Another quick Trekkup trip. This was a makeup trip for the one I missed a month before with stupid Covid. I was a bit wary of this one - work was killing me, I was so tired, and the thought of a long hike in the hot mountains was a bit daunting. But since my last meeting on Friday went well I decided to suck it up and go. We met up at Terminal 2 at the airport; I had driven and parked because I had an early meeting Monday morning upon return. I realized there was no group leader on this trip even though there were 14 of us. However, T said the guide was very knowledgeable and would be able to handle it himself. He was right - Saidbek was great!
The flight was fine, but arriving in the airport was... just chaos. Customs / immigration had no line and the locals would just walk up to the front of the counters without waiting in line. It was pure madness and a bit frustrating. I was able to get in line fairly early and was one of the first to make it through with one other guy in
our group. We left the customs area to arrivals and .... wow. You could barely move. There was a tiny little open circle around which many people were just packed in like sardines awaiting their loved ones. We made it outside to meet Saidbek. He said that there were many villagers there to back a bunch of people returning from Hajj (indeed, that was clear once we realized it), plus many back from Russia now that the conscription had gone into effect - lots of people trying to leave so they would not be called up. Very sad.
We finally got the group together into a bus and car and went to our hotel for a quick sleep. I was able to get about two hours and then up for breakfast upstairs in the morning. Breakfast was meh, but it hit the spot. We then had a two hour drive for our first adventure. We arrived near a village where we hiked up heading for the Dinosaur footprints. This was to be an 11 km hike; I had got mixed feedback when one guy said it was long and tough, while another said
it was easy just long. It was not hard persay, but it was definitely not an easy hike as was advertised and one girl was having trouble (this was her first trip with our group) and another guy got on a donkey within about ten minutes of starting. It was a bit hot, but the hike itself was beautiful. It was very steep in places; at one spot, we literally had to scramble up a loose gravel hill and it was not easy, but I kind of enjoyed that part actually. The geology in the distance was really cool. And it was green and peaceful. We took a couple of short breaks along the way, so no one felt really pressured. Our group was actually pretty good that way the whole time. One guy who was a very experienced trekker walked with the slower people the whole time.
We made it to the top and walked another twenty minutes to see the footprints. It was a bit disappointing, but still the closest I had ever been to dinosaur footprints, so I enjoyed it. There is like a wall and once you can kind of see the arc of the
footprints, its clear, but it is pretty far away. Then we made our way down a different path which was very steep in places and I thought a bit dangerous - not a beginner trek.
Then we had an amazing, beautiful lunch! The family had a few kids just hanging around, including two young girls who had a bottle of water for us to wash our hands before we ate. The food was spread on a couple of large blankets. Whenever I have a hard workout, I do crave something sugary, so my eyes immediately went to the luscious fruit waiting - melon, grapes, apples, etc. They also had a homemade cheese with honey. There were tomatoes and cucumbers, fresh herbs like basil. Once everyone arrived, they brought out the grilled food: plov with lamb. It was good, very good, but I was happy with the fruit at this point. I could have stayed here to eat all day just so it would not go to waste.
It was soon time to continue down to the buses, with some people taking their time.
