“The Wild Rover” (traditional)

Sending Pete back to Bishkek and thence to Kathmandu and India to deal with embassies, visas and the new truck for us, we headed to Karakol after a brief interlude to sort out an airlock in the diesel (Pete’s farewell present to Tim and Cheryl I think…) We were staying in a homestay in Karakol, and made the very interesting discovery that women over the age of 45 don’t have to do anything in Kyrgyzstan as their daughter-in-law has to do the cooking, cleaning, washing etc (sorry Katie, and don’t get any ideas Mum!) – as a result our guide had to come up to our homestay to prepare the breakfast for us! Our night in Karakol saw us go to a restaurant with a very extensive, and very European menu. After a feast of greasy beef stroganoff and rice, washed down with the ever present vodka. A friendly German fellow then offered us the sage advice that drinking cheap vodka would send you blind, and so bought us a shot of better quality vodka as a gesture of goodwill (or perhaps a cure?), and then joined us for a discussion of the merits of Russian vs Kyrgyz vodka. We headed back to the homestay to try to further test his theory (happily the blindness does not seem to be instant). The next morning saw us head to the market in Karakol to buy our fancy dress outfits. Previously we had been assigned a name in secret for whom we had to buy an outfit. And thus we were unleashed on unsuspecting vendors, wondering why males were holding dresses up against themselves for sizes, and why we were giggling uncontrollably at the outfits that are quite seriously worn in Kyrgyzstan. After the market we headed to Jeti-Oghuz (7 Bulls), a beautiful area where we found a lovely campsite by a fast flowing river and set up camp. We had lamb curry for dinner which was delicious, and then presented Simon with his somewhat overdue birthday present of a piñata which a couple of us had made. He was then blindfolded and instructed to have 10 hits, however it was so funny watching him trying to beat merry hell out of the piñata (and most of the members of the group unless properly aimed) that we let him continue until he had finally beaten it into submission and it had yielded its sweets! He is nothing if not a good sport! After dinner we sat around the campfire and then decided to have some tunes, so enjoyed a bit of disco fever and “glove” songs. Elaine and I eventually headed off to our tent around 1.30am only to find that the storm that had come through had turned our tent, Tarquin, into a lake, and so we headed off to the truck and slept there! The next day it was the big day – the fancy dress party. The preparations started early with punch being prepared from 4pm, the kitchen tent being turned into a disco through the use of strobing head torches and a papier mache disco ball and the handing out of the outfits. Then we all disappeared into our tents and re-emerged as visions of loveliness! My own outfit was named “Kyrgyzstani Domestic Goddess” and involved a rather fetching red pyjama set, a lovely pink and black silk headscarf, and a set of red rubber gloves. Oh, and some blue slippers with dogs on them. Mmmm, sexy! Dinner was a feast of meat and ribs, and then there was dancing and much punch drinking (or perhaps that was in the other order?), the requisite storm, and then a visit from some of the people from the Dragoman truck which was parked up next to us (fortunately they had been pre-warned that it was fancy dress and did not think that it was our normal attire). Me (the Kyrgyzstani Domestic Goddess) and Maura (Miss Odyssey 2008): Jen & Tim: C & Rich: Mike H & Elaine: Once the rain had abated and we were able to sit around the campfire (which had miraculously survived the storm), and we had a bit of a sing-along, including a very hearty duelling version of The Wild Rover, our favourite campfire song. Much more chatting, and eventually off to bed in a mercifully dry Tarquin!A perfect next-day breakfast of fried potatoes with the closest approximation to bacon that we have seen for a while, eggs and baked beans ran until well after 11, and then lunch followed fairly swiftly afterwards with some amazing soup which Cheryl had made from scratch (including the stock), and then it was time for the Odyssey Olympics, organised by Edel and Shinnick. Divided into teams, we embarked upon three-legged races (have to admit they seemed easier at school), and egg and spoon races, welly throwing, hit the hurly, a pillow fight (using some of the inflatable rings that were part of costumes the night before, including the duck and the giraffe), and tug-o-war. No official verdict was recorded, but I am pretty sure that my team, “The Cool Bananas” triumphed over “The Mystery Meat Lovers”. All that activity made for some pretty big appetites (despite all the amazing food all day), and we all gratefully devoured the spaghetti Bolognese and garlic bread!