Song-Kul Lake; Goat Carcass Polo

Finally, we can have a night out of tents, we are staying in Yurts by the shore of Song-Kul Lake, at an altitude of 3016m. A large proportion of the Kyrgyz population are still semi-nomadic, they spend the summer months in the high plains with their herds of goats, sheep, horses and cows. During the winter they normally move down into the towns. We were staying with one such family who have extended their herds to include a few tourists wanting to experience the nomadic lifestyle. The yurt complex even included flushing toilets- such luxury!


Many of our group hired horses for the day and trekked near the lake, but not being too confident of my non-existent riding skills I opted for a hike up the surrounding hills. We reckon we climbed to about 3600m from which we had a fabulous view of the lake and distant snow-peaked range behind. Up to now the scenary has been beautiful but very different to what I was expecting. The mountains are less impressive than the Caucuases because they are more a rolling expanse of grassy hills, but I think the landscape will change as we head further East.


The main highlight of our stay at Song-Kul was wateching a traditional game of "buzkashi" a polo-style game played on horseback with a goat carcass. The game started with the official ceremony of preparing the carcass, including cutting it's head and feet off! They then placed the decapitated goat about 200m from the "goal" -a blanket on the floor, and the aim of the game was to pick the goat up and throw it on the blanket. The locals took it very seriously and all the men's families came to watch. It was a vicious sport and since there were no boundaries the 4 horsemen easily blundered their way through the crowds of spectators. There were a number of occasions when I dived for safety in a near-by Yurt! The winning team received the goat carcass but often gave it as a present to a local family and recieved a gift in return.