Approximately 60km north east of Tashkent is Lake Charvak; a manmade reservoir created by the damming of four rivers between 1964 and 1970 when Uzbekistan was part of the USSR. The purpose was to enhance the country’s agricultural output through irrigation and generate hydroelectric power.
The lake sits at the western edge of the Tien-Chan mountain range which stretches 2,900 km to China. The area within Uzbekistan is becoming an alpine resort for wealthy people from Tashkent and foreign tourists, mostly Russian. It is less than two hours drive from Taskent and offers cooler weather in the summer and skiing in the winter.
Our planned hike was rearranged by our guide as he felt the area has become spoilt with illegal building work within the National Park (the building “system” reminded us of Turkey). The guide, a 72 year old veteran of the Afghan war in 1979 suggested an alternative “easy” hike. Given his background clearly the term was subjective – our hike to Little Chimgan was quite challenging enough! The hike starts at 1,550 metres and the peak is at 2,099 metres. On reaching the saddle at 1,840, despite the guide’s encouragement to continue we felt that the altitude, strength of the sun and steep slopes had given us enough of a workout.
For the rest of the day, we headed to Amirsoy where a cable car took us to a restaurant at 2,290 metres. Although the peak was busy we were the only customers in the restaurant due to its strange pricing, including a 200,000 Som cover charge per table, which puts locals off. Even including this charge the total for three people was less than £40 but this is very expensive for Uzbekistan.
Shilli-Fully Travels 