Ok, revitalised, recharged and ready for the last part of my holiday. I have a kind of route setup that should take me in two weeks to Bishkek.
I have seen bits and pieces of Osh and even had my necessary registration done. No european citizen needs to do that, except for the dutch. What did we do to the Kyrgyz 
? Tomorrow i will head for the city of Jalal, Jalalabad.
Said goodbye to Bakir (mountain guide) yesterday and today Altynbek (driver / guide) dropped me off in Osh, Kyrgyzstan. I cut my planned Pamir trip with two days. One since there where no yurts at the jailoo in Keng Shiber, since it is still winter here and a jailoo is a place where they put up yurts in summer [summer is really late this year]. The other i cut was since i had a mild attack of altitude sickness. Must have been the combination in the excercise [trying to hike up another 4.8km pass at Gumbezkul Valley near Murgab] and a bad nights sleep. Had all the symptoms, except for the vomitting. It made me decide not to stay over at lake Karakul, but just pass it and go directly to Osh from Murgab.
I have been up in the mountains for a few days and will do some backdating. For the moment you will have to do with the best picture i took on this trip and two during the ride to Osh. The panorama pictures i shot will have to wait till July.
[B] Today we head for Gumbezkul Pass and as a reward a hot soak in the Madiyan Hot Springs. Another 4.8km high one, but we drive up to 4.2 to a jailoo in the valley. The car drives around and then picks us up from the other end. I wake up too late, since i forgot to put my clock on 'Murgab'-time. This actually is Kyrgyz-time. From here the supplies come from Kyrgyzstan and all is in Kyrgyz-time. Murgab is only 30 percent Tajik, the rest is Kyrgyz. we ahve been caaught up by snow here s well. It looks like i have snow hanging on my tail, the last three days started in snow, where we arrived without. Luckily Altynbek knows the way, since were we drive the road is white. No road to be seen ... I think we start hiking direct after the jailoo, but Altynbek drives us up in his 4WD. From 4.2km we start hiking in the snow. Sometimes knee-deep. Hmm, i did not bring my snowboats, nor do i have snow-shoes. We decide to go up to a dip at 4.4km and see if we can go up all the way. More knee-deep snow and not knowing if the rest up is going to be the same makes us decide not to go up. Defeated by snow 
. We descent to the car and before we head back we go for a tea in one of the yurts. Here i start to feel a splitting headache. Once in the car i get a bit dizzy and want to throw up. Why can't the road be not bumpy for once ? Probably altitude sickness. Down in Murgab my joints hurt as well and doing anything goes slow and hurts. We still decide to drive up to the Madiyan Hot Spring for a good soak, no exercise for me anymore. Have to decide to stay at Lake Karakul (3.9km) or just pass it tomorrow on the way to Osh. Getting back from the Madiyan Too-Hot-For-Me Springs i decide to go to bed directly and tomorrow head directly for Osh. David [could not get a lift from Murgab to Osh for a few days] pushes me to take some Ibuprofen, which changes the splitting headache into a, more bearable, pounding one.
Andre
