Siberia - Day 8

What a bloody cold night. We don't believe it was below 5c but it most definitely felt like the North Pole. Even my super-duper jacket didn't help; I was shivering like a leaf the whole night. I must have passed out from sheer exhaustion at some point as before I knew it, it was morning. Everyone was awake by the time I crawled out of my tent, aka 9 am, but looking at the lot of them it was obvious I wasn't the only one freezing my derriere off.

Knowing we had a short walk ahead and there was no rush to leave we all relaxed, it honestly felt like a spa day. Some started reading, meditating, yawning until their jaws cracked or just waiting for the tea to warm. My sunbathing activity fit in like 'white on rice'. The BIG (emphasis on the capitals) plan for the boys to hike to the nearby hill was cancelled due to ..... hmmm.... let's be diplomatic here .... and call it 'relaxation time', sounds so much nicer than 'lazy time' don't you think? :). Breakfast was served and eaten with the speed of light and the aforementioned activities were taken up with the ease of veteran hippies. Before long, some of us got a bit bored and antsy so Svetlana and Oceane went hunting for special mountain flowers, Christof-The-Brave went for the mountain climb alone, Garret went for a little stroll and the rest of us finished off packing and continued our exemplary attempts at laziness. Unfortunately, this euphoric moment didn't last very long, around 11 am a group of about 25, most of them kids, arrived at our campsite asking whether they could 'move in'. It wasn't cramped per se but it felt a bit crowded when they put a tent up literally in the middle of our campsite and sat down for a comfortable chat. The toilet facilities became a bit of an issue to the point where we had to ask each other for 'cover', ..... awkward!!! As soon as everyone returned from their little adventures we set off. It was quite funny when Evgeny said that "We only have 6km to trek which will take us 3 hours and includes some uphill, flat walk and some downhill", none of us batted an eyelid. After an 8 hours trek, 3 was like a stroll in the park. The higher we got the more stunning the view became. We all prepared for rain due to some ominous-looking clouds, but within 5 minutes we had to have a break for a nice group stripping session, again, GOD that just sounds seriously weird. To ensure the continuous picture-taking function was enabled, I went as far as putting my camera around my neck and juggling Johnny in my other; within minutes I mastered the skill of walking/picture-taking and staying alive. Not long after, we reached THE VIEW.

Stunning isn't a good enough metaphor: a zigzagging river, snow-covered mountains, a hawk circling high up hoping for easy prey, and us staring dumfounded at the beauty of it all. Between the 8 of us, we must have taken at least 100 pictures in the first minute alone. We stayed here for a good half an hour, firstly to take pictures, secondly to rest and thirdly and most importantly to simply enjoy. If I close my eyes now I can still feel the light breeze, hear the river and smell the forest. This was THE 'perfect moment' moment!

Everything seemed great, stunning and amazing, that was until, AHH, I realised that we had to get to river level, meaning downhill, and I mean WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY downhill. I think my knees were singing soprano even before we started walking.

Once at the bottom, the path more or less evened out but my knees were seriously dancing to the tune of African drums by then. This part was more of a hike than a trek, imagine a Hollywood forest scene (without the crazy serial killer) nice clear path that on occasion even a car could pass and the sound of the river following your every step. The weight on my back completely disappeared and a kind of inner peace took over (Yoda speaking here).

Our next stop was a nice surprise, it was a small charming farm that belong to an Altai family. The two huts looked small but warm and very cosy. The two kids were the cutest you can imagine, the girl was wearing a pink hat with little balls swinging at the end while the boy wore a blue hat and was playing with a small water pistol. For some, it's impossible to imagine their lives and their happiness in such a remote area but for these kids, it looked like a dream come true. My favourite scene was the boy running after his father with a small bucket of water while he carried two full ones or the little girl holding onto her mother's skirt hiding a smile while she delivered our 10 pieces of bread. I felt moved and quite a bit emotional as it reminded me of my own childhood where all games were played outside in my granny's garden and every ray of sunshine was treasured with utter joy.

The family rented some of their land to campers, for a small fee. It was simply gorgeous: the view was like something out of a Swiss Milka chocolate advert. The sound of the river far below felt like being at a meditation centre and the fresh air and silence felt like actually meditating at a Buddhist monastery. We had a long table with attached benches, a campfire area, Russian-style toilet, a small house, if someone wanted a change from camping, and best of all flat ground where sleeping was a pleasure.

As we arrived quite early we set up our tents, prepared and ate lunch in record time. Having the rest of the day to ourselves gave us the freedom to do something 'else'. Our chosen game was collecting blueberries for dinner. Oh my god, being a Transylvanian I have been called a bloodsucker, but what the local insects did to us in that forest would have put a seasoned vampire to shame. Wearing shorts without bug repellent, not my smartest move, was just one step beyond silly. I managed to kill, with pure joy, 17 suckers but it cost me. On a positive note, we had a nice walk and collected a pot full of berries.

After buying 10 pieces of bread and 2 litres of beer, boys will be boys, we hoped to buy some flour to make blueberry muffins. To our surprise, the family very kindly gave us half a kg of flour free of charge. As I said before, I was very moved by their kindness and friendliness.

Our great dream of making our own Siberian bread/blueberry muffin sounded amazing and nice and tasty ..... and ..... well NOT pink. The end result was hilarious and it entertained us for the rest of the night. Carving 'special sticks' was fun but trying to attach dough to them was an art form. At one point the horseman came over to check out what we were doing and to our amazement, he smiled. WOW - miracles do happen, it was the highlight of our day.

Once we started 'cooking/grilling/burning' our 'Siberian Muffins' it became very obvious that it might not be our main, or for that matter edible, meal however it was sort of fun getting a taste of our own little evil experiment. Surprisingly it all disappeared; with the help of a LOT of sugar of course! It took a good 5 minutes scrubbing and washing the 'pink blob' off our hands, my God it was sticky, but still worth it. The rest of the evening went by quite nicely: we simply enjoyed the moment, the company and our great location.

I was seriously prepared for bed: 2 layers everywhere, fleece, winter jacket, hat and my sleeping bag. My warm little heaven was just what the doctor ordered.