Kopetdag - an oasis between the sky and the desert: how the spring has awaken the mountains
April 05, 2018 | 16:06 |1614
Despite the neighboring waterless Karakum, the mountain range of Kopetdag is a real oasis. There are many springs here, a mild summer, and the meadows flourish even in the hottest months. To find out how mountains accumulate precious moisture, one must rise on their ridge. Spring this year turned out to be early and warm, it's time to see its bright colors. Only the rustle of the car tires of the resort of Geokdere remained behind, the burgundy lights of miniature tulips and the blue candles of a mouse hyacinth or muscari glowed in the green carpet of the young grass. They accompanied us as we climbed the slope, along the rock ridge between the gorges, and then along the bottom of one of the canyons. Above the level of 1300 meters, the tulips have not yet opened, and the gaze is saturated with the rich green needles of the juniper and the herbs making their way through the stones.Oleg Vinokurov
The rays of the setting sun painted the oncoming clouds first into orange, and then into the soft pink tones. Soft, reflected light flooded the slopes, added to the experience of a fairy tale. In the dusky twilight above the ravines, the monotonous cries of the owl of the snipe were echoing loudly - you can hear it only in spring.
When the night gloom began to approach, we found ourselves in a small grotto, whose stone vaults sheltered us from the wind and possible weather. While the simple mountain supper was preparing, clouds descended to our camp, eroding the outlines of rocks and trees. The moon has hidden in the clouds, which enveloped the gorge of darkness.
The faintest particles of water in the fog generously moistened the surrounding cliffs, stretching to the life-giving dew of the branches of trees, which soon will soon be covered by the young foliage. Water began to ooze from everywhere. It was cozy in the dry grotto to hear the water drop from the stone edges of the calcareous rocks and ring loudly against the soil.
All that night there was a lulling rustling of the cappella. In the morning it was necessary to move cautiously in the fog between the trees and shrubs, which thickly overgrown the gorge. An awkward movement - and a cluster of drops hanging from the branches turned into a cold shower pouring over the collar. Shoes and trousers got soaked through. A dense shroud of fine drizzle wafted in the air, the path over the precipice became slippery. And literally in front of our eyes emerald grass grew out of the earth, young leaves in the trees unfolded from the swollen buds - everything breathed with awakening and life, the spring awoke the princess-nature from a long hypnotic dream. For such wonderful moments of magic, it was worthwhile to overcome this path!
Already a couple of meters from us everything was lost in a foggy haze. And the voice of the cuckoo, under the farewell of which we descended, again and again came from the canyon below us.
From the clouds we came out at the very bottom of the mountains. The path again became dry and ringing, and in the fissures of the withered soil, the lights of small tulips also shone. Their flowers closed, anticipating a possible downpour. It was still raining here, when the slopes higher in the mountains had long been generously watered.
So, that is the secret of the Kopetdag oasis! Mountains, like a sponge, absorb the life-giving moisture directly from the clouds.
As meteorologists have found out, air streams carry huge volumes of water enclosed in moist air over the territory of Turkmenistan. And not every cloud is coming down with rain. Often, only the high peaks of the Kopetdag are able to take their share of this moisture. The rest of the clouds fall as rain and snow on the slopes of the Tien-Shan and Pamir mountains far away from us.
The water is drawn to where the mountains are.
