Advertisement
Published: October 19th 2007
Edit Blog Post
At nine o’clock sharp all of us were there: driver, guide and four of us. We got in the blue van. Plenty of space and one curiosity - the steering wheel is on the right, English style! Who knows how did that van end up here?
We first crawled through the city traffic, but soon we were out of the urban area. All is so different once you are out of the city. After an hour or so we reached our first destination: a small hill next to a lake. We got out and hiked to the top of it. The view was impressive and there was a huge steel double cross on top of it. Vladimir told us that it is a frequent spot for the thunders to hit. Well, that was kind of understandable… He also told us that the double cross has its meaning: the highest bar is there to place Christ’s name, the lower one, that is also inclined, represents the road one can take in his life: a good one towards the heaven, and, well, less good one, towards the hell.
Setting our eyes on the panorama - it is indeed
View on the lake
...and our blue van... remarkable. Lots of forest. It was surprisingly low and flat though, just a bit hilly. Urals are actually not all that high in this area - we are in the south. Here the Urals are only ‘getting started’.
We got back in the car and we drove into the forest. After a while we got out and hiked for approximately three kilometers. The moment we stepped out of the van - a horde of mosquitoes attacked us! Perfect opportunity to use the repellent we were draging around all this time. For me just in time… others were a bit slower. Jan-Willem was a particularly succulent target… at least the number of bites suggested that.
We tried to ignore the incredible quantity of insects and kept hiking. But they were following us! Incredible but true. Vladimir, our guide, didn’t seem to be bothered by it and keept going straight through the forest. We have had hard time following his fast pace, but we rushed, if not for else, then just to hear his stories about the local habits he was telling while walking. After half an hour or so we reached our destination: a beautiful, small lake,
surrounded on three sides with cliffs perpendicular to it and high from 10 to as much as 20 meters. The last bit around the lake, where we were standing, it was not really accessible, but in any case it was reasonable to climb down. Something we did immediately. I didn’t even manage to get off my shirt and someone was already in the water. Jan-Willem, of course, my little climbing monkey was the first to get in. Understandable. The heat was getting to us and the fresh little lake is just incredibly inviting. We all followed, and soon realized there was something we forgot. Darn the insects! Again! They’re everywhere. And by swimming the repellent has, of course, washed off. There were so many of them and they all wanted to land on our head, nose, ear… ahhhh… Crazy! They chased me pretty soon out of the water… I litterally ran for the towel and the repellent.
While we were childishly splashing in the lake Vladimir has built a fire and smoked us few wurstels. Together with bread, cheese and tomato - it is simple, but perfect food for this moment. Forest air, swimming and exercise have definitively
made us hungry.
Jan-Willem and I decided then to hike around the lake in the remaining hour. A little bit of effort, but the view from the highest cliff is worth it. We finished our round and by the time we were back in the ‘camp’ Mark and Ruben have made friends with some little Russian kids who arrived at the lake in the meanwhile.
Once in the car, the driver took us to
Šišed, a small village on another lake. Very old and with typical houses: base in stone and then the rest are wood logs. And as Vladimir specified, all of those (very) modest houses, are likely to have a
bagna, Russian version of sauna. This village tour was the closure of our excursion. We returned to the city where we said goodbye to Vladimir.
We stoped at a small supermarket to buy some supplies for the next two days and three nights we are to spend in train till Irkutsk. The train is scheduled for four o’clock at night local time, 2 a.m. Moscow time. We booked the taxi at 2am. Lots of margin time - but better safe than sorry.
ied
Typicall little village in this area Especially in Siberia.
The waiting in the super modern train station, seated at the stairs was never-ending. But it all went smooth. The train arrived on time and we were in our coupé in a matter of moments.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.24s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 21; qc: 91; dbt: 0.1075s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb