Photos and stories #1- Day of tourism, our day at Stolby (September 26th)

Falling behind with a blog is a bad idea.:( It makes it hard to catch up on all the things I want to write about. Then I procrastinate because the task gets too big. The best thing is to push on. Unfortunately some of the stories drop out of my mind, but photos sometimes help to jog memories. So I'm gonna try to keep journalling from where I left off with some photos and stories.

A few weeks back the Vineyard had a Saturday conference. Some people from Chicago came across and share about praying for people on the streets. God has been working in their circles. It seems that he is choosing to work in our circles too. We have had a number of interesting and blessed encounters with people on the streets following this. These stories in some ways beg to be told, but in other ways they are being kept under wraps. I prefer the quiet life. It was a valuable time with people at the Vineyard, enabling us to get to know people more. Without strong local relationships, we will not survive.

The following week was a georgeous Autumn day. Thirteen degrees and bathed in sunshine. A number of people from the Vineyard went on an outing for the afternoon to a place called "Bobrovi Log."  Officially it's a funpark, but I didn't even see any of the funpark stuff. It featured on the US show Amazing Race about a year ago. Essentially it's a new ski resort with some other rides and swimming facilities for the Summertime. We had heard about it during the Summer, but never made it there. Now that we know how to get there (it is possible on the bus) we will likely go back there next Summer. Will we go there to ski in the Winter? Well I have never been a big down hill skier, and unless they have a beginner's baby hill, then I won't. I hate falling over all day long. I did ski once in Saskatchewan, and so long as I stayed on the Bunny hill, I was having fun.

One of the questions that Krasnoyarsk residents ask is, "have you been to Stolby?"  "Stolb" means pinnacle in Russian. "Stolby" is the plural form. There are plenty of stolb-y in the mountains surrounding Krasnoyarsk. Krasnoyarsk really is located in a beautiful geographic spot. The old name for the settlement (when it was just a fort) was Krasny Yar, which means "beautiful ravine" (or steep bank of the river). We just never had the chance to go there because people would warn us to stay away in the Summer time due to ticks. The ticks in the mountains and forest can carry lime disease or they can carry Japanese Encephalitis. Apparently the Japanese inflicted biological warfare on Russia in the Russo-Japanese war of 1904. The effects are permanent. Then in the Winter time people do go on hikes, but this is still less appealing to me than Russians. Certainly taking the family to such an outing is not an option, although I would be willing to give it a shot.

So when a sunny Autumn day came along and the ticks already gone, and people were inviting us to go with them, it was too good an opportunity to pass up.

One of the last warm sunny days of the year turned out to be ultra popular. It turned out to be another dreaded praznik. They have a way of surprising you at every second turn in Russian life. This one was the "day of tourism."

We met up with many of our new found "friends" (how lightly we use that word in English). We took a chair lift up the mountain.

The family came along for this part of the adventure.

 Once reaching the top there was a nice walk to be had by all.

And some nice views.

Then the famed Stolby came in to view. I couldn't pass up the chance to walk there. But the walk looked far to hard for the family. Melody very graciously stayed behind and let me take the walk. Other people stayed behind too.

Five of us blokes or "paren" took the walk/ climb. (Sasha and Dima.)

Pasha (that's me).

Most of the walk there was not too hard. The initial hill down was super steep. The rest of the path was fine, just a few rocks to climb over. But then we reached some rocks that we had to climb down. The funny thing is that as we started down there was no real way of knowing how steep it was. As I made my descent my Redback boots were just too slippery. Half way down I felt stuck. I couldn't get down or back up again. There was a moment when I felt sure that I would fall and break something.... or worse. I prayed, and then took my shoes off. I threw my shoes down and then seemed to have more grip in my socks. With the help of Sasha guiding me I made it over to one of the gaps in the rocks that were easier to traverse. You can see from the picture that the gradient is probably about 70 degrees. Somehow the rocks seemed to be more slippery than in Australia. Sasha commented that his hiking boots were not too expensive. It felt like the first time my Redbacks had ever failed me.

(L-R- Dima; Sasha; Sasha's son Pasha.)
Later I jokingly commented on the difference between tourism in Australia and Russia; that such a location in Australia would probably have steps. I know that there are places in the Grampians in Victoria that are now off limits that used to be fun to climb on. It's a shame that they are now fenced off. On one hand it would be nice to have steps to make the walk safe. On the other hand, it is fun to rock climb, so long as you have the appropriate hiking shoes. Sasha commented that such a change would no longer constitute tourism, implying that untouched wilderness is the best. I appreciate the sentiment, but this needs to be compared with the fact that there are shiny new buildings with cafes at the bottom and we did come up on a chair lift after all.
I'm glad I finally made it to Stolby. Too bad Melody couldn't. We can probably make it back there some time next year. It's always a problem trying to go places that we can't take the kids though. Even though we can find babysitters, we don't want to ask someone to babysit for a whole day.