Kyrgyzstan Issyk Kul Loop: Balykchy to Jeti Oguz

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Balykchy

   Balykchy is at the far western end of Issyk-Kul, the second-largest mountain lake in the world, and its name in Kyrgyz means fisherman. The lake, at an altitude of about 1,600 metres, is more than a hundred and eighty kilometres long and deep enough to stay ice-free in winter despite the cold, which is why its name means warm lake. The Tian Shan mountains surround it on all sides, with snow-capped peaks marching along the southern shore, and the water is a deep, saline blue that changes colour with the weather.

   Read the complete Balykchy write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Balykchy is where the day begins. Next is Bokonbaevo.

2. 2. Bokonbaevo

   Bokonbaevo is a village on the south shore of Issyk-Kul, the great mountain lake of Kyrgyzstan, which lies at about 1,600 metres and is the second-largest alpine lake in the world. The name means warm lake, because the water, though cold, never freezes, even in the hard winters of the Tian Shan, and the mountains that rise behind it, the Terskey Ala-Too, carry snow all summer. On the road along the shore the lake is a sheet of deep blue on one side and the red and grey peaks on the other, and the contrast is striking.

   Read the complete Bokonbaevo write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Bokonbaevo comes up about 92 km into the recorded legs. Next is Jeti Oguz.

3. 3. Jeti Oguz

   Jeti Oguz means seven bulls, and the name belongs to a line of rust-red sandstone cliffs that rise above a pine-dotted valley on the southern side of Lake Issyk-Kul, in the Tien Shan mountains of eastern Kyrgyzstan. The cliffs are jagged and stacked side by side, and local legend says they are the petrified remains of seven bulls. A second formation, a red rock split down the middle in the shape of a heart, is known as the Broken Heart, and it is surrounded by a story of two rival suitors and a murdered khan that every guide tells slightly differently.

   Read the complete Jeti Oguz write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The route ends here after 224 km.