Having flicked through the hiking trails in the hostels guide book, I opt for one of the 'easy' trails for a few hours, considering I'm only here for the day and have no proper hiking stuff and barely any warm clothes. I'm also generally not a huge hiking fan.
Coffee in hand, I set out walking out of town straight towards the mountain in front of me, with just my airpods and hiking navigation app for company.
The sun was shining and my new water proof clothing, aka my plastic tracksuit, was now making me ridiculously sweaty. But onward I continued, Karakol growing smaller and smaller in the background.
The hike is fairly relaxed at this point and I only have a few older people for company who have also taken the easy option for this fine Sunday morning.
The roue of the hike was an almost U shaped, starting in Karakol, heading up the mountain and descending into another town a 20 minute bus rider away from Karakol.
On the way I took a major detour to find this huge herd of sheep being shepherded across the valley. I spent a good 10 minutes bah-ing at the sheep and getting a crescendo of bahs back.
At one point I managed to go complete off track and into shoulder height plants, with no physical way of making it back onto the hiking path for a good amount of time. I started to think that if I became lost, I had not told anyone where I was hiking, so it could very easily go wrong. But then I remember I was on the 'easy' trail and I couldn't possibly mess this up.
After a good four or five hours of walking, with probably not enough food and water to sustain me. The hiking path suddenly flattened out down onto the road. I read that I could catch a bus somewhere along this road so kept walking for another 45 minutes until I came across what looked like a bus stop. Next door was a small shop, never has a bottle of Fanta and a Snickers tasted so good.
Fare paid, I jumped onto the bus and appreciated the sit down. We slowly meandered back to Karakol and back to somewhat of civilisation.
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