May 26, we left the very South of the Altai Republic and went up towards North-West. It was quite amusing to see the landscapes change from desert to steppe and then to forests in a matter of a couple of hours. The weather was merciful to us and the rain only started late in the afternoon after we turned towards Ust-Koksa. You might remember that 10 days ago, when we were traveling from Kamlak to Inegen we had snow all the way and missed the Chike-Taman pass. This time we were lucky and we saw it. I (Anna) hadn't realised how steep it was. If you have enough patience you can look at the 24-minute time lapse of our 8-hour journey below (I'm not expecting that).
May 27, we stayed in Ust-Koksa for a relaxing day. I was suprised to find a large (population of 4500) and a rather prosperous village lost in a middle of nowhere. We took a walk around, climbed a nearest hill to see the village and the Katun and Koksa confluence from above. We went to the visit center of the Katunsky National Park to pay the entrance fees to two lakes that we are planning to visit this week. We also received our permits to the border area to be able to be here legally. Technically, I don't need a permit to be here and at the Multa lakes where we are going next, but Pablo does as a foreigner. So if you decide to visit the area (same for Kosh-Agach by the way) and you are a foreigner, you have to apply for a permit at least 30 days in advance indicating all the places you plan to visit. If you are planning to visit a 5-km pre-border zone and you are Russian, you will also need a permit.
24 Minutes timelapse video of the trip from Kosh-Agach to Ust-Koksa
View from the Chike-Taman pass
At the Chike-Taman pass
Suspension bridge on the Koksa river
Walking by the Katun river after the confluence with Koksa river
Today, we went to see colourful mountains near Kosh-Agach called Mars (Martian Fields). They were called Chagan-Uzun until a tourist nicknamed them Mars a few years ago and published it on the Internet. Now they are mostly known as Mars and indicators read Mars. The place is very picturesque and pictures speak for themselves.
We had a walk (2-3 km each way) to Mars-2 from Mars and then went on to search for Yelangash Valley petroglyphs. That was a real quest and we gave up after a couple of wrong turns. If you ever find them, please let us know what we've missed!
The day greeted us with snow again. Fortunately, clouds moved on just before we left Kurai, so we could enjoy the views of the Chuyskaya Steppe, which was very different from Kurai Steppe despite the drive between the two was about 30 minutes. Chuyskaya Steppe is about 1800 km above the sea level and is very dry. Yearly, it sees only 150mm of precipitation and almost no snow. The weather here is harsh and the land is very dry. Very cold winters, hot summers and strong winds. Kosh-Agach is a major village in the Kosh-Agach District and populated primarily by rather newly arrived Muslim Kazakhs, unlike Kurai, which is populated by native pagant Telenghit people (belong to the so-called Altai people).
Once we arrived in, and drove through, Kosh-Agach, Anna started to feel uncomfortable about the place. Although, it's been long time she was not convinced she was still in Russia, she said Kosh-Agach felt particularly foreign. She can't explain what exactly made her feel uncomfortable, but thinks that this might be because 1) the land is barren, although very beautiful and the climate is very hostile and 2) most important, nearing Kosh-Agach, we saw a big billboard warning of a plague...
Plague story: early May, there was a Mongolian couple in the nearby area who ate raw meat of a ground hog and died of plague. It appears that some rodents in that area are infected with this deadly disease. It is probably a norm for North-West Mongolia and South Kosh-Agach district, but Anna said she was not convinced of this "norm". Local hospital offers plague vaccination to everyone. However, we decided it was not for us: live vaccine leading to nausea, vomiting, headaches, stomachaches and high body temperature for 3-5 days after. That could mean that we would be sick during our entire trip to Mongolia. Leaflets available in the hotel warned that plague is carried by fleas and rodents, such as mice. Anna is already concerned about diseases carried by ticks and does daily tick inspections, but she does not feel she could control fleas or mice in some doubtful hotels/gers in Mongolia. She said that even this defies the idea of an adventure, it's better to take precautions.
So, we decided to skip Mongolia for now and go to Mongolia from Ulan-Ude later. We will also add Kazakhstan for a couple of days in early June instead. This is a late change to our plans, but better be safe than sorry.
We still don't know who this is. Suggestions are welcome!
Today, we took an excursion offered by our host, who is a qualified guide, to the Ishty-Kul Plateau in the Kurai Steppe. What a trip it was!
First, the weather decided we had enough sun and sent quite a lot of snow on our heads. Thankfully, snow stopped from time to time allowing us to enjoy the views of mighty mountains in the background. This was yet another Altai that we discovered today - almost tundra-like marshlands with plenty of small lakes and streams. When it was not snowing, strong wind was blowing not letting us to stay long outside the car. But even when it was not snowing, we could see snow showers at the distance coming towards us. We learned the local weather: it is very harsh and quickly changeable. We were told, winter temperature often reach below -50C and above +30C in summer are not unusual. Why people even live here?
