Mount Cheget

Surprise visit back to the town to pick up more supplies so an extra chance at the internet. We had left town three days before in glorious sunshine with hotels BBQs going for breakfast from about 2,100m to drop down to the main valley and up into the mountains.

 A view of the bottom of the main valley.

And then we left the main road, through a village, past the cemetery...

 and we were soon high up the valley side.

 We were dropped in some trees to get our packs off the 4x4 truck.

 And then it was a slog up the slope.

 Some of the group.

 A view back down the valley.

 And a view up the valley, and it was a nice day.

 We had soon left the forest and were above the tree line, taking a break over looking vast slopes of scree.

 We were following a stream up towards a lake but the weather was closing in and it would start raining before we got to camp.

 We reached the lake but it was already raining and there was a string wind and the temperature had dropped.

 We started itching camp in a hollow to get some  protection from the relentless wind.

 A view overlooking the lake and the stream that flowed off the glacier higher up the valley.

 A view of the delta that had formed where the stream flows into the lake.

 At last our tents were up and gave us some shelter. We had dinner and went to bed.

 After breakfast we climbed up the col from which we could ascend Mount Cheget whose summit is 3,601m. I took this photo of a bird but none of us could positively identify it...any ideas?

 A view down the valley but the weather was closing in, the wind was picking up and there were distant rumbles of thunder.

 We took a look at the view over the col.

 But the weather got worse and we were just a hundred vertical metres from the top. But the bad weather forced our hand and so we descended in the rain and huddled in our tents waiting for the weather to break.

 A huddle. We soon called it a day and went for n afternoon nap as there was nothing else to do.

 Late in the evening the clouds blew over and the sun shone weakly for an hour before dusk. We had some visitors. First just a mother and fawn and a little later, the whole herd came to check us out and what we were doing on their patch.

 And  ptarmigan came over to see what was happening.

The wether the txt day was better nuts was time to move on so we packed up camp and headed down.

The weather had inverted itself so that on the mountain it was sunny but there were clouds in the valley. We were grateful to see our driver and get a lift back into town.

Mount Elbrus, Mineralnye Vody

My last post for a while as I will be out of internet contact for awhile. I have landed At Mineralnye Vody and transferred into the mountains. A classic Ulyanov.
                                      
 A view of the valley.

 And another valley.

 another view.

 The valleys got steeper as we went further in.

 The roads were rough, the driver drive too fast and there were cows on the road.

 Another view.

 The Baksan River.

 A view f the town...

 ...and a picture of a snow capped peak.

I will be back with you in ten days time.

St Petersburg

What a difference...after several days of cloud and rain, I finally saw the sun and its makes the city look so different just as I was about to leave. The Kazan Cathedral.

 Another interesting building, this one is arte nouveau style form the tuen of the century and now a cafe.

 The Admiralty Building.

 The Alexander Column.

 The golden domes and roofs of the cathedrals in the Pter and Pul Fortree just across the Neva River from the Winter Palace and The Hermitage.

 The Eternal Flame.

 The colourful domes of the Cathedral of The Spilled Blood built to commemorate the assassination of Alexander.

 The outside of the ballet theatre next door to the Winter Palace.

 A Pumpkin Coach in front of the Winter Palace.

 And then it was off to the station to catch the train to Moscow, and here are a couple of locomotives...

 ...but I was going by express, the Sapsan, which covers the 700kms in three and three quarter hours with just two stops at Bologoe and Tver. There was a display of the speed of the train at each end of the carriage  and it was often registering over 190kms per hour.

 My meal of baked salmon on the train...although it was freshly microwaved and served with plastic knife and fork.

 The scenery was plain and even more dull than other journeys that I have taken by train. It is a fast and efficient service between Russia's largest two cities but it lacks anything of interest to see out of the windows.

 Some derelict industrial plant outside of St Petersburg.

 And then into the countryside.

 It was fairest and occasional open areas.

 At least my journey through Karelia and Kola Peninsular had a range of mountains and lakes and clearings to break up the journey. This was largely just forest though there was a causeway to cross part of the reservoir on the Volga created by a dam at Dubna where the Moscow canal reaches the Volga.

 And then it was the outskirts of Moscow and we pulled into the station and I was in Moscow.