A day at Charvak

The colour of the water is what people notice first. It is turquoise because it is glacial: the Chatkal and the Pskem bring it down from the mountains, and in 1970 both rivers were closed off by a dam. What came out of it is a lake inside a ring of ridges, the place Tashkent drives out to at the weekend.

You set off in the morning, before the heat. The road runs through Gazalkent and climbs onto the dam: that is the first stop, because from up there the whole lake is visible at once, and the water is at its brightest. Then the hairpins along the eastern shore towards Yusufkhona, and they take longer than the map suggests, because of the stops: at almost every bend you want to get out.

The picnic belongs on the shore near Yusufkhona, not in a café. Flatbread, vegetables, cheese, whatever fruit is in season, shashlik if the spot is set aside for fire. The water is cold; in June not everyone goes in past the shoulders, by August it warms up.

Half an hour in a motorboat is the best part of the day. From the water the lake looks different: the shore drops away and only the mountains and the colour are left. Half an hour is enough.

Towards evening, back through Chimgan if you want to add the mountains, or the same way over the dam, to see the lake in another light: by five the turquoise has gone over into deep blue.