From Almaty, we went to the nice rock climbing area south of Bishkek we had visited the year before as well. Have a look on the crag.

Our friend Maria joined us and brought a new friend with her who tried rock climbing for the first time. Together we had a lot of fun hanging around, climbing …

… and partying on a techno party in a nice, old bunker location.

From Bishkek we went into the direction of Osh to cross the border to Uzbekistan to then continue to Tajikistan, Uzbekistan (again), Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. Sometimes the areas around rivers in the stan countries are irritating: for me rivers are mostly the nicest nature places but here often the rivers are used as trash dumps.

As always in Uzbekistan: the invasion of the Damas mini buses! They are everywhere. Uzbekistan has an interesting car market which is dominated by Chevrolets produced in the country: have a look at more info on Reddit.

We went into the beautiful Uzbek mountains and started a two days hike.

The hike was beautiful with some river crossings and a bit of rock crawling.

Our destination was a beautiful waterfall.

And not far from the waterfall we found a nice camp spot for our tent.

The weather was super nice and it really felt like summer again!

The way back to Rosinante was mostly pathfinding in the labyrinth of goat trails. Here are our tours on komoot: day one, day two.

We continued our way in the direction of Tajikistan.

We made it back to the climbing area we had visited months ago. This time the weather was perfect. Last time it was way too hot. The entrance fee was still beer and cola.

We did a whole lot of climbing.

And learned a lot, lot, lot.

Sarah and Wouter, the “Star Troopies” (travelers we had met before several times in different countries) joined us and tried rock climbing for the first time.

It was super awesome and they did super good. Although they had no own climbing shoes. Racki’s shoes were good for Sarah, but Wouter suffered a lot in my way to small shoes.

Climbing on the wall.

Climbing on another wall.

Climbing on an overhanging wall.

We had a whole lot of fun climbing,

hanging around,

and relaxing.

Slowly, slowly it was becoming Autumn.

Simon visited us and although he was afraid of heights, he made his first rock climbing experience as well.

Maria, who we had met before in Murghab on the Pamir and at the border from Tajikistan to Kyrgyzstan, and her “half-human-half-dog dog” Vedi and another friend came as well and together we had a great time.

At one weekend there was a big climbing festival organized by the biggest “climbing company” Skala in the climbing area. Unfortunately the weather on that weekend was not very good. But nevertheless a whole lot of climbers joined the festival.

One day Kali and Didi, travelers from the Netherlands, came to the climbing area and we climbed a lot together, shared stories and experiences.

Didi brought trad (traditional climbing) gear and let me try it. It was my first time using that stuff and it was very interesting. In the sport/ rock climbing the bolts in the wall where you attach your robe are already set. In trad climbing you have to set these points by your own. To do so, you carry a lot of fancy and expensive gear around.

And we had water melon with the cheapest vodka we could find. It tasted like it had back when I was sixteen.

Sarah and Wouter came back and this time Wouter brought his own, brand new climbing shoes! It’s always nice to see if people love the rock climbing.

Again we had a great time at and in front of the rock.

Halloween!

Our last days of climbing on one of the last warm and sunny days of the year.

After the weather got too cold, we drove to Almaty and met a whole lot of our new friends we had met in the last couple of months.