My July 2005 Trip To Siberian Mountains - Krasnoyarsk Region



See also more of my wanderings

То же по-русски

     I am a lazy person and don't like to work. That's why after quitting all my jobs i decided to enjoy my life. When you are 50 years old time begins to flow very rapidly and the amount of the pleasures available shrinks.
     I don't like people swarming around me in Moscow city and i like forests, grass and looking at the clouds, so a small mountain trip is just what i needed - no people, rocks, streams and Siberian pines...
     I don't think that my life can be of interest to anyone, but the places i visited and may never get to again are worth telling about. So if someone decides to leave his house and wander somewhere, this may be the place.
     It all started when I heard the word "Ergaki" from an ICQ acquaintance, a girl from Krasnoyarsk. I ended up going there with a group from Krasnoyarsk who had no objections to my accompanying them on their trip to the Ergaki wilderness. Having me around was tough on these hardy Siberians from Krasnoyarsk - but somehow they managed it.
     Actually covering the 4000 miles to Ergaki from Moscow is the easy part - raising the airfare is another story! However, one of my two sons gave me $400, mum gave me $300 and I had $300 myself. It costs more to fly to London than Krasnoyarsk from Moscow!
     I also bought a new tent, a sleeping bag, a knapsack and a heap of different things. The girl from Krasnoyarsk, mentioned above, helped me to choose these tings and vanished. She will not be mentioned more...
     If one wants to get to the place by his own, he should fly to Abakan - a Siberian town - and then take a bus to Kyzyl. Abakan is 400 km closer to Ergaky Ridge than Krasnoyarsk, but i went to Krasnoyarsk because i needed people who knew the route and we had arranged to all take a small bus to our destination. I am afraid of heights and i needed someone to rescue me if I became frozen with fear on a rock face
     I studied the route before the trip. Here are some links to it in the web.
     http://mapn46.narod.ru/N-46.jpg - this is a huge 3.4 MB picture file - an old 1969 map of Abakan-Minusinsk region.
     http://mapn46.narod.ru/map2/in4628.html - this is our trip region map, which is a bit newer. 2.7 MB large.
     This is a part of it we went to.
    
     50 KB.

     You can compare the map to how it looks from space:
     http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=52.882391,93.548584&spn=2.544664,4.863647&t=k&hl=en
     This is an Abakan-Minusink region. The place we were to go is in the center.
     http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=52.851511,93.397865&spn=0.159144,0.303978&t=k&hl=en
     And this is a higher resolution image of the place we went. You can see two yellow lines in the left. On of it is a road to Kyzyl and the other less twisting is an electric line. The former governor of the Krasnoyarsk region died in a crash when his helicopter hit this electric line near Ergaki.
    
     So that's how it looks. You can compare it to the map. Unfortunately the Americans didn't have the most high resolution pictures of the place. If we had ones we could see the lonely trees and big stones.
     Let us look at the Moscow building i live in high resolution image as it looks from the space.
    
     And a three dimensional image of the part of Ergaki ridge we were as seen from the South. Cool isn't it?

     And this is a link to Ergaki maps, one'll need Corell Draw to open them.
     http://ergaki.krasu.ru/map.shtml

    

And this is the site of the guy who was our leader - Denis, it was made by one of the girls who took part in it - Larisa.

 All the photos are mine and of the youngest team member - Masha, having a film camera.

     I shot all the photos by a rather costly Sony DSC-F717 digital camera.
    
     It is not a small thing and as it was hanging on my neck it survived some heavy blows against the rocks and many rainfalls. But all ended well and even Russian airport stevedores didn't break it as they threw my knapsack on the cart as if they hated all this luggage more than their mothers in law.
     As u know the toys big boys like such as cigars, guns, knives serve as their penis extension. I don't like arms; cigars are absolute shit, so my Sony DSC-F717 served as phallic symbol. They called me a photographer! This is not a nickname for me!
     I bought this camera because it has good optics, though i knew about Sony's habit of making incompatible and costly devices such as batteries and flash cards for their equipment. But i must admit the battery lasted long!
     As i usually don't care about reading the manuals i could only push the button in the automatic mode. During the trip the people taught me to list through the photos and the menu and press some other buttons without making any damage to the camera. Don't follow my example - RTFM!
     So let us look at how it was. All the pictures are in chronological order. If you click on a thumbnail, you'll have a bigger picture of about 80 KB (150KB maximum)
     The last (third) page does not have large photos - no place for them on the free Geocities hosting. Better visit my photo albums.
There are some other photos of my life on the road there.
The males of our group; the leader is in the center
The males of our group on the road to the place; Volodya - a doctor on the left, Denis - the leader - in the center and Slava - a policeman
It's me
It's me
The
The "Nizshnaya Buiba" river near our camping place
The same river downstream
The same river downstream
The mountains we are heading for
The mountains we are heading for
Official photo on the start
Official photo on the start, from left to right: Oksana - a doctor, Luda - an engineer, George (me) a vagabond, Slava a police major and a guitar player, Nastya a construction engineer, Vladimir a master of science (medicine), Larisa a master of science and a university teacher, Masha (squats) a university student - the yongest team member, Denis (squats) - the leader, a doctor.
Plants
Plants
A flover - a lily(?)
A flover - a lily(?)
Before the start
Before the start - not worn out and no stubble on men's faces
We started!
We started!
Some other cool flowers
Some other cool flowers
The first rest
The first rest
Rocks, Siberian pines and Silver firs
Rocks, Siberian pines and Silver firs
A stream
A stream
You can put this view on the wall
You can put this view on the wall
Cool rocks - no need for Japanese rocks gardens in Russia
Cool rocks - no need for Japanese rocks gardens in Russia
The first camp under the rain
The first camp under the rain
A stream and fog
A stream and fog
The Russian Version.
    
To The Second part