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!
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| Stone with petroglyphs |
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| Climbing mountains while the driver repairs the Bukhanka |
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