23.04.09 Elbrus, Kabardino-Balkaria

Before I begin …just to clarify …”Kavkaz” means The Caucasus, in Russian.

After an evening at a birthday party in which the food was all Nogai, the guests were all Nogai and most of the language spoken was Nogai, I returned home to Irina’s and packed my bags and settled in for the night.  The Nogai language is Turkic based and is closest to Kazakh.

I was encouraged when I looked out the window on waking up.  It was still going to be cold today, but the sun would be out and I needed to get a move on.  Niccolo’s comment that the Uzbeks do not have I.T. on their borders has me thinking of trying to make it to Tashkent before flying to Moscow.

If that worked I would probably not be a week late in Siberia (Tony take note … of my state of confusion)

I left Cherkessk with the sun trying to break through and the temperature pretty much right on Zero.  I wore a hood thingy under my helmet and across my face for only the second time in the trip and turned my EXO2 heated vest up to full power.  The ground in and around Cherkessk was now clear of snow but all the surrounding hills were still wearing the surprising white blanket from yesterday. My route from Cherkessk to Kislovodsk wound gradually higher into the hills until I was at 1400 metres.  Cherkessk was around 450 metres, so I would imagine it was -4 to -6 ish up there.  Fortunately the road was pretty much clear of snow / ice.

My descent into Kislovodsk was greeted, of course, with a police checkpoint.  They ordered me off the bike and into the office.  Actually I didnt mind that.  the office was warm.  I had to produce more documents than at any previous document check … passport, IDP, ICMV, russian insurance policy and even the customs form for the bike.  Eventually they were satisfied and I was allowed to go, but I reckon it was a 20 minute unscheduled stop.

The plan had been to cut into the hills south of Kislovodsk and pursue some mountain trails towards Tirnyauz on the way to Mt Elbrus, Europe’s highest mountain.  The weather being what it was, I decided that was now not a realistic option and took the paved road past Essentuki and Pyatigorsk.  Once I turned off the main road and settled in for the 100km road down to Elbrus the scenery started getting all interesting again.

Just as I began to think that I was having a lucky day with Police and checkpoints, a guy in a police Lada zoomed up beside me and ordered me to pull over.  he claimed I had overtaken a truck on a solid centreline.  I cant recall doing it.  I was checking out the scenery and listening to my tunes.  But he was adamant it was a red Kamaz truck. He threatened to take my drivers licence in.  I didnt respond.  Eventually in frustration he rubbed his fingers together in the universal sign for ‘money’.  Aha … now I see where he was coming from.  I was invited into the police car to settle the issue.  And on the record, that all there is to say about that for now.

5km further down the road, on the outskirts of Tirnyauz, there was another police checkpoint and request for documents.  I told the boys I had just met their colleagues down the road.  A few phone calls were made and they seemed to realise I had recently purchased a 500 ruble (12 EUR) ticket to the policemans ball.  With that news, I was waved onwards.
I stopped in the grubby town of Tirnyauz to look around.  It was full of abandoned factories.  Perhaps in Soviet days it had been a boom town, but now it oozed a sense of decay.  What amazed me though was how young the populationo was – kids everywhere.  I stopped and chatted to 3 Balkars.  I was by now in the autonomous republic of Kabardino-Balkaria … home to the Kabardins and the Balkars obviously enough.  The Balkars are the ultimate mountain people of Russia.  Related to the Karachay in the next republic along.  There has been talk of rejigging the republics boundaries to pair the closely related Karachay and the Balkars together and also creating a ‘greater Cherkessia’ by putting together the related Adegey, Cherkess and Kabardins  … a grouping we tend in English to refer to as ‘Circassian’ peoples.

Since leaving the main road at Baksan (at about 500 metres), the road had been steadily climbing. No windy turns, no steep gorges … just a slow steady climb up the wide valley floor.  By Tirnyauz I was at 1300 metres. By the village of Elbrus I was at 1800.  The road continued on for another 15 km and I decided to ride it till the end.  After the village of Elbrus, hotels could be seen beside the road.  As there were none in the 100 km prior to that, I decided to hit the end of the road, turn round and grab a cheap hotel.

At the end of the road was a ski resort.  Pretty primative by western european standards, but high up at 2359 metres – according to the official Sibirsky Extreme GPS.  Lifts were still running and skiiers and boarders still wandering about.  Heliski helicopters were still flying overhead.  With the peak of Mt Elbrus (5642m) less than 10km away, there was bound to be good snow higher up, and there was plenty higher to go.  Unfortunately overcast conditions limited my abilty to fotograph the big mountain itself.

A carload of 20 something Russian party lads and lasses from Pyatigorsk invited me to ‘party with them’ up in their hotel room, but I just wanted to get my own hotel room.  I had passed a cheaper hotel a few km back down the mountain that had internet and sauna (I wonder if they work this time) for 500 rubles (about 12 EUR) so I headed there, checked in and called it a day.

Unfortunately, all day today I struggled to find “good air” for the fotos … but there was something in the air today that made it a bit unclear and the pictures are a little washed out.   Not much I can do about that.   It was just a bad air day.

PS … If you want to see what Elbrus looks like on a decent air day and without clouds around it … here is a link to a picture from May 2008 …

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Mount_Elbrus_May_2008.jpg