Xinjiang adventures. Deserts, grasslands and glaciers.

[woodyren]

Breakfast on the train and then a few more hours that morning on board as we headed to our next destination. Kashgar. Photos of the station and the landscape approaching Kashgar.


Arrival at Kashgar station.




At each station the full train compliment splits up into their individual tour groups.














Many small areas of irrigated agriculture.

 

[woodyren]

From the station we headed off for another enjoyable local meal.



Innovative child seat on a local scooter.

 

[woodyren]

After and early lunch we reboarded our bus and headed off into the mountains. As I previously mentioned I knew little of the actual trip itinerary and I almost deliberately held back from inquiring about the specifics which would have required translation as the tour guides only spoke Mandarin and all the literature provided was in Mandarin.

What I did was to use my Google Maps and find out the general area we were in and where we appeared to be heading or once there then in spare moments at night of on the bus begin to find out more about the specifics.

So while I knew we were headed to mountains, mainly because they told us to bring warmer clothes I was absolutely delighted once I opened my location on the early part of the bus ride to find we were headed along the Karakorum Highway.

FYO I was able to easily access all things Google etc with my Airalo Asian e-Sim data. What I could not do was to hook up to any free wifi in hotels and other locations because, unbeknown to me when I purchased my phone, Goole phones are somehow blocked from hooking up to Chinese wifi.

The early part of the highway followed a river through mainly arid hills but the mountains in the distant background gave a taste of anticipation of what was to come.

 

[tgh]

Big like for Woodyren : Spectacular scenery , really enjoying this vicarious tour of a place I will never see..

 

[woodyren]

Climbing higher from the river valley in the mountains.

 

[woodyren]

Our first destination for the day. (from Wiki) Karakul Lake. At an altitude of 3,600 m, it is the highest lake of the Pamir plateau, near the junction of the Pamir, Tian Shan and Kunlun mountain ranges. Surrounded by mountains which remain snow-covered throughout the year, the three highest peaks visible from the lake are the Muztagh Ata (7,546 m), Kongur Tagh (7,649 m) and Kongur Tiube (7,530 m).

We spent an hour or two walking around the lake area and we were fortunate to have a clear day making the 7,000 mts + peaks in the area clearly visible.
























.

 

[woodyren]

From the lake we continued to climb further up into the mountains. There were a number of police checkpoints and surveillance posts, cameras etc along the way. We were quite close to the Afghani border at this stage.

 

[woodyren]

Our overnight hotel on the Karakorum Highway was in Tashkurgan. We had reached a height of just over 4,000 mts along the route and then descended into a long green valley to the town. Tashkurgan was a significant stop on the old Silk Road and was named after the nearby fort that stood guard over this strategic valley.







The view from outside our hotel.


Dinner at this local restaurant.


Hotpot with Yak meat.


A very enjoyable meal with all local produce.

 

[woodyren]

Sadly that was as far as we ventured along the Karakorum Hwy. It was one of the few disappointments of this tour. To come so far and not at least get to the Pakistan boarder. One day I would love to do the full trip but the odds are very low that it will ever happen.

After breakfast at the hotel we visited the ruins of the original Tashkurgan fort.

It was easy to imagine how this fort could control access through the valley in the days of the Silk Road.

 

[woodyren]

Afterwards we visited a local home for dinner and some folk dancing show.

Then we were on our way back down the Hwy to Kashgar.