Another day and yet another Altai.
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).
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!
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