Russia, with its vast distances and epic countryside, is a great place for a road trip and South Siberia’s Altai Republic offers some awesome opportunities. But watch out for the goats, wild horses and suicidal ground squirrels.
The Chuysky Trakt highway runs from the Altai town of Biysk to the Russian-Mongolian border and takes in some 600km of otherworldly scenery and breathtaking desolation. And if that wasn’t enough, there are a couple of Lenin statues that boast perhaps the best backdrops of any monuments to the father of the October Revolution along the way.
There are also, as you make your way along the empty mountain passes and valleys, a number of stone idols and petroglyphs, carved by the indigenous Altai people in the centuries before the area was colonized by the Russians.
The Altai had it pretty rough under the Russians, and – like the Ghostdance of the Native Americans in the U.S. – their response was Burkhanism, a messianic religion that commanded its followers “to look on Russians as our enemies. Their end will soon come: the earth will not tolerate them, it will open up, and they will all fall under the earth.”
Burkhanism – a mixture of Christianity, Buddhism and paganism created by a shepherd named Chet Chelpan in the early 20th century, also bade believers to “Kill all cats and never again allow them into your yurts.” This was supposed to lessen the influence of the Russians, those notorious cat lovers.
Anyone who wants to find out more about modern-day Altai culture can attend the El-Oiyn festival, which takes place off the Chuysky Trakt and attracts some 60,000 people from all over Russia and beyond. The event, whose name translates as the Folk Games, involves much horse riding, traditional costumes and merry-making. It takes place every two years, on the first weekend in July.
Just before the tiny settlement Iodra stands a stone idol (or kameniy babi, which, oddly enough given their overwhelmingly masculine forms, translates as 'stone wenches') with a sword and a well-preserved and somewhat haunting face. I stumbled upon it while my driver slept and I was soon joined by a group of motorists from Novosibirsk. “They say it’s bad luck to photograph it,” one of them told me. I took a snap anyway.
It’s also well worth making a stop in the nearby tiny village of Inya, home to a Lenin statue that stands against a backdrop of mountain peaks. There were small children playing on the statue’s plinth when I passed through. One of them was bouncing a ball off the murderous midget’s legs.
This area is also home to the “face of the Altai” – a legendary “rock face” on the left bank of the Katun River. If you can’t make out its “features,” pop into the nearby cafe and check out the helpful drawing. Then go out and have another look. Everything should now be clear.
The Chuysky Trakt then crosses the beautiful, serpentine and extremely steep Chike-Taman Pass. The pass’s name means “flat sole” in Altai. Locals believed you could see the bottom of the shoe of the person walking ahead of you, it’s so steep here. The views might be good and the ride exhilarating, but it’s a death trap in winter due to rockfalls and icy roads. Or so I was told. I visited in the summer.
There aren’t too many places to stay or buy provisions here, with the tiny frontier towns of Aktash and Kosh-Agach offering extremely basic accommodation and shops. And when I say basic, I mean a shared bed in a barely-standing hostel. Still, folk around these parts are friendly enough. Even if the area does have some of the highest crime rates in the Russian Federation. Kosh-Agach is also the driest town in Russia and has the added attraction of another Lenin statue set against the bleak mountains.
If the criminals don’t get you, the ground squirrels might be your undoing. These seemingly suicidal creatures rush from one side of the road to the other in certain areas, and unless you want to drive straight over them, it’s hard work to dodge them and keep from crushing their delicate furry spines beneath your wheels. Cows, goats and wild horses also stray onto the roads, but these are a lot easier to avoid hitting. The locals call them “freelance traffic cops.”
The journey along the most spectacular stretch of the road, from the turn off at Chemal to Kosh-Agach, takes about 8 hours in good conditions and in a good vehicle. The scenery is unbeatable, with forested mountains, canyons and wide, open roads. I’m tempted to call it a real “Road to Nowhere.” But that’s a cliche. And, as I’ve already explained, it goes all the way to Mongolia.
The views expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
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From lurid tales of oligarch excess to scare stories about Moscow’s stranglehold on Europe’s energy supplies, the land that gave us Roman Abramovich and Vladimir Putin is very rarely out of the news. But there is much more to modern Russia than billionaire tycoons and political conspiracy. Marc Bennetts’ weekly column, Deeper Than Oil, goes beyond the headlines to explore the hidden sides of the world’s largest, and often strangest, country.
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