We explored the surrounding area without our heavy backpacks since we were going to spend another night in the forest camp. Our goal for today was to reach two mountain lakes, one if which I have already seen on google when I was looking for pictures from Altai. The sun shone down on us without mercy, and for a lack of sunscreen, two options were offered to me: either to wear a jacket and die a slow heat death, or not and getting radiated by the sun. A difficult choice. The only thing that gave some remedy, at least temporarily, was a bath in the cold water of the lakes.
While returning back from the first Lake that was located about 1800m above sea level, I maneuvered a 3 meter long piece of wood (more like a dead tree) through a narrow forest path, which needed some skill that I didn’t have much left of.
Off we went to the second lake in the afternoon, after a small refreshment in the camp. Our way lead through an idyllic valley that kind of reminded me of the landscapes of Skyrim. I was almost expecting to see a mammoth unhurriedly strolling across the plain. I surprisingly often use Skyrim as the benchmark for landscapes… maybe I should introduce my own rating system based on that game. Like, I would give this scenery 4 of 5 Skyrims, while Novosibirsk gets 0 Skyrims. Again and again, we halted at bushes heavily laden with currants and collected as much of the sour fruits as we could carry. Occasionally, my nose rebelled and some of the people asked me if I was sick. But that was just my allergy. The German wasn’t intending to die here. It’s just a little annoying that my immune system didn’t share my love for nature.
On the way back in the late afternoon, our group split up and suddenly I found myself alone in the valley. I enjoyed the peaceful silence and took all the time in the world to walks through this place. There was no reason to rush. Like almost every day, Kris interviewed me back in the camp and slowly i started to like it.
In the evenings, when everyone was sitting around the camp fire, Kris was always trying to translate the most important stuff to me so I could at least somehow participate in the conversations. It worked quite well. Most of the time, at least. Especially for all those group games her help was enormously helpful. My favourite game, for instance, was a Russian version of Uno (“Swintus”). I really liked it, in particular because I – more or less- already knew the rules. In the heat of the game, I gave Kris a refreshing whiskey-cola shower.
The next morning we dismantled everything and headed back into the direction of our starting point. Today we pitched our camp on a clearing near a forester’s house on the lakeside. I was about to have the honor of trying my first Banja. At first, it was the women’s turn and the men had to wait. I was actually surprised at how much i enjoyed the steam bath. Even the mutual hitting with bunches of dried branches and leaves was quite pleasant. It felt more like a massage. The air in the fire-heated hut built of massive logs was so saturated with water vapor that one could hardly see the end of the room. There was also a small window through which one could see the mountains. Occasionally we jumped into the lake, in order to cool down ourselves. When we were done, I felt like being born again.
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