Day #24: Kungar

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Our first guided tour today, to the Kungar ice caves, with both an interpreter and a driver. We booked through a company mainly hecause visiting independently would have been a challenge, with no straightforward public transport there, but it was really nice to have the whole day planned out for us with nothing to think about, plus our interpreter was highly informative about Perm and Russiain general.

The ice caves really were a highlight, very spectacular, although only a small part was actually icy -the further underground, the warmer it gets, so no ice after the first couple of hundred metres or so. This didn't make it any less interesting. Highlights were the dead still underground lakes, which reflect the rocks above so perfectly that you can't tell what is real rock and what is the reflection, the "organ pipes" up to the surface, and the ice formations. There was a fair amount done to liven the visit by the cave guide, such as asking us to keep dead quiet and then turning off all the lights (very creepy), lots of cave folklore (the vain woman tricked into marrying the cave ghost, for example, whose tears now create the continuous drip of water into one of the lakes). Less successful was a sound and lights show on a sheer rock face featuring multi-coloured lasers dancing around to a Strauss waltz, but even that wasn't dull.

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Comments

[Jim Ferry]

Jim sends his love
Hi Helen, I miss you loads and can't wait til you are home I want to take you out to dinner. Glad you are having fun. See you soon Love Jim xx