Leaving Samarkand, Alexander's Fort, Lake Aydar, Yurt Camp
We left Samarkand on a long day of driving into the desert. At first the roadsides had lots of grape orchards, not vinyards, as they are not grown for wine, but for raisins. The vines aren't grown on trellises, but as low bushes, which makes sense in a hot dry region.
Whenever there was a local river or stream coming down from the mountains to the south there would be a town with vegetation, otherwise it was dry and barren below the low mountains.
Our first stop was the town of Nurota and Alexander's Fortress on the hill above. Actually the remains of a mud brick fortress that was from a version much later than Alexander; but he was there, so that's what matters. Alexander had a fort here seems to be the local version of George Washington Slept Here.
There's really not much left of the fort, just some remnants of mud brick walls.
Our next destination was Lake Aydar, a long lake that mainly formed from overflow of the river when a dam upstream broke some years ago. It has no outfall so is slowly becoming more saline. There was a beach we visited, completely except for us.
A few people swam (waded mostly) but most of us just sat in the shade for a while.
Then another drive as it got increasingly desert to our yurt camp for the night.
The camp sat in a depression in the earth which would shelter it from desert winds.
We climbed the hill behind to watch a very nice sunset.
After dinner we sat around a fire as a local musician sang and played.
The almost full moon added to the scene.