Second, the car decided not to cooperate either. This time, we had another UAZ (third in our collection after our Patriot and yesterday's Hunter), widely nicknamed as Bukhanka (loaf of bread)/Tabletka(tablet/pill). It is very popular as a very cheap, but rather robust option for poor roads in the countryside. It does break down quite often, but is very easy to repair. Whatever happened to it that day, it was breaking down all the time, but managed to go through the toughest places without letting us down. Only once it got stuck in the shallow of a small river crossing, but even then it was already reaching the dry land, so we didn't get our feet wet. About 3 km from the village, it decided it needed a break and we were picked up by another Bukhanka. Probably, it needed a cable replacement. Our host later told us that he and the driver checked all involved parts and they were not the likely cause of the issue, so they called an electrician.
At one point, when bukhanka broke down, we went up the nearest hill to reach 2000 km above the sea level. Exciting? Maybe not for everyone, but for us yes!
Stone with petroglyphs
Climbing mountains while the driver repairs the Bukhanka
Today we went to see the Akturu glacier in the South Chuya mountain range. This required about 40 km offroad. And real offroading it was! We had a full body massage and we hope no vital body organs became displaced. The car we had was another UAZ - UAZ Hunter tuned for this type of roads: high clearance, appropriate tyres, some car parts were from GAZ and ZIL. Locals know how to make cars work on the roads where people and horses could get stuck.
On the way, we met a young German couple who decided to leave work and travel from Germany to Nepal. Part of their journey was through Russia: from Saint-Petersburg to Ulan-Ude and they decided to spend some time trekking mountains in Altai. They are from German Alps and have quite a good mountain trekking experience, so we were glad they were with us, as mountain trekking was quite new for us. We both hiked mountains and volcanos, but these were rather different.
As we arrived at the base camp, we were greeted by Nikolay - he used to work in Tomsk university and used to come here on rotation to study the glaciers. After retirement, he decided to move to Aktru for good as he fell in love with this place. We had an omelet and hot tea with bread and honey. Later we were quite glad we had this second breakfast as the way up required a lot of fuel. Nikolay also gave us sweets and crackers to make sure we have enough sugar for our muscles. He also gave us his walkie-talkie as we were the only people going up the mountain that day and he felt much safer having connection to us.
The path to the mountain was rather steep at places, with a lot of boulders. Some areas were still covered with snow: we sank in snow a few times to discover that there were streams of water below. As our visit to Aktru was only for one day, we had only limited time. We almost made it to the Blue Lake, but had to stop short. Anyways, we were told that the lake was still frozen and we would not see it. Hence, no feeling of disappointment because we did not make it whatsoever.
As we were approaching the base camp on our way back, we met Nikolay. He was searching for us and was worried something happened. It turned out, that the volume knob of the our walkie-talkie turned down and we did not hear his calls. In fact, we were quite surprised that he only called us once. Well, he called us numerous times, but we did not hear.
The way back was equally bumpy. The driver even asked us once to leave the car and walk a little as this was becoming too dangerous.
We finished the day with a throat singing performance, which was quite impressive with the mountains at the background and open fire.
We started the day leisurely and decided to go to the Mountain Spirit Lake and a Repeater that are about 12 km from Aktash in the afternoon. We were told that the road was poor, but our car should be able to make it. So we decided to test the offroading capabilities of UAZ Patriot. And that was a real test! The car was indeed able to climb the road of boulders (the drier's skills were proven as well - Anna's comment), but after about 3 km we decided to stop the test as we still needed to make about 10 thousand kilometers with our Patriot and our tyres were not really suited for this type of driving.
Then we drove to Kurai and landscapes changed yet again. As we were climbing up, we found ourselves in Kurai steppe surrounded by snowy mountains (the Kurai steppe is about 1500 m above the sea level. We stopped for about 10 minutes to take photos and as we were outside the car, a very strong wind appeared from out of nowhere and was gone 5 minutes later. This is how changeable the weather is here.
When we arrived to our new accommodation, we were happy to see that the room had toiled and shower included and in good working condition. We also found out that we were the only guests as the tourist season starts in June. So Anna felt she could bother the hosts with her questions and also asked them to cook something local to us. Well, local means meat. The area is arid and the earth is not very rich, hence fruit and vegetables are not really grown here and are expensive in shops. So we had our red deer shish kebab for dinner and we are expecting lamb dumplings tomorrow.
We also talked to our host about Altai people and it turned out that there is no such a nation. It is just a collective term to call all ethnicities who live in Altai. They all speak Turkic language and can understand each other, except for certain words in different dialects. Out host also explained that these people have 12 clans and he belongs to a clan of red deer called Toulyos. His ancestors lived at Teletskoye lake and when Russian settlers came in the area, they called the lake closest to how they could pronounce Toulyos (in fact, Telets in Russian means a small bull).
Our first offroading experience with our UAZ Patriot
Kurai timelapse. Even goats know road crossing rules here!
