Onward to the Altai

12 Aug 2012

The first thing you need to be prepared for - is that plans will change. That was the advice from our expedition leader, Adam, in a half-serious, half-joking tone, at our welcome briefing on Sunday evening.

These words of wisdom - distilled from experience with Murphy's Law on multiple expeditions - was put into practice almost immediately, when two team members, Lucy and Hannes, turned up without their luggages. These had gone missing en route from USA and Berlin respectively to Novosibirsk. The logistical hiccup did not douse their indomitable spirits, and we still had a most jolly first team dinner at Shev and Pivovar that night.

While shopping for emergency toiletries, we discovered that toothpaste in Russia came in Organic and Chilli flavours. According to Karl who ventured to try, Love flavoured toothpaste tastes like cherry bubblegum.

this is toothpaste. really.

13 Aug 2012

Hannes' luggage turned up in the morning, but Lucy's would come only at the end of the day. The trip leaders decided that the rest of us would head to Altai, and Oleg and Lucy would catch up with us at the rest stop tonight.

;

9am at Azimut Hotel Sibir lobby

Loading up the Land Rovers in front of Azimut hotel

The journey to Altai begins with a 2-day, >800km road trip from Novosibirsk to the base camp in Talduair valley, near the border of Altai Republic and Mongolia. This was a time to get to know each other better - or die of boredom and anti-social-dom.

Everyone chose the first option. This is also how I discovered my Altai team-mates' secret superhero identities. Here are some of them:

meet Kate - lovely driver of the pickup I was in, part-time BE staff (she makes sure volunteers get all the information we need and more), full-time super mom and world explorer (she's been everywhere!)

Introducing the 'German' car:
Hannes - aspiring F1 driver. he mends shoes, builds snow shelters and clothes lines on the side
Martin - the man who will go down in history for first sighting of a steppe leopard
Jenny - the crazy vet-scientist who chases big cats from safari to snow mountains. she is concurrently developing a 2nd career in baking beer bread over campfires
Karl - 17-yr-old 2nd-generation American, has the most traditional German name but speaks Chinese.he is always hungry

Roger, the quintessential British gentleman-of-leisure. but that is just a front - he is a secret expert in Russian studies, birdwatching, and BE Altai veteran (3 trips spanning 10 years, try beating that record!)