The route looping round to Abakan from Tuva via Askiz is scenically varied, often beautiful and mesmerisingly vast in scale, though the Chinggis Khaan stone near Ak-Dovurak is the only real ’sight’. Independent travellers should be aware of Western Tuva’s fearsome reputation for wild lawlessness and unprovoked knife attacks. Even other Tuvans are nervous about [...]
The 3100km-long Baikal-Amur Mainline (Baikalo-Amurskaya Magistral, BAM) is an astonishing victory of belief over adversity. This ‘other’ trans-Siberian line runs from Tayshet (417km east of Krasnoyarsk) around the top of Lake Baikal to Sovetskaya Gavan on the Pacific coast. Begun in the 1930s to access the timber and minerals of the Lena Basin, work stopped [...]
The valley meets the Katun River at Ust-Koksa, which has the delightful wooden Pokrovskoe Church (ul Nagornaya 31). Across the Katun River, around 10km beyond Multa, there’s a maral deer farm with a small summer turbaza en route to the beautiful Multinsky Lakes. These offer yet more great hikes if you can find a guide. [...]
First built in 1910, the Usinsky Trakt is the main road between Minusinsk and Kyzyl in Tuva. It skirts the modest, historical township of Yermakovskoe and passes the little fruit-growing villages of Grigorevka and Chyornaya Recha before climbing into pretty birch-wood foothills. After a tea stop in Tanzybey(km560) the route climbs more steeply. A truly [...]
The appealing capital of Buryatiya, ‘UU’ is 456km east of Irkutsk by rail and makes a sensible staging post for visiting Mongolia or eastern Lake Baikal. Founded as Verkhneudinsk in 1775, the city prospered as a major stop on the tea-caravan route from China via Troitskosavsk (now Kyakh- ta). Ulan means ‘Red’ in Buryat, yet [...]
The highlight of these regions is the historic and delightfully ramshackle old town of Tobolsk, but en route you could happily spend a day strolling and dining in the vibrant cities of Tyumen or Omsk.
Founded in 1586, Tyumen was the first Russian fort in Siberia. These days the city exudes a sense of growing prosperity as the booming capital of a vast, oil-rich oblast (region) stretching all the way to the Arctic Circle. The city has a businesslike drive and youthful bustle, best experienced by strolling through City Park [...]
Independent before WWII, fascinating Tuva (???? in Tuvan) is culturally similar to neighbouring Mongolia but has an international cult following all of its own. Philatelists remember Tannu Tuva’s curiously shaped 1930s postage stamps. World-music aficionados are mesmerised by self-harmonising Tuvan throat-singers. And millions of armchair travellers read Ralph Leighton’s Tuva or Bust!, a nontravel book [...]
When the clouds clear, sawtooth Sayan peaks rise spectacularly above the cute Buddhist villages of the wide, rural Tunka Valley, which starts about 30km west of Kultuk and continues all the way to the Mongolian border near Mondy. Smoke rising gently from cottage chimneys adds to the wisps of romantic morning mist. Beyond justifiably popular [...]
Tiny Tyungur village sits in an appealing valley. Although lacking viewpoints itself, it’s the normal staging point for treks towards Mt Belukha (4506m), Siberia’s highest peak. Surrounding valleys and lakes are among Russia’s most spectacular but access requires strenuous guided hiking.