Trip to the Tavaksay waterfalls, Uzbekistan

Good afternoon! Unfortunately, due to quarantine in Uzbekistan I forced to stay home and cannot go to the mountains. It's pity, but I have a time to sort my photos from previous travels and right a couple of new posts.

So, I found one non-published post from the trip I made to Tavaksay waterfalls in the February.This trip was planned on the next day after climbing Syurenata. It was a 14-kilometer trip to the frozen Tavaksay waterfalls and I was a little bit worried about whether I could withstand another trek after a rather tiring climb. Fortunately, hot shower and an eight-hour sleep completely restored me. So, I arrived at the gathering point on the appointed time being full of energy and in a wonderful mood.

The organizers ordered a 14-seater minibus but there were only 10 people in the group, so I as a regular client of "Mysterious Uzbekistan" fell apart in two seats in comfort. Tavaksay is translated from the Uzbek language as "Noisy stream". Perhaps in the spring it lives up to its name but in the winter Tavaksay is little bit quite.

The location where we went is not far from the Syurenata. If the Syurenata is located to the right side of the road leading to the Charvak reservoir, then Tavakasay is located almost opposite the Syurenata to the left side of the highway. All waterfalls are located in the foothills, so from a physical point of view, the trip was very, very simple. The only thing that bothered me was whether the waterfalls were still frozen. Especially given the warm weather in Tashkent established in recent days. Looking ahead, I’ll say that my fears were justified - the waterfalls had already melted. But anyway they were very beautiful.

So, we left Tashkent at 7 a.m. and after a little more than an hour we were already at the starting point. When I’m going to the mountains of the Tashkent region, I always try to get in the car on the right side - this is the opportunity to enjoy the sunrise. This time the sunrise was especially amazing - it literally burned. Like a huge fire flared over the mountains.

Soon we arrived at the place, unloaded from the car and went along the stream.

I walked and marveled at the contrast. Yesterday I climbed the Syurenata, drowning in the snow and today I am walking on dry ground and in some places the grass has already begun to break through. In spite of the distance between two locations is only twenty or twenty five kilometers.

After a short time I realized that the land is not so dry. Hardly plunging into the hills, the solid ground gradually became wet and the shoes nasty slurped in the mud. Soon we got to the first small waterfall, which is called "Forty Pigtails." Indeed, the falls of the waterfall are somewhat similar to the traditional Uzbek women's hairstyle, consisting of many small braids.

Soon we got to the second waterfall, where we arranged a small halt for a photo shoot.

As we walked, I looked at the surrounding hills and I was attracted by stone blocks from afar similar to the remains of fortifications. From afar, it may seem that these are the remains of defensive walls but no, these are just stones.

Local place names are sometimes quite apt. About the "forty pigtails" I have already said and in the photo below the hill is captured, which immediately caused me to associate with the hump of a camel-bactrian. By the way, it is really called a "Camel".

We went through the second waterfall and delved into the canyon in search of the 40-meter high waterfall – the highest waterfall in this canyon. It is amazing that such canyons are in the very foothills, where the mountains have not really high.

Although this waterfall somehow justified the name "frozen”. Frankly, the muddy ice spoiled the impression a little bit. In the pictures that I saw in the Internet these waterfalls look very cool in a frozen state. Well, there will be a reason to come here next winter. By the way, having seen enough Internet photos I had a reason to come here in April-May, when the surrounding hills will be covered with lush and bright greenery.

The waterfall did not look very majestic from below, so we went upstairs to the other side of the canyon, where it was visible in all its glory.

There we had a lunch. After lunch, we set off on our way back. Remembering that there was a terrible slush below, we decided to go back up the hills. There was drier land and more snow. On the way, I managed to wipe off most of the dirt that had stuck to my pants and boots with snow.

A piercing wind blew upstairs but the views were wonderful too.

We went the route quite quickly and returned earlier than planned. Therefore, we had to wait for the driver, who drove off on his own business. We went down to the village, sat on the street and began to clean ourselves. These waterfalls are very popular with tourists, so the locals did not pay attention to us. But soon we received the attention of one of the local inhabitants - a motley cat came to us who had eyes of an unusual bright color. Either turquoise or jade - I can not say exactly :-). Of course, we immediately gave her some food.

Soon our minibus appeared. We loaded into the bus and headed back. Well, my very busy weekend finally ended.

While I'm waiting the end of quarantine, I'll publish some topics about my previous travels. Hope, till the end of my old photos, the quarantine regime will be softened and I could publish fresh photo-reports.