Sights over 800 km

13 & 14 Aug 2012

long endless M52 towards Gorno-Altaisk and beyond. main entertainment was provided by crazy Russian drivers who will over-take you even in the face of an oncoming truck.

lunchpoint! - and the last stop with flushing toilets. it's all drop loos from here on!

beef with cheese (yup, that's not mayonnaise)

fresh "bliny (pancakes)" and apple pies

honey and pinenuts.

did you know - the word for "honey" in Russian is "med", and word for "bear" is "medved", because bears know where to find honey!

Entering the Altai Republic

mountains and rivers of Altai

We stopped to stay overnight at Kamlak.

delicious home-cooked dinner at Kamlak

Centre for active tourism at Kamlak - our stop for the night. Last stop with beds and pillows!

Morning walk with Roger and Alice.  Alice - another young American, addicted to fencing, Pente, and rocks; possesses boundless energy and is always ready to climb the next ridge in sight (especially if there are rocks)

morning view over Kamlak

early birds get more breakfast

fresh omelette and salad for breakfast.  dill seems to be a favourite herb in Siberia. there are dill-flavoured potato chips!

little village "magazin (shop)" which has everything!

Jenia - our pretty and humourous Russian ethnology student volunteer from Novosibirsk, who helps us with english-russian translation - maybe that's why we were successful in getting 3 herders to talk to us on the day for interviews!

gathering of Altai superheroes

traffic lights Altai style - very effective in keeping daredevil drivers in check

beautiful camping grounds and parks along the river

Despite the beautiful scenery and occasional cow crossings, the long drive was truly very trying for the drivers. For our car (Sharon, Kate and me), we resorted to playing "I-Spy" and cracking silly jokes to help the drivers get through the long monotonous drive!

We were all glad to finally reach the border town of Kosh-Agach around 8pm for dinner. We started driving again at 9pm - we passed through the military checks at the village Kokoria with amazing ease, bounced down the rough rutted tracks of the Altai steppes for another hour or so, manoeuvred around a frantic gerboa jumping 20-miles-an-hour in the car track, and finally reached base camp close to 11pm.  

I am officially in love with Russian "уаз" (pronounced oo-ah-z) vans, and declare them cooler than the Minis and Beetles.