Read about Ron & Viv's journey so far - Siberian Russia.
Back in Russia and the colourful exterior of the simple, and not so simple, wooden houses you see in the villages and towns.
Watermelons, like Kazak, were plentiful and delicious and a great way to quench your thirst.
Now traveling in the Altai Mountains and found ourselves a really good, secluded camp – our Altai River camp.;
We passed close to a burial gound and its stone markers, admired by Gay.
Tashanta was our last town before crossing the Russia/Mongolia Border - these kids were very happy with some knitted caps (by Helen) and a couple of Koala.
5th to 9th August 2008Siberian Russia
Siberian Russia
As we headed north, the road remained pretty good and we got to Rubtsovsk , a fairly large town on the way north to Barnaul. We tried to find a spot to get Neil's truck repaired and found a guy (he had been an officer in the Russian Coastguard and was once based in Vladivostok) who spoke a bit of English – with him we found a small auto-repair business (GPS 51°30'15”N 81°11'52”E), which was on the main road into the centre of town. This place turned to be a real winner and the guys there were really great. Using a crowbar they levered the Ford's back up and almost into place. Within a couple of hours and then with the use of a fork-lift they lifted the back-end of Neil's heavy F250 and belted out the rivets and replaced them with some bolts. We were away again within a few hours.
Cruised up the road for about 30km – the countryside remaining rolling plains covered in grain crops with the odd field of sunflower. There were no fences at all, just wind rows of tall trees and blocks of trees dotting the expansive view. Turned west off the road and found our way behind a group of trees to our Glades Camp (GPS 51°30'15”N 81°11'52”E).
For the whole of next morning's drive we cruised across vast plains – steppes really – that were manicured into fields of wheat, oats, barley, sunflower and another crop with a white flowery head. Rows and blocks of trees broke the scene while the occasional tree-lined stream or a large dam or small lake added another dimension. It was delightful farming land and there were a few tractors out ploughing and harvesting the crops but stock were few and far between – we saw a few mobs of cows but they were, at most, only 50 in number.
Got to Banaul, which is a very large industrial city and stopped at a Nissan dealership to see if they had a viscous fan for the 4.2 – they tried to help but couldn't. We pushed on, crossing the mighty wide Ob River which the town is situated on and stopped near a large dam that made a good lunch spot apart from all the rubbish that was lying around. As we headed south we passed a few other vehicles in the Mongul Rally.
Headed down the road the scenery much the same as before although it was slightly hillier. Got to Biysk, which is a smaller city than Banaul of about 250,000. In the centre of town near Lenin Square found a fairly big shopping centre with a large supermarket where we stocked up on supplies. Mongolia is not good for many food stuffs – especially western food stuff!
There were many old Soviet era built apartment blocks in the city with their date of construction on their top-most wall – most being built in the 1970's and early 80's – they looked much older! The trams and buses than plied the streets also looked like they had been running their routes since WW2 – they had lost most of their paint, were black with exhaust smoke and were very rustic!
Then we tried to find one of the hotels in the LP guide. By sheer luck asked a bloke and he pointed to the nearby Gvozdeeka Hotel , (or something like that) ph: 3854 23 64 03, (GPS 52°30'40”N 85°08'43”E), which is located about 5km west of the centre of the city and is located just off Vasnlbyeva St (a tramway runs down the centre of this street) on a longish ‘square' with another Lenin statue in it and a quite impressive but worn and faded ‘town hall' at the far end. This hotel turned out to be an absolute winner and while the staff didn't speak too much English we worked our way through it – cost about A$80/night/couple, for an excellent and clean room with a separate lounge and en-suite bathroom. Our vehicles created quite a bit of interest in the passing parade of people – they were photographed by dozens of people!
Next morning while waiting for ‘Registration' – something you should do every 3-5 day when in Russia and most tourist/business hotels do it for you we were approached by Victoria and a photographer from the local paper. With our Registration done we headed out of town and south following the Sema River valley, which was fairly heavily wooded and with quite a few villages dotted along its course.
Altai Mountains
At the 416km peg (from Novosibirsk, we gather) we crossed a major tributary of the Sema River the country now having become quite hilly – this was the start of the Altai Mountains , a picturesque and popular tourist area for rafting, horse trekking and skiing.
As we headed on the country became much more mountainous while the Katun River was bordered by steep hills that at times were sheer bluffs of white rock studded with pines on their crests and flanks. It was a beaut drive with some of the high steep hills scarred by the cleared ski runs that are so popular in winter. There were a number of camping spots along the way right beside the river but not far off the road (especially around the 465km peg - GPS 51°51'06”N 85°44'24”E), tourist cabins dotted here and there and even the odd strip of tourist stalls along the edge of the road as well as a few villages. The river was flowing strongly and in places over a few low-grade rapids; occasionally a loaded raft when drifting by.
