deeper into Siberia - Altai mountains

The week before we left Novosibirsk, parents, Gleb and the two of us went to the Altai Mountains. These are mountains about 400kms south of Novosibirsk and close to the borders of Mongolia, China and Kazakhstan. Ever since I was a kid I dreamt of going there, as everyone kept on showing beautiful photos and telling stories of the icy cold river Katun and tall mountain Belukha. Where we were it wasn't quite in the mountains, but at their base about two hours north on the little lake called Aya.



We left Novosibirsk late on Tuesday night and got there early Wednesday morning. The bus trip was long and fairly painful... it was a pretty old bus, with crammed seats, with the heating going under every seat so hot that I was boiling in my t-shirt with about -10 outside. There were two drivers who were doing shifts and they both had very VERY bad music on going full blast and at every stop they kept on turning on the lights really brightly, so no-one could sleep. Oh, and they also took turns at smoking behind the wheel. :)

Thus we all got there being underlept, hot and grumpy... However almost immediately our mood changed for the better when we got to see what was in store. The way to our hotel took us over a hanging bridge, over the frozen Katun river...





Our hotel was pretty good - apart from serving cold porridge every morning that Jack refused to eat.. but Dad was happy to have an extra serving :) We spent our three days walking around, throwing each other in the snow, playing snowballs, drinking, eating, playing cards, talking, playing pool and table tennis, and generically relaxing.



Dad kept his Russian Army Officer's uniform on, and pretended to first be a new Russian and then a secret agent, talking to someone on the phone ;)



On one of the days Jack and I took a walk around the frozen lake. At this stage the weather was actually pretty warm - about 10 degrees and the lake started to melt... so on the way back there were a couple of hairy moments when we would step into the snow and fall through into a layer of freezing water underneath to about knee high. But we managed and it was fun. We even saw the back of a wild cat - I think it might've even been a little lynx.



Actually the places there are so incredibly beautiful that I'll stop rambling and just post the photos...






Because we were there in the beginning of spring and the weather was actually very warm for March, a lot of the snow was melting. In many places we saw little streams forming and these four were shining so beautifully in the sun and making such a cute sound that I decided to take a video...



Some "little things" too...
These little summer houses had the biggest satellite antennas - which was almost as big as the house... I guess even here one doesn't want to miss the Grand Final...

Even though the area is actually fairly clean, there are a few signs telling people off for throwing rubbish around, which reminded me of the good old soviet days where 'moral' signs were everywhere. It says "Don't pollute nature, don't throw rubbish! Fine for non compliance."

This was a huge sign from WWF indicating rules for appropriate behaviour in the area. Most of Altai is actually protected by UNESCO as a natural park, but I doubt anyone would ever spend the time reading something like that.

...speaks for itself (it says "beach opening hours...")