Nurata What to Pack

Luggage and bags: As I’ve described elsewhere, our journey to the yurt camp was in a small soviet bus, so we had to restrict ourselves to one small day-sac or similar. You need to think carefully about what are the essentials – here are my suggestions:

Clothing/Shoes/Weather Gear:
~ The only time I felt a little chilly in Uzbekistan was first thing in the morning in the desert. I quite enjoyed this after all the heat, but you may want to put a thin cardigan or at least a long-sleeved shirt in your bag. Alternatively a pashmina would be great as it would double as an extra cover on the bed.
~ Take a swim suit if you want to bathe at Aidurkal Lake, and a sarong and/or towel.
~ You’ll need comfortable trainers or similar for walks on the dunes and the camel ride, but try to fit in a pair of flip-flops too – these will be useful at the lake and also around the camp perhaps.

Toiletries and Medical Supplies:
~ Think carefully about what toiletries you can’t live without for a night (remembering that the bathroom facilities here are pretty basic so you won’t want to spend hours at your ablutions!) and make sure you bring those in fairly small containers.
~ Particular items you mustn’t forget include suntan lotion (waterproof if you plan to swim), bite cream (just in case, though I didn’t get bitten) and the Imodium – unless you like climbing sand dunes in the dark several times in the night ;(

Miscellaneous:
~ A torch is a must for the camp as there’s no electricity.
~ You might also consider bringing a sleeping sheet, though we didn’t think it was necessary.
~ Good binoculars would be a bonus if you’re interested in a close-up view of the stars – we were indebted to our travelling companion Lawrence who not only let us borrow his but also explained what we were looking at!