Drippy morning with mist, more talk of making side walls to attach to annexe and underskirt to ensure can still cook and sit outside in most weather conditions. So novel to see crews upgrading bitumen road to Lake, following white water river. We note the "Russian scowl", people are not quick to smile, but can be voluble/ talkative once you initiate conversation.
Drove up side of lake to town (noting "the pig who would be a cow") and had lunch at café before the 6 of us took a boat ride on Lake Teletskoe. Stopped at tranquil rock pool created by meteorite falling on cliff above and shattering/scattering boulders into rocks which fell along the shoreline.
Admired walls of stone marble, the protection from harvesting the reason much of the Lake has now been UNESCO heritage listed. Our teenage speedboat driver raced another boat to line us up for a view of a waterfall in a crevice, then dropped us at a shingle beach for the 700metre walk to a larger waterfall which shot out at an angle to the pool below. Impressive Pinus Sylvestri trees. Also had to admire the Russian fixation with camouflage clothing....
The thunderstorm that had been following our passage up the lake finally opened up, so we ate blueberry crepes and herb tea under cover of stalls. GirlRob chatted to a young girl on a souvenir stall, who said she came out to the stalls at the beginning of the tourist