Excursion to Aral Sea (Aral Lake) by SMS-Frankfurt Group Day 01 Tashkent – Nukus (D) (There are 2 flights a day: morning and evening. Guests arriving on the morning flight can start from Day 2) Upon your arrival in Nukus airport, you will be met and transferred to the “Jipek Joli” hotel. This newly renovated hotel is located just a 3-minute walk from the famous Savitsky Art Museum. The rest of the day you are free to wander around at your leisure. Day 02 Nukus and surroundings (B, D) You’ll spend the entire morning at the world-renowned Savitsky Art Museum, with thousands of works ranging from the first millennium B.C. to the present day. Here you’ll gain insight into the Central Asia’s unique cultural heritage, portrayed through the paintbrushes of the region’s top artists. The museum also has an impressive collection of Soviet Realism and a surprisingly large collection of works by well-known European masters. Afternoon depart to Hojeli district (35 km) to visit the Mizdakkhan architectural complex (XIV century) and the ruins of Gyaur-kala, a fortress dating to IV-III B.C. In the evening enjoy a special Karakalpak traditional dinner in café Jipek Joli. Day 03 Nukus - Aral Sea (B, L, D) Depart from your hotel at the crack of dawn for the long (8-hour, 500 km) drive to the Aral Sea! Along the way you’ll pass several points of interest. The town of Kungrad was once one of the five main trading towns of the Great Silk Road. From Kungrad you’ll drive to Moinak and from there you continue to the small oil-mining town of Uchsai, where you’ll break for lunch before heading north for some extreme off-road driving along the top of the Ustyurt Plateau. Eventually you’ll arrive at the cliffs that overlook the dried bottom of the Aral Sea’s former western border. From here you can barely make out a blue line on the horizon to the east. That’s the Aral Sea’s new shoreline, which now lies 185 km inside its former shoreline in Moynaq. Around here you can take exclusive pictures of the sea, witness the massive landslides that have occurred as a result of the sea’s retreat, and observe unique desert vegetation, much of it manually planted by the German company GTZ. Next you will drive down from the plateau to the camp where you will stay for the night. From here you are free to walk to the seashore and enjoy the unique experience of swimming in Aral Sea’s salty waters. You may also collect sea shells or simply marvel at how this huge sea has decreased from 70,000 sq. km to 27,000 sq. km in the last 47 years. In the evening you will enjoy a meal cooked over an open-air campfire before kicking back to enjoy the spectacle of a sky filled with thousands of stars and, if you’re lucky, a big moon. You’ll fall asleep breathing fresh air and listening to waves lapping the shore of the Aral. You’ll spend the night in tent camp at seashore. Day 04 Aral Sea – Moinak – Nukus (B, L, D) After an early breakfast we ascend back onto to the Ustyurt Plateau and retrace our steps toward Urge. Before reaching Urge, however, we again descend from the Plateau and drive southeast toward Moinak. On the way to Moinak you will pass by oil rigs set up to exploit the oil lying under what was once the Aral Sea’s seabed. After a stop for lunch, the tour continues to the settlement of Uchsai, formerly an Aral Sea port. Thirty minutes later you arrive in Moinak. You can relive Moinak’s glory years in the local museum, where paintings depict a noisy and busy port town, with a bountiful harbor and rich fauna and flora. The museum also contains Karakalpak traditional tools, clothing, jewelry, and an exhibit on Moinak’s once-thriving fish factory. Next you will visit Moinak’s World War II Heroes Monument. Your last stop is Moinak’s famous “Ship Graveyard”, where you can take photos and once again contemplate the scale of the Aral Sea disaster. In the evening you’ll return to Nukus and enjoy a traditional Karakalpak dinner at the cafe of the Jipek Joli Hotel. Day 05 – Antique Boat Cruise and Yurt Stay (B, L, D) After a late breakfast, you will drive to the Mangit district, passing over an antique pontoon bridge, for a one-hour cruise along the Amu-Darya River on an old boat. The boat will pass by the Shilpik Zoroastrian Grave mound. Along the way you can sample fresh fried fish. After your cruise you’ll continue overland to the nearby Badai Tugai Nature Reserve. There you may encounter pheasant, deer or other animals native to the lush Amu-Darya river basin. From the reserve it’s just a short drive to the famed ancient “kalas”, or fortresses, of Karakalpakstan. You’ll visit Kizil kala and Toprak kala. The latter was the holy castle of the Khorezm kings in II–III B.C. Russian archeologists excavated 150 rooms designed with wall manuscripts and sculptures. They identified a throne hall, king hall, victory hall, dancing mask hall, and warriors hall. You’ll end the day at Ayaz kala (IV-III cc. B.C.), where the Ayaz Kala Yurt Camp sits in the shadow of an ancient fortress on a hill. You’ll spend the night in a yurt. Day 06 Ayaz Kala - Khiva (B, L, D) After breakfast you can hike or take a camel ride in the surrounding dessert, swim in a nearby lake, or scramble around the fortress. The fortress is set up on a hill and offers a great panorama of the surrounding countryside. Late in the day you will depart to Khiva, arriving in time for dinner. Day 07 Continue tour (Khiva, Bukhara, Samarkand, Tashkent and etc) or return to Tashkent with flight from Urgench. -- More details and booking: Incentives-Worldwide -- #Uzbekistan #Usbekistan #Seidenstrasse #Silkroad #VodkaTrain #Urgench #Adventure #Backpacker #Globetrotter #SMSFrankfurt #Excursion
Posted on: Tue, 21 Jan 2014 09:38:19 +0000
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