand and bushes and, of course, the abandoned ships that ran aground back then. The last of their kind were brought here to Moynak and are now protected. In the past, the abandoned ships were stripped and recycled down to the last screw. When we looked from the ships towards the horizon, we saw nothing but sand, the Aralkum Salt Desert. It's shocking how much one of the largest lakes in the world has shrunk (through human action).

After exploring the ships and walking around a bit - three ships were located away from the established ship graveyard - we had a snack at the restaurant of the former lighthouse at the viewpoint. Then the driver took us to the Aral Sea Museum in downtown Moynak. There we could see some beautiful and interesting paintings from the former time of the Aral Sea, and a documentary about the tragic history of the Aral Sea was shown for about 20 minutes. The end of the documentary depicted a positive future for the size of the lake and life at its shores. But the film was probably 15 years old... Today, we know that the Aral Sea is still shrinking and the toxic sand continues to severely affect the health of the people living by the lake. The new Uzbek president recently visited Moynak and gave hope, as Moynak is supposed to become a major tourist attraction. Numerous new buildings have been constructed in Moynak and heavy construction equipment was present during our drive through. Whether this makes the population healthier, we wish them all the best!