Urgut

“High above where the eagles soar, the Pamirs stand a timeless lore. A tapestry woven in nature’s hands, guardians of life in a rugged land.”

-Poem of Uzbekistan

Up early checked out of hotel to travel to Urgut about 1 hour and 40 km from Samarkand. They say it was countryside, villages and markets were busy with a lot of activity I think the outer suburbs have Samarkand are slowly reaching Urgut. The land is very dry dusty with scattered trees. The first destination to explore was an ancient sycamore tree forest, the trees are estimated to be between 800 and 1000 years old. There were 2 small mosques one built by local Uzbek and another by Russia. The Russian one will be destroyed as it’s not in the style of Uzbek architecture. At the end of the walk through the beautiful forest was a crystal clear water with baby trout swimming. Local believe the water has health benefits so many were gathering the water in containers to take back home

In one of these very old trees there was a hallow entrance the tree was still alive. It was used as a class room to educate the children in the area. I went inside and sat on the cushion it was surprisingly dry and the air was clear and not many spiders or other insect life.

We drove back to Urgut to visit a local pottery artisan he was 6th generation. He made the pottery in a sort of cave 2 of his sons also worked with him. They had a lovely court yard with grapes starting to form. If you look closely you will see bunches of grapes drying in the cave roof while he made pottery…. In all the dust so interesting and different.

We moved across to his other house where his wife and daughter in law made us a traditional lunch of dumplings and all the trimmings. There were pastry dumplings with beef, chicken and vegetables, steamed dumplings with similar fillings, salad, bread, fruit nuts along with the home dried grapes (no dust). Yoghurt and kefir the food just kept coming. my photo show how the table soon filled up. The soup was excellent as was the fresh salad. I was a little disappointed with the bread.

Before heading back to Samarkand we made a stop at the renowned Bagizagan winery for a private tour and wine tasting. Yes a prominently Muslim country with wine. Strange but true, the wine makers are originally from Georgia or Armenia the wine caves are extensive. We wandered through the caves before returning to the tasting area. They make mostly white wines there Chardonnay was not woody very smooth. The had Pinot Noir but in colour with was like a Rosa very nice we gradually working up to a red that was from 2013 then finishing on Cognac had some very good local cheese and crackers and apple. Not sure it’s available in Australia however he does export to the Bali market..

A little light headed we started the joinery back to Samarkand and to Amit Timur mausoleum which I visited at night the first day. It was hot maybe 43c the flowers were covered with shade cloth so they would not sizzle in the hot sun most were petunias. Inside the mausoleum which was lighted for effect it was very beautiful there was a black marble “tomb” the contained his remains I was latter informed this was a replica the real remains were in a locked area under the mausoleum. It was just as spectacular in the late afternoon light as it was at 9pm

Now we. ADE our way to the height speed train station to start my long journey to India