Walking the Nuratau mountains, and sleeping at Aydarkul
Two thirds of the way through an Uzbekistan trip, something happens to most travellers. They have seen four or five extraordinary tiled facades, the guide has explained three more, and they realise they have stopped looking properly. It is not the country's fault. It is what happens when you look at
The Nuratau mountains are the standard fix, and they are much better than a fix. Two or three days of walking between village guesthouses in a range of dry hills north of Samarkand, followed by a night in a yurt on the edge of Lake Aydarkul with the Kyzylkum desert on the other side of it. No monuments. No tile. Nobody explaining a dynasty.
Here is what the walking actually involves, when it works, and what the beds are like.
Where this is
The Nuratau range runs east to west between the Kyzylkum desert and the Zarafshan valley, roughly 130 miles (210 km) north of Samarkand and about four hours by road from either Samarkand or Bukhara. The hills top out around 7,200 feet (2,200 m), and the villages sit at 3,000 to 4,500 feet (900 to 1,400 m) along the streams on the southern side.
South of the range the ground falls away to Lake Aydarkul, a body of water that did not exist before 1969, when floodwater from the Syr Darya was diverted into the Aydar depression and stayed there. It is now around 1,900 square miles (3,000 square km) of water in the desert, with reeds, fish and the strange quality of a large lake with nothing built on its shores.
Between them, in the villages of Hayat, Sentyab, Asraf, Uhum and Majerum, is a community-run guesthouse network that has been operating for over twenty years. The families have proper rooms and proper beds. This is not a homestay in the sense of sleeping on a floor.
The walking
This is trekking in the sense of walking from one village to the next along paths that people and donkeys use daily. It is not mountaineering and there is no technical ground.
Typical days. Four to seven miles (6 to 11 km), three to five hours, with 800 to 1,600 feet (250 to 500 m) of climbing and a similar descent. You walk from one guesthouse to the next, your bag goes by vehicle or donkey, and you carry water and a jacket.
The ground. Stony paths, dry streambeds, irrigation channels and terraced orchards. Loose rock in places. Nothing exposed and nothing requiring hands. Good shoes with a grip matter more than boots.
The difficulty, honestly. Anyone who walks a few miles at home regularly will be fine. The heat is the limiting factor rather than the gradient, which is why the season matters so much. There is no altitude issue at all.
What you see. Walnut and apricot orchards on terraces, stone-walled fields, shepherds with sheep and goats, tortoises, birds of prey over the ridges, and at the top of most days a view of the Kyzylkum going flat and pale to the southern horizon. Petroglyphs on rock faces in a couple of the valleys. The Nuratau-Kyzylkum biosphere reserve holds the Severtsov sheep, which you will almost certainly not see.
Longer options. A ridge day up towards the higher ground at around 6,500 feet (2,000 m), which is six to eight hours and a real day’s walk. And multi-day versions of four or five walking days for people who want the walking to be the trip rather than the interlude.
If you are comparing this to trekking elsewhere in the region, it sits at the gentle end. Kyrgyzstan’s Ala-Kul and Nepal’s teahouse routes are a different order of effort, and we set the three side by side in trekking in Asia compared.
Where you sleep
The village guesthouses. A room in a family compound, usually two to four beds, with mattresses on low frames or on the floor depending on the house, thick quilts, and a shared bathroom that in most houses now has a hot shower. There is electricity. There is often a vine over a raised platform in the courtyard where you eat.
The food is home cooking: shurpa, non baked that morning, dairy, apricots and walnuts from the terraces, dimlama, and tea all day. Several of our clients rate these meals as the best of the trip, and they are almost certainly right.
The yurt camp at Aydarkul. A cluster of yurts on the sand at the lake edge, five or six mattresses per yurt unless you take a private one, a simple washblock, and dinner around a fire. Camels are usually available for a short ride, which is a fifteen-minute novelty rather than a day’s activity, and we say so.
This is more comfortable than a Kyrgyz jailoo camp: there is a washblock, the ground is warm and it is not at altitude. It is still a yurt on sand, so if you need a private bathroom, tell us and we will build the Nuratau nights without the lake.
The lake swims well in May, June and September. The sunsets over flat water and desert are the reason to stay rather than pass through.
When to go
The season here is different from the season for the cities, and it is worth understanding because it can decide your dates.
April to early June. The best window. The hills are green, the streams run, the wildflowers are out in April and the walking temperature is comfortable. Late April and May are ideal.
Mid-June to August. Too hot to walk properly. The hills go brown, the streams shrink and the middle of the day is unusable. The lake is warm and pleasant, so a summer version of this is a lake night rather than a walking trip, and we will say so rather than sell you a trek you will not enjoy.
September to late October. The second window, and quieter. Warm days, cold nights by mid-October, the walnut harvest in September and the apricots dried on every roof. By the last week of October the yurt camps are closing for the year.
November to March. The camps are down, the guesthouses mostly close, and there is snow on the tops. Not a season.
As guidance, the yurt camps run April to late October and the exact dates move with the weather each year. We confirm with the specific camp before quoting. The rest of the Uzbek year is in Uzbekistan month by month.
How it fits into a trip
The two-night version, which is what most people do. Leave Samarkand or Bukhara in the morning, arrive in a village for lunch, walk in the afternoon. Full day of walking on day two, ending at the lake. Yurt night. Drive on in the morning. This is the shape inside our twelve-day adventure route.
The three-night version. Two full walking days between three villages, then the lake. Better, if you have the days.
The one-night version. Drive out, one short walk, one yurt night, drive back. It works and it is thin. If you only have one night, put it in a village rather than at the lake, because the village is the more interesting half.
Geographically the Nuratau sits between Samarkand and Bukhara, slightly north, so it slots into the middle of a route without doubling back. Adding it turns a ten-day trip into a twelve-day one, and the argument for that upgrade is in how many days do you need in Uzbekistan.
Who this suits
It suits anyone who walks at home, anyone travelling with older children, anyone on a second visit to Uzbekistan, and in particular anyone who suspects they will tire of monuments, which is most people and no shame in it. It also suits photographers, because it is the only part of a standard Uzbekistan route with landscape in it.
It suits less well travellers who need a private bathroom every night, anyone with mobility limits on uneven stony ground, and people travelling in July who have been promised a trek by somebody else.
We are also asked about it for families. It works well from about age eight, and the reasons are in Uzbekistan with children.
What to bring
Shoes with a proper sole, a sun hat, sunglasses, high-factor sun cream, two litres of water capacity, a light windproof layer, and a warm layer for the evening because the temperature drops hard once the sun is off the hills. A head torch for the yurt camp. Modest clothing in the villages, meaning shoulders and knees covered, which is the ordinary courtesy rather than a rule.
There is no phone signal in some of the valleys and patchy signal at the lake. That is a feature.
Plan this trip
Tell us your dates and how much walking you want, and we will put the right number of village nights into the route rather than tacking on a token one. Free first proposal, no obligation.
Keep reading
- Uzbekistan: the complete guide to planning your trip
- Adventure Uzbekistan, 12 days
- Uzbekistan month by month
- Trekking in Asia compared
- How many days do you need in Uzbekistan?
- All our Uzbekistan trips
Frequently asked questions
How fit do I need to be?
Is there a guide?
Can we do it without walking?
Is the yurt camp comfortable?
What about the camels?
Are there mosquitoes at the lake?
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