14th June 

After a good nights sleep indoors, we decided to head off. The family had been incredibly hospitable, not only letting us stay for two nights, but also cooking us food, taking our temperatures, providing medicine etc while we rested. Their son works in Moscow as a doctor and was arriving home today, after driving back, and the family were making preparations, and we didn’t want to overstay. 

For breakfast we had a delicious creamy soup which had scrambled egg in it, and a serving of warm milk. The family have cows (which they milk), chickens, two turkeys and their chicks which the children play with. 

Parvina, the wife of the son who lives with the family, was making bread, and gave us some friend breadcrumbs to take with us. After saying goodbye we started cycling back on the dusty, bumpy road. 

About 6kms down the road, there was a better view of the mountains the family’s house had been overlooking, where the layers of rock in a a wave like latter could be seen — no wonder it’s marked as ‘tulip mountain’ on the map. 

This was also the spot where there is a swimming pool and perfectly manicured lawn. A bit strange to have it in the middle of nowhere, but I’m guessing it’s part of a stalled construction project as the poster outside of it presented it as a luxury hotel resort. The groundsman called us over and I went for a refreshing swim for no charge. 

We continued on the road, and made it just over 30km when we found a turn off leading up to a grove of cherry trees and a flat spot. As we were pitching a farmer was herding his cows down from the mountain. We said hello, he replied hello, so we knew it’d be OK to camp.