Chimgan Mountains & Charvak

You will be met at Tashkent International Airport and transferred to your hotel. After check-in you meet your guide and begin sightseeing in the capital of Uzbekistan. You start at the Courage Monument, which commemorates the earthquake of 1966, then continue into the Old City to the Khast-Imam Complex and the Mausoleum of Kaffal Shashi. You will walk through Chorsu Bazaar under its great turquoise dome, ride the tiled Tashkent Metro into the modern centre, and finish at Amir Timur Square. Overnight in Tashkent.

After breakfast you leave Tashkent towards the Chimgan Mountains. The highway runs flat for an hour before the road rises and begins winding through the foothills above the Charvak Reservoir, with stops for photographs of the water against the ridges. You continue to the Amirsoy resort and ride the cable car up to the Kumbel Ridge at 2,300 metres, where the surrounding peaks open out and Greater Chimgan stands clear to the south at some 3,300 metres. In the afternoon you descend to the shore of Charvak. Overnight near the reservoir.

A mountain guide joins you for a full day on foot. You drive to the meeting point of the Mazarsay and Gulkamsay rivers at around 1,200 metres and walk up into the Gulkam gorge, where cliffs rise some fifty metres on either side and sunlight reaches the floor only around midday. There are several river crossings, so bring shoes you do not mind wetting, and a cascade of rock pools along the way. You follow the Kuylusai tributary to a waterfall for a picnic lunch before returning to the vehicle and your hotel.

You have a slow morning by the water, then drive back down the serpentine road, stopping at the viewpoints above the reservoir for a last look at the ridges. Arriving in Tashkent, there is free time for lunch and for the State Museum of Applied Arts or the facade of the Alisher Navoi Opera and Ballet Theatre, depending on your flight. You are then transferred to Tashkent International Airport for your onward journey. This is the end of the four-day Chimgan Mountains and Charvak tour.