kayakstan.net :: Day 5 - The Kerkermeren
You are: home > dispatches > Day 5 - The Kerkermeren
After picking Tim up from Bishkek, we headed west to Karabalta, and then south towards the Tyuz Ashuu Pass. The road winds its way alongside the Kara-Balta river, which proved too low volume to be of interest, but the scenic views of large snowcapped mountains ahead made up for the lack of a paddling. The head of the pass is actually a tunnel just beneath these peaks, and at 3403m altitude it was a little chilly, so we didn't hang around. Emerging from the tunnel above the clouds, we wound our way back down the other side to a more sensible altitude.
Our plan intially had been to explore the West and East Karakol rivers, but by the time we'd rumbled over the pass the trucks didn't have enough fuel to complete the lengthy loop before the nearest petrol station, so we stayed on the 'main' road (a hugely pot-holed dirt track!) and headed south down the Kerkermeren towards Kyzyloy. Driving along the Kerkermeren it looked like a good medium voume run, and Andreas our driver reckoned it got steeper a bit further on. Perfect. So on we jumped.
A good medium volume run it proved for the next 12km of river. Continuous grade 3-4, with some 4+ moments (usually complete with chicken shoots to avoid the monster pourovers!). The entire team was on the water, and we finally managed to get some paddling shots.
Below our get-out, the river flattens out as it goes past a small village, but then it steepens up again as it passes through a couple of gorges. The section looked very tempting, but in the end, we decided to push on and get some mileage under our belts. This morning we pushed on over the Kyz-Art Pass and have made it to Kochkorka to get some lunch. A scout of the Chuy and Jon-Aryk rivers are on the cards for this afternoon..