Night and Evening hikes
Tuesday July 20th - early morning hike
| Having slept the previous afternoon following our fishing expedition, we decided to make use of the 24 hour daylight to go on a short walk along the local bay before retiring for the night. At 00:18 we came across a strange watch-tower, which I volunteered to climb in an attempt to identify a way home that did not involve having to retrace our steps. |
| Lena looking up from below as we discussed our options. |
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| We made our way across country to a road we could see in the distance, which seemed to be part of a deserted factory complex. But as we walked, we found some of the buildings were illuminated and we started to see what looked like uniformed guards patrolling the area. At 00:29 were were just approaching a bend, around which we encountered a tall fence with a guarded gate - on which we seemed to be on the wrong side! We were starting to get a little worried that we might have stumbled into some form of military complex. But though the guard looked dubious, Lena managed to bluff our way through, after reminding me to look Russian and to not say anything. |
Tuesday July 20th - Evening Hike
We rose again at the crack of noon, and headed out mid afternoon for our first solo hike along the side of the bay at the other end of the village. Natasha had recommended this as a very attractive area, and after our previous experience getting lost in the forrest we decided that following the bay was the safest option. So we caught the bus and set off to the end of the road that we had followed on the first day here, and set off along a track that we had found which led on from there.
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At 18:35, here I am following a track that we found which seemed
to lead up the side of a mountain called Lysaya Gora, which is considered
to be the tallest in the area.
We decided that the track was probably used for gathering the local berries which would soon be in season. |
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At 18:50 we reached the top of the mountain, providing a good
view of the bay. Lysaya Gora means "Bald Mountain", and the
reason for the name became clear as we cleared the treeline
and were greeted by an open terrain of low scrub, rocks and
blackened fallen trees.
We managed to take this picture by balancing the camera on a rock. |
| At 19:05 Lena discovered that on the top of the mountain some of the berries were already in season, and wasted no time in sampling them. |
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| At 19:19 we had climbed to the summit and obtained an even better view, unobscured by trees. |
| By 21:22 we had made our way back down to the beach and tested the water and now Lena was laying the table at our camp site. |
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| Then time for a nice hot cup of tea. |
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Natasha had said that if we missed the last bus (at 22:00),
which as it turned out we did quite a lot, we could always
call on one of the locals to drive us home.
Here we are with Larissa and Valodya Moscovtsevy (from whom we had bought milk on our first day) and her husband just before 1:00am, being treated to a cup of fresh milk before being driven home. Needless to say, the locals were very tolerant of the eccentric strangers. |
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Wednesday July 21st - another hike
On wednesday we again caught the bus to the other end of town, and this time hiked around the other side of the bay.
| Here we are at our camp site at 21:07. Needless to say, we missed the bus again... |
This time it was the turn of the people we had bought fish from to drive us home. Not only were we driven home, but we also had an offer to be taken to see a nearby town which was fast becoming a ghost town as the last residents were gradually leaving or dying out. It was a generous offer (or maybe they just wanted to stop us waking them up in the middle of the night again) so we accepted, and tomorrows adventure was organized.
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