Thursday 29 August 2013

Russia - Altai/Siberia 9th - 23rd August



                   Our first port of call on re-entering Russia was to buy our compulsory third party insurance. Well the office may not instill confidence in the insurance company but we have our insurance. Lets hope that we don’t have to call on it



1         After leaving Mongolia we entered the Altai region at Tashanta and followed the old Chuysky Trading Track along a beautiful valley to Gorno-Altaysk



                     
              Some interesting side tracks along the way included Red Gate Canyon and Lake Teletskoye











               The road went up to around 2000m with peaks to 4500m for us to enjoy from our camp…..




          …….and we enjoyed every bit of it  



                A group photo with Guy and Cheryl and the mountain range in the background holding Siberia’s highest peak, Mount Belukha at 4,458m








              In an endeavor to take a track into the mountains we crossed this swing bridge…. well it did say a 7t limit and Roadee comes in at only 6.2t, sooo…..




              …….slowly slowly









                  A nice walk up over a pass on a track that was just too narrow for Roadee





            Throughout Russia (so far) there have been no fences, a reflection, I’m told, of land title which is still held collectively. Mobs of cattle in varying numbers roam at will and largely unattended. They are completely at home on or off the road and mostly not budging for you, so much so that the locals refer to them as “freelance cops”. It’s a subject open for discussion as to the most efficient way to manage the grazing land during a very short summer which sees the country rich with clovers and meadow grasses. However the majority of the year is down to -30 to-40 degrees leading to animals having to be housed   
     





          Just love those silver birches growing naturally and in abundance




               Roadee managed to get her feet wet on more than one occasion while getting to some interesting spots








                 Catch-up day. Pumping water from mountain streams and washing. The area is wet and days are cloudy so solar power production was down. The result, on R&R days the generator often got some work




                 With an abundance of good trees it’s understandable that timber is the main building material in Siberia. Log houses are the traditional design and while unpainted the windows display pots of flowers with gardens filled with flowers and potatoes. This has got to be the “potato capital of the world”






               On visiting a small village we came across a ceremony to congratulate some local boys who had graduated in their paratrooper course. A great community spirit was evident and well!
 





            You can’t help but look at the Russian Orthodox churches, this one in Omsk


            Two young guys going about their business. Russia seems to be a contrast of extremes. Many small villages have all but died with the end of the Soviet system; no meaningful employment has seen a drift away by the young while on the other hand the oil and gas development in Siberia in particular has seen regional centers boom. Modern housing developments, smart city centers and huge shopping malls filled with people that makes you imagine you were in one of the best malls in Australia 




            It’s mushroom season and the pickers of these wild mushies are out on the road in force





                 Archairsky, a small village to the south of Omsk was the sight of one of Russia’s infamous gulag camps. On its closure the KGB erased all evidence of the camp and only in 2000 a monastery was erected in its place





              This cross is all there is to mark the location of where between 100 and 200,000 political prisoners died at this camp alone 










                     From the end of the Altai Region and increasing the further west we went were thousands upon thousands of hectares of crop in loamy black steppe country




                 Tobolsk, founded in 1587, used to be the capital of Siberia but lost its crown to modern day Tyumen however it sports what’s claimed to be the areas number one sight, its kremlin and cathedral. The city leaders have also spent more than the annual budget of Kazakhstan endeavoring to pretty up the city and turn it into a major tourist attraction



             We haven’t seen one statue of Stalin but have seen many of Lenin, an indication that the nation has tried in some ways to erase that part of its history but hasn’t fully come to terms with it 









Yekaterinburg as the capital of the Urals is better known for the location where the last Tsar and his family were murdered. Boris Yeltsin as Governor of the city in the 70’s had the building bulldozed so as not to attract monarchist sympathizes. Today a monastery has been erected in its place and the Romanov family have all been made Saints


              The city still retains some magnificent buildings and the wealth of the oil and gas boom shows