We wasted a morning following various people’s leads about a computer shop where I could get the charger repaired. Karakol is probably heaving with tourists in summer, and there is bound to be a shop of sorts, but it was like a ghost town when we were there. So we drove up the road along the Jeti-Oghuz valley which culminates at a tiny village of the same name overlooked by the “Seven Bulls” (the “Jeti Oghuz” in Kyrgyz). They are a ridge of bright-red sandstone cut by erosion into seven bluffs which are said to be Kyrgyzstan’s most photographed feature. I walked up a steep path on the opposite side of the valley to a huge grassy plain and, climbing a small hill, looked down into the Valley of Drgons.
We then drove along the southern coast of the lake to Barskoon where we found a water pump at the side of the road and filled the van before driving 20 miles up an unmade road towards the famous Barskoon waterfalls. We found a nice place to camp at the side of the road. I went for a walk and had a pleasant conversation with a man with a shotgun and two ferocious hounds, but emerged unscathed.
