August 14-15 Choketty Hill and Back to Khabarovsk

August 14, we went to climb the Choketty Hill near Komsomolsk-na-Amure. As we were passing by the aircraft plant, we saw three military aircrafts Su-33/27(?) manoeuvring in the air. We think that these were performance tests of newly-built aircrafts. We stopped on the roadside to watch the performance. 

As we left Komsomolsk, I (Anna) took control of the steering wheel to go through the gravel road towards the hill. I like driving when there is no traffic around, even if roads are poor. We left the car and climbed about 400m up the Choketty Hill. We enjoyed the nice view of the Sikhote-Alin range before going down.

Then we went towards Amur River through a gravel/mud road in the forest. As we left our car and walked towards the river, we were surrounded by a cloud of mosquitoes, black flies and horse flies all desperately craving for our blood. That made us unhappy, so we took a quick glance at the river and rushed back towards the safety of the car. After being back to Komsomolsk, we went for a short walk and dinner.

August 15, it was time to go back to Khabarovsk. The weather was turning bad again and it rained the entire day as we were driving to Khabarovsk. Weather forecast for the following weekend and week did not look promising either. Well, we will be home anyways. 

It was time to bid farewell to Sikhote-Alin, which was also a wonderful host for us. We spent great time in Primorsky Krai and in the Komsomolsk area and always had good weather when we needed it. Unlike Altai or Sayan mountain ranges, Sikhote-Alin range that we visited did not have tall mountains, but it had its own charm of blue hills and lush tropical forests. It also gave us a glimpse of a wild bore in the forest, which I very much appreciate. No bears in sight, but oh well...

August 13 Amut and Bolon' Lakes

Today we visited two lakes in Komsomolsk-na-Amure area. First, we went to the Amut Lake. I (Anna) decided to drive and it was quite fun. The road was gravel and some boulders and steep in some places. Quite an interesting driving experience. As we arrived at the lake, we were impressed by its beauty and decided to have a picnic. There were no horseflies or mosquitoes to bother us, which was quite unexpected, but welcoming. As time approached midday, more and more cars kept coming and taking picnic spots. That seemed like a thing to do - come have a picnic at the lake.

After the Amut Lake, we drove back to Komsomolsk. We drove through a small town of Solnechny (Sunny), which looked very neat and cheerful albeit being located in the middle of nowhere. Then we drove South of Komsomolsk to Dzhuyen located on the Bolon' Lake. It was already past 6pm, so we only took a couple of pictures there and went back to Komsomolsk passing by another small towm called Amursk. We arrived to Komsomolsk late and had dinner at the hotel.

Amut Lake

Bolon' Lake

August 12 Khabarovsk to Komsomolsk-na-Amure

As the weather for the following days looked promising, we left for Kosomolsk-na-Amure (translated as Komsomolsk-on-Amure), which is located up the Amur River North-East of Khabarovsk. There were a lot of flooded areas along the way due to heavy rains. In addition, the land is less than 100 m above the sea level and is rather flat, so the Amur River and other rivers were easily flooding the plains. There were a lot of marshlands along the road.

We arrived to Kosomolsk-na-Amure at around 6pm to find a brand-new hotel with a nice, quiet, but rather small room. This was a great value for money, as a good filling buffet breakfast was also included. We then went for a walk in the town and visited  the embankment.

Komsomols-na-Amure's Lenin

August 9-11 Khabarovsk

We took the weekend off at home spending time with my mom and waiting for the weather updates. Heavy rains in the area and up the Amur River led to floods and warnings of more water were published. During the whole weekend that we were home, it was rainy and gloomy. We went to the embankment to see the water level in the Amur River, which was much higher than usual. We also learned that a massive rainstorm arrived to Primorsky Krai creating floods and nuisance in the area we have just visited. Perfect timing to come back to Khabarovsk indeed.

Water level at 530cm.

August 6-8 Vladivostok to Krabbe peninsula and to Khabarovsk

August 6, we traveled to the very South of the Primorsky Krai - very near the North Korean border. We were after an empty beach, where we could spend a night. According to reviews on the Internet, the Krabbe peninsula was just that. As we arrived at the start of the peninsula, we were unpleasantly surprised by the crowds of tourists - not a place where we would like to stay. We could not really continue to the peninsula as the road was muddy and we did not want to risk getting stuck one more time. As we got desperate, we saw a road up the hill, which we decided to take to have a break and eat our lunch. We were surprised to see a gate with a phone number. It turned out to be a private tourist base, which was empty at that point and where we found a nice spot for a fee. We were not able to park our car at the beach, but very close to it (in fact, it is legally not allowed to park a car so close to the water). 

First thing we did upon our arrival was to have lunch and then go for a swim. The water was warm and welcoming, but the horseflies spoilt the fun. We went back to the car to prepare for the night and cook dinner. Sleeping in the car was difficult again and neither I nor Pablo slept well. 

August 7, we decided to get up at 6am and have breakfast as we could not sleep. We found everything covered in dew - everything outside the car was wet. This is really tropical weather - hot and humid. After breakfast, I went for a little nap and then for a swim, while Pablo was trying to sleep. That didn’t work much, so we gathered our belongings and moved on towards Khabarovsk. We stopped to buy some fresh produce from local dacha owners. We stopped by my grandfather’s brother’s (another one) family in the evening for a nice dinner. They also provided us with plenty of fresh vegetables from their garden. We spend a night in Spassk-Dalny.

August 8, we moved on to Khabarovsk driving about 540km. The road was quite good, but still very long. We arrived home at around 6pm to spend a weekend home. 

We reached 20.000 kms milestone