Song Kol Horse Trek Adventure

Day 1: Kochkor village – Kyzart Pass – Kilemche summer camp

Driving/riding distance: 1-hour/5-hours      Meals: B,L,D                Accommodation: yurtcamp

After breakfast at Kochkor homestay your guide does short briefing about the horsetrek. Then drive towards the west on the Kochkor — Jumgal road. Arrive at the Kyzart Pass, where your guide team welcomes you with horses waiting for you. Start your horseback tour with crossing the Kyzyl-Kiya jailoo, an enormous, relatively flat sea of grass. Continue over the Chaar-Archa Pass (3 061 m) into the Chaar-Archa Valley and eat a tasty lunch by the racing river, with views of holy 4400 m Baba-Ata Mountain. Sated, ford the river and follow the trail over verdant hills to Kilemche Jailoo. The name means “like a carpet,” and this swathe of grass covers whole mountain ranges, with shadings as subtle as any shyrdak (shyrdak is a Kyrgyz felt carpet). Dine and sleep in a yurt, naturally.

 

Day 2: Kilemche summer camp – Jalgyz Karagai Pass – Kyr Jol summer camp

Riding distance: 5-hours      Meals: B,L,D                Accommodation: yurtcamp

After breakfast at Kilemche, spend the morning climbing to Jalgyz Karagai pass (3400 m), over the Song-Kol Mountains and into the lake’s basin. The morning climb affords wonderful views of Kilemche jailoo, and the pass itself is rocky and exciting. From the pass, Song-Kol is still distant, but as you traipse down the slopes, it gets larger and larger; the mountains on the other side get higher and higher, until finally the lake fills most of your field of view and the southern mountains tower above it. Follow the lakeshore west to the yurt camp at Tuz-Ashuu summer camp for a lunch. After lunch, we ride about 2-hours along lake shore with many shepherds busy with daily activities. Upon arrival, meet your host family of Kyrgyz shepherds. Meals and overnight are in a yurt of shepherds. 

 

Day 3: Kyr Jol summer camp – Sook Kolot summer camp

Riding distance: 5-hours      Meals: B,L,D                Accommodation: yurtcamp

After breakfast, we mount on our horses and ride along the lakeshore towards Sook Kolot summer camp located on the southwestern shore of Song Kol Lake. It is indeed scenic ride with many grazing livestock scattered in the valley. The waving sound of the lake takes away all your stresses while riding. Picnic lunch on the way. After few hours of riding we reach our yurt camp Mirlan.  Your welcomes you with hot tea before dinner. 

 

Day 4:  To campsite in Uzun Bulak valley over Oiurma Pass

Riding distance: 5-hours      Meals: B,L,D                Accommodation: tent

We say goodbye to our host and ride slowly up to the pass Oiurma at….. As we ascend towards the pass, we leave Song Kol behind. Enjoy the mountains views surrounding Song Kol Lake on top of the pass. The view of this vast valley gives you a sense of awe appreciating the nature’s beauty. Our ride easily goes down to our campsite along the small stream in the gorge. Arrival at our campsite located right before a small pass beatified by evergreen trees. 

 

Day 5: To Kochkor city through Kindick Valley along the Naryn River  

Riding/driving distance: 5-hours      Meals: B,L,D             Accommodation: homestay

After breakfast, we ride over a small pass “Karagayiluu Moinok” into Kindick valley filled with evergreen trees. The valley is a kind of a forest with overflowing river making the landscape totally different from our last days. Enjoy the contrast of nature. We stop at shepherd’s yurt camp for a lunch and play with the kids of a family while your lunch is being prepared.  After lunch, we ride about 2-hours in this scenic forest hidden in the mountains until we reach our transport. Meet your driver and head on to Kochkor city via Naryn City. Our drive shortly passes by the largest river of the country “Naryn”. Arrival in Kochkor city at 18:00 pm. 

 

Price of Song Kol Horse Trek Adventure 

Number of people	1	2	3	4-5	6-7-8-9
Price per person in USD	1300	900	790	590	540

Included:  4-nights in yurt Transport from/to Kochkor city English Speaking Guide Horseman  Horses Luggage Horse 5-lunches English Speaking Guide Horsman/cook Gas for tea

Not included:  Hotel and meals in Bishkek Hotel and meals in Kochkor city  Bottled water Flight tickets Insurance Tips Transport from/to Bishkek-Kochkor Sleeping bags Horse riding gears as helmets

Join the following groups for summer 2024 (If the following dates do not suit your travel plans, please contact us, we will post a new tour with your dates and try to collect more people to join you)

What to Expect:

Yurts Sleeping in a traditional Kyrgyz yurt is a highlight for many travelers. One yurt usually sleeps 5-6 people and you will sleep on mats on the ground with blankets piled on top. Toilets are outside, so be sure to have a headlamp with you to navigate there at night.

Food Most of the meals on this tour are home-cooked and provided by a yurt camp, homestay, or guesthouse. These traditional Kyrgyz meals usually include some sort of meat (often beef) served with potatoes, rice, or homemade noodles. Fresh bread rounds are also a must at every meal and you’ll often find homemade jams and traditional sour cream to go with this.

Vegetarian food Yurt stays is able to cook vegetarian food. You should inform the company and guide in advance. In general, let us know if you have any specific preferences about food.

Drinking Water There are clean mountain springs along the trail where we can refill water bottles. You can take cleaning powders as well to clean river/spring waters. Yurt stays will provide boiled water if needed. Drink as much water as possible to avoid dehydration

Difficulty The trail terrain has ups and downs, not a flat. You will cross four passes during the trek. At a few places, the trail has scree and steep slopes. There you should get off the horse and walk those parts. Your guide will remind you. Some skilled riders can go over these difficult parts without getting off. 

Guide You always have a guide and horsemen on this trek. Guides will provide you with all the necessary information and be with you to make sure everything is OK and safe. All the guides speak a good English and a little bit of Russian. They have at least three year’s guiding experience.

Weather and season The best season for this trek is from June to mid-September. It gets + 10 to 20 at night during the best season. We also run this trek even in mid-May and late September with some snow on the high passes. The weather changes frequently on the high passes and gets windy so make sure to keep your bellies and stomach warm while crossing the high passes not get cold to your stomach. If you do get a cold, then you will have digestion issues.

Luggage We ask all to leave all the unnecessary luggage in Kochkor City at your guesthouse and take the items needed for the trek. You can take two bags: a small day backpack carried by you where you put your bottled water, wallet, and other personal items, and a bigger backpack carried by luggage horses where you can put your clothes, pants, sleeping bag, and other items. The bigger backpacks carried by horse should weigh 10 to 15 kilos. Horses have special bags designed for the trek. Each horse carries about 60 to 70 kilos.

High Altitude Sickness Some of the clients come from low-income countries. Sleeping at 3000 meters high might cause some headache issues. You should judge your health. Otherwise, the first night is at 2500 meters. High altitude sickness usually happens above 3000 meters in elevations. The second night is at 3000 meters, so your nights at 2500 meters on day 1  will get you used to this elevation. 

Sleeping bag Yurtstays have blankets to cover up at night. However, having your own sleeping bag is handy. You can rent from us if you don’t have one.