Leaving Ferghana at 8am we drove to Rishta. home of Uzbek pottery. We visited the studio/workshop of Rustam Usmanov who is well known for his designs and pottery. It was fascinating to  not only see the pots being thrown on the wheel but the painting and artwork on them. In particular we admired the tiles that are individually done but fit together into a pattern.

We consequently bought 50 tiles ( 1/2 square metre total) that had been created to fit together with a border. Beautiful work. I am not sure what we will do with them yet, but I am thinking of a tiled table top. In the meantime they are taking up some room in “Vulcan”

Then onto Kokand where we toured the palace and were given some history into the area. Lunch under a shady tree and on the road again to Tashkent.

Police checks of passports and car registrations delayed us and we drove over the pass .

Arrived in Tashkent early evening and had dinner at a restaurant called “Caravan”…very appropriate for a group on the “Silk Road”.

After a tiring day yesterday we enjoyed a bit of a sleep in and the were able to have a late breakfast and leave the hotel at 9am. We drove to Marghilan where we first visited a silk factory to see the production of silk in the traditional way at the Yodgorlik silk  factory. While it was a Sunday and a day of no work they had several women there to show us the process. From boiling the silk cocoons and extracting the silk to washing and dying it with natural colors and then weaving it…the process was fantastic.

After some purchases we walked to the local bazaar and enjoyed buying some food to later have for lunch. Bread that had been baked in the ovens we saw in the street and fruit of all sorts. Apricots and cherries are in season so the cherries and dried apricots were a treat.

Relaxing afternoon. Vulcan received a wash and did some sorting once more in the car.

Once again a wonderful experience with locals. We planned to refuel our cars on the way back from the silk factory and as we had done different things at the market, this was not as a group. After 3 visits to service stations finding they had no petrol, we drove into a fourth. I got out of the car and pointed to the full cap so they understood what I was seeking. With only hand signals one of the men offered to guide us to get petrol. This became about a 5 km drive. What a delightful young man who had his son in the car with him. On arrival at the service station I gave the young boy a koala and when we had finished filling the car offered some money to the man (to pay for his petrol) and he refused it. How lovely people are and what a warm feeling it left with us of the people of Uzbekistan.

This was a big day. Again animals and drovers on road as we left the walnut forest. Drove over a pass again.

We drove to Osh reputed to be one of the oldest cities in Kyrgyzstan where we had stroll around and a late lunch. Visited what was supposed to be a silk road museum. It  was set in a 3 story yurt and although didn’t have any history of the silk road, it did have clothing and pottery etc…as well as paintings and rugs that could have been similar to the times.

We continued on for the interesting border crossing.  We were processed out of Kyrgystan and eventually processed into Uzbekistan. Once through the border, although we gained an hour in the time change, we still had another 160 km drive from there to the hotel in Ferghana.

We left our hotel for a drive to the Walnut forest. It was our day leading today. The departure at 8am allowed us to see many herds of horses, cows and sheep being driven down the road.

We drove by two reservoirs which were beautiful and the morning tea was at a scenic spot that we found on a lake foreshore.

The scenery again was magical and the camera clicked continually.

We motored on to Arslanbob  where we stayed in Guest houses (home stay accommodation) The group divided themselves into two and we stayed across the road from each other.

We caught a small truck to the entrance and walked to the waterfall. When we asked to walk through the Walnut forest…we were told that we were in it.

However…we did climb the hill a bit more from the falls and walked among the walnut trees. Alexander the Great is reputed to have visited this area and taken walnuts back to Macedonia.
Lovely family run accommodation and the three young boys of the owner loved their small koalas we gave them.

Once again, a very scenic day. We will miss the beauty of Kyrgystan as we cross to Uzbekistan tomorrow. This country’s scenery was magical!