Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
day walk along a similar route to the one we'd taken. Another man said that in the
twenty years he'd been walking in the Altai Mountains, we were the first foreign-
ers he'd ever encountered.
The most important thing we learnt, however, was that only two days' walk
away - about forty kilometres, and just off the edge of our map - was a little village
from which we would be able to hitch a ride back to the main road! We would no
longer have to walk at a forced march and more importantly still, we no longer had
to ration our food.
We talked for a few hours then went to set up our camp and have dinner on a
sandbar by the river. I crawled into the tent, stuffed to the point of exploding, and
drifted off to sleep while looking out through the mist at softly shrouded stars.
Half a day later, we were sitting in the grass near the top of a high pass on a
huge, rolling plateau. We were almost 3000 metres above sea level, with the steep
and rocky mountains behind us. All around were huge, softly rounded hills flanked
by steep glaciers that descended onto the shimmering steppe on the horizon. We'd
passed some yaks earlier in the day - Tim had chased them up a hill with his cam-
era - and now we sat with our boots off, finishing off the remains of our lunch,
watching as a party of five toiled slowly towards us up the slope.
They looked even more haggard and emaciated than Tim! I looked closely at
the guy in front and decided that he'd recently added two new holes on the smaller
side of his trouser belt. They dumped their packs and stopped to talk.
'Whereabouts have you been?' I asked.
'Oh, we've been out exploring glaciers and climbing mountains just over the
border in China and Kazakhstan.'
'Wow!' These guys were hardcore!
'We've been out for twenty-six days, and now we have to hurry because we're
all late getting back to our jobs and our families in Moscow.'
We walked with them and were amazed by their stories. They'd carried only
500 grams of food per person per day during the trip, and each of them had fallen
down at least one crevasse. They were doing it for the record, apparently, and they
told us of a whole new world of Russian adventure walking.
Apparently, groups of adventurers went on expeditions every year then submit-
ted a detailed report, complete with photos and descriptions of the climbs, the new
routes and the difficulty involved, to a panel of judges. The winning group was
awarded a prestigious prize - the leader of this particular group had received it
once. But more amazing was the news that there was a whole library of these ex-
