A trip trough the snowfield to the waterfall Aksarsay. Uzbekistan

My today's topic is dedicated to my trip to the Aksarsay waterfall, which I made a week after walking along the Forbidden Paths (my previous post was about this hike).

Aksarsay is a small mountain river (in Uzbek language "river" calls "say"), located in the Western Tien Shan Mountains and originates on the Pskem ridge, where the snow never melts. This is a torrential river with very cold water. Looking ahead, I will say that I was convinced of this twice - the first time, on the way to the waterfall we were transported alongimprovised bridge from old logs. Of course, I fell from them straight into the icy water. The second time, already on the way back, we were wade through this river. The width of the say in this place was about 3-4 meters and as I walked through them, my legs were completely frozen.

The flow of Aksarsay is quite turbulent at this time ( it was the beginning of May). Our guide told methat by August it becomes calmer.

This time a group was little bit smaller - just 10 people gathered.

But in winter and in early spring, the say is very torrential - it rushes in a rapid stream, dragging huge boulders and snatching trees.

May and June is the best time to visit Aksarsay. If the temperature in Tashkent is already over 30 degrees Celsius, then a pleasant coolness reigns here and a breeze blows. And the fresh air is just great!

The flora here is quite diverse.

In the middle belt, mainly woody vegetation is juniper, apple, hawthorn, and cherry plum. Of the animals live here wolves and bears. Local people say that in winter they sometimes drag off sheep that graze freely on the slopes of the mountains.

Climbing higher, you can see downright alpine landscapes.

The left-bank slopes of Aksarsai are covered with large areas of walnut trees. There are even whole groves in which you can make a small halt. Sometimes there are small birch groves.

Even in late spring you can catch snow there so called "snow bridges" or "snowfield" and even in summer is possible to meet tulips, crocuses and snowdrops.

It was really amazing for me to see snow in May. Last few years we almost haven't snow in Tashkent. Throughout the winter snow fell a couple of times and immediately melts. But here in May - a whole snowfieldand I could climb on it! Wow! Of course, I made a small detour and climbed onto a snowfield. From it noticeably blew a cool.

And at the border of the snowfield, snowdrops made their way through.

The road from the beginning of our route to the waterfall Aksarsay took about 3 hours. Taking into account halts and breaks for photographing. The path itself was pretty simple. There was one relatively difficult area on the scree, but we passed it quickly and without any problems. We finally got to the waterfall. It is small, but rather torrential.

Frankly speaking, I expected that near the waterfall there will be a small valley where we can relax. But, unfortunately, there were stones and very steep slopes around. There was only a pair of trees, under which we could hide from the sun. I had to build improvised chair from stones and sit on them.

We spent there about a couple of hours, little bit relaxed, lucnhed and went back.

Totally, we walked about 20 km, but it was a fairly simple route.

In the photo below you can see the Pskem range. Snow lays there all year round and feeds the rivers flowing into the Charvak reservoir, which in turn supplies water to Tashkent and the Tashkent region.

So, If you are planning your vacation, I recommend to visit my country. Now is a great time to travel both in the mountains and in historical cities. In the second half of July and August it will be very hot and the vegetation in the mountains will burn out and turn yellow.

In internet I found I video about trip to Aksarsay which was made by other travellers...It is like a bonus for you :)

https://mover.uz/watch/kZfAoZnm/

!steemitworldmap 41.687434 lat 70.220683 long A trip trough the snowfield to the waterfall Aksarsay. Uzbekistan d3scr