Passed through the village of Ust-Sema and crossed the Katun River where we spied a few camps downstream. A bit of searching by all of us and we found a great spot – our Altai River camp , (GPS 51°38'37”N 85°44'55”E), just above the stream on a grassy knoll amongst the trees downstream from the current road bridge but upstream from the new one that is being built.
It was a long slow haul to a high pass (GPS 51°02'41”N 85°36'18”E).where we stopped to take in the view … and let the Patrol cool down. As we came to another steep climb there was a farmer on a horse-drawn rake working his fields. From there we climbed to another high Pass and Stopped at the top where there were a few roadside stalls and, a little off the main road, a low-key ski resort.
There were many good camps along this route south - around the 556km, 615km (GPS 50°54'45”N 85°48'27”E), 670km (GPS 50°38'34”N 86°21'47”E), 780km (GPS 50°19'45”N 87°28'21”E) marks, while the last good camp on the river was at the 816km mark (GPS 50°14'04”N 87°48'32”E) – here the road leaves the stream for quite a few km.
From the second high point the country became a little drier – the route lay east and the sides of the steep hills and peaks to our south were basically clothed with fir trees while those to our north (LH side and facing the sun) were near completely bare of trees and deeply eroded down to the bare raw rock – the difference was quite unbelieveable!
Stopped for lunch where a major tributary joined the Katun River. A Campground was located here (GPS 50°31'13”N 86°33'44”E) and it was a popular stopping point for the rafters going down the river. Another commercial campground was located further south at (GPS 50°22'04”N 87°02'17”E).
Fueled up in Aktash where you can also ‘Register' for being in the Altai Republic (in addition to the normal registration), although we didn't bother - and hoped it didn't really matter. Just after passing through Aktash we could see snow-capped mountains – the first range was the SZevern-Chuyskiy Mountains while behind them were the taller, barer Yuzhno-Chuyskiy Mountains which straddle the border between Russia, Kazakhstan, China and Mongolia and reach a height of 4500metres. There was lots of snow and you could see short glaciers emanating from the highest crests.
Our Twin Stream Camp (GPS 50°09'25”N 88°17'43”E), a few km west off the main road was tucked in amongst a few pine trees between a very turbulent and dirty Chuya River and a small trickle of a stream that was crystal clear …. and freezing cold! Around us was high mountains bare of near everything, while in the background were the taller snow-capped mountains we had seen earlier. It was a pleasant camp.
Next morning it was south to Tashanta where we fuelled up as we came into town. The village was a dusty border town with not much going for it. Drove through the town to the waiting queque of vehicles and lined up with them. A few Mongul Rally cars were there – they had been there for 24 hours or so – the border post only processing 9 vehicles for the previous day! We later met a bloke on a pushbike who waited here for 3 days before he got through! While the rally teams were camped here the local kids struck and a few people lost tools, tyres and other odds and sods. We were expecting the worse!
What was a pleasant surprise was that we got thru in less than 3 hours – well, the Russian side anyway - police, customs, customs inspection, customs again, immigration, passport, police again and we were thru! The Border post was set back well from the border with a wide no mans land between – we drove for another 10-15km and got to the actual border where there was a military checkpoint where we showed passport and the police check-sheet, where we waited for a while and then were allowed to proceed. The Patrol was feeling the heat as well! Bye bye Russia, Hello Mongolia!
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Link to Picture Gallery Page for Siberia Russia.
At the first main town we came to, Rubtsovsk , we managed to find a small auto-repair business and got Neil's truck repaired - with the use of a fork-lift they lifted the back-end of Neil's heavy F250 and belted out the rivets and replaced them with some bolts. The buys were a great bunch, and very helpful!
Got to Biysk and found, eventually, a very pleasant hotel where we ‘registered' again.
It was a long slow haul to a high pass, and as we came to another steep climb there was a farmer on a horse-drawn rake working his fields.
Just after passing through Aktash we could see snow-capped mountains – the first range was the SZevern-Chuyskiy Mountains while behind them were the taller, barer Yuzhno-Chuyskiy Mountains which straddle the border between Russia, Kazakhstan, China and Mongolia and reach a height of 4500metres.
We found another nice camp a few km west off the main road was tucked in amongst a few pine trees between a very turbulent and dirty Chuya River and a small trickle of a stream that was crystal clear …. and freezing cold!
Made it to the Mongolia Border, and again joined the queue with our now new friends from the Mongul Rally. Yet another 4 hour wait.
