23-25 June Krasnoyarsk to Baikal and Tazheranskaya Steppe

Sunday, June 23, we left Krasnoyarsk. The second leg of our trip was over (Krasnoyarsk Krai, Tuva and Khakassia). Now Baikal, Buryatia and Mongolia are ahead. 

We drove 1350 km over 3 days from Krasnoyarsk to Khuzhir - the main village on Olkhon Island stopping overnight in Nizhneudinsk and Ust-Ornynskoye. It is worth mentioning that Olkhon Island was not on our itinerary. I knew that this was a super touristy place and in summer people would spend hours waiting for the ferry, so when I was planning the trip I decided skipping it. Now, when I knew the weather was promising to be bad and we would be visiting the island during weekdays, I figured out that there will be very few tourists and decided to come to Olkhon. So far, I believe this was the right decision - more in the next blog.

We had a quick visit to the Tazheranskaya Steppe to have our first sighting of Baikal and its bays and cliffs. Quite an impressive site. Then we took a ferry (we were two minutes late and had to wait for the next one…) and a terrible road to Khuzhir - the dash cam wire disconnected twice because the car was shaking so much!

For the first two days of our journey the weather was warm and sunny, but today, June 25, it turned terrible - cold and rain. As we arrived to Khuzhir, we were stopped by a policeman for document checks and a passing car gave him a small shower of dirty water from a puddle - a lesson not to stop people with no reason! As he learned that Pablo was Belgian, he was surprised that a Belgian would come to Russia and buy a UAZ Patriot. After I told him it was my car (purchased on my name), he was surprised that a person from Khabarovsk would not be driving a Toyota Land Cruiser (yes, most people from Khabarovsk and Vladivostok buy used Japanese cars).

June 22 Krasnoyarsk

Today, we took a walk through the centre of Krasnoyarsk - the third largest city in Siberia after Novosibirsk and Omsk with slightly over 1 million inhabitants. I was quite impressed with it: very well maintained, has a lot of recreation space and green patches, looks very European, and feels comfortable for living. The European look is apparently because every time their previous mayor went to Europe, he came back with ideas how to improve the city and implemented them. Hence, the city has paving, some modern architecture and recreation space, plenty of fountains (about 130 apparently) and even palm trees that are removed from the streets during winter and brought back in the summer. People I saw in the streets looked quite happy and relaxed.

The beauty and comfort that I saw really made me wonder why Krasnoyarsk annually tops the rating of the worst-for-life cities in Russia. The answer is pollution. It is located in a valley and is surrounded by hills; hence the smoke can't escape. Main pollution comes from cars and in winter from the coal-fired power station. Factories are located outside the city and apparently don't contribute too much to its pollution. Our taxi driver told us that Putin quite likes Krasnoyarsk and comes here often. He negotiated with the local oligarchs that they invest in the upgrade of the power station to reduce pollution. Once this problem is solved, this place should be amazing for living.

Alesander Sergeevich with a polished nose. No idea what kind of luck rubbing his nose brings

This is where Krasnoyarsk was founded. It is now on the 10-Rouble banknote.

Paradise for bikers. Hell for local residents.

June 21 Stolby National Park

Krasnoyarsk boasts a national  park within the city limits. We took a chairlift at the Fun Park to go up the hills and then made our way around the park to leave at the other entrance. We saw a few rock formations on the road and collected 6 ticks in total on us (three each). This made my day and I remained shocked the rest of the evening and the following night. These small creatures can make my blood curdle! If you don't know why I am so scared of them, just google and you will know. Pablo and I had our encephalitis vaccination, but there are still things we'd better avoid ticks for. This was by far the largest tick harvest so far. We had 1 on the way to Iogach (Pablo), 1 in Pablo's socks in Chemal, 3 on Multinsky Lakes (Anna), and now 6 in Stolby (3-Anna and 3-Pablo). I am a clear winner so far...