Journey to the Aral Sea. Part 1. Sudoch'e Lake

Hello, as I promised earlier, I'm posting a photo report about a two-day trip to the Aral Sea, which I made in September last year. I took a lot of photos (almost 500) and it’s impossible to fit them in one post. I cannot fit them even in two posts. Therefore, I will break my story about the trip into four parts - the road to Sudoch'e Lake, then our overnight stay in a yurt camp on the Aral Sea itself (believe me, there are very beautiful views). The third part will be devoted to the Ustyurt plateau with a gorgeous canyon there! And the fourth part will be about the ship graveyard in the desert.

When I was in the school I always liked the lessons of history and geography. At first, we used the old Soviet textbooks and it was written there that the Aral Sea is the fourth largest closed reservoir in the world. And for a long time I took this as a fact because the textbook says that it is the fourth largest lake in the world. Later, in the classroom they began to show pictures of the Aral Sea and it turned out that it is far from being the fourth; moreover, the Aral is growing shallower from year to year, and it is already sadly called not the Aral Sea but the Aral pool. A little later the term Aral-Kum ( Aral desert) entered into use.

Once I saw photos of ships standing in the desert and it made a big impression on me. In a short time, for the life of one generation, the whole sea was ruined. I have long dreamed of visiting this place and looking at what was left of the Aral Sea. Look at the ships in the desert, walk along the former bottom of the once great sea ... But, unfortunately, everything did not work out. And finally, all the stars came together, I ordered a tour from the guys from "Mysterious Uzbekistan" and flew to the city of Nukus.

At the airport, we were met by Toyota Landcruiser drivers and taken first to breakfast, and then to the Museum named after Igor Savitsky. It exhibits the best art collection in Asia and the second in the world collection of Russian avant-garde.

Unfortunately, the museum supervisors were not allowed to take photographs, but I really liked the pictures. I especially remember the picture "Basmach" - such a disgusting mug)) I don’t remember who the author is. But I think it is worth visiting Nukus just for the sake of this museum.

After visiting the museum, we went to the Sudoch'e Lake, located a hundred and fifty kilometers from Nukus.

On the way, we met the "ships of the desert"

Soon the vegetation and the trees ended and the normal asphalt road ended as well. Houses and trees were replaced by the desert.

Having passed a little on the broken asphalt, we left on the grooved track in the sand. By the way, we drove quite comfortable. Firstly - the cars are good, and the secondly - the track is groomed and, the thirdly - the terrain is more or less flat without potholes. Our driver managed to accelerate up to 100 km / h.

Soon we arrived at the abandoned lighthouse. Or rather not to the lighthouse but to the ruins of some kind of structure. The drivers who played the role of guides said us that the sea used to splash here and these are the remains of a lighthouse.

Prevously it was a large lake that was fed by the Amu-Darya River. This is a shallow lake, the average depth is 1.5 meters. There were periods when it was completely dry. At one time, Sudoch'e Lake was a breeding ground for fish and 2,000 tons of fish were harvested per year.

Sudoch'e Lake is still one of the richest lakes in Uzbekistan in terms of fauna. There are more than 230 species of birds, including the rarest, listed in the Red Book. There is even a flamingo population. Flamingo, Karl! In Wikipedia I read that 1.4% of the total population of the common flamingo world is located here on Sudoch'e Lake. We did not see the flamingo, but then we took pictures of beautiful views.

From the lighthouse we went down to the former fishing village of Urga. In the XIXth century, Russian settlers Cossacks-Old Believers lived here. They mined fish and poultry, sold it to local residents. Then the October revolution came, someone was repressed, someone was relocated, someone left.

The settlement was neglected. But from time to time local fishermen come here.

We briefly stopped in the village - just take a picture of the local flora ...

... and fauna...

After a small stop, we set off on a long road to the shores of the Aral Sea ...

In total, we spent almost 10 or 11 hours on the road. When the sun was setting we saw a strip of water in the distance. Here it is, the Aral Sea ...

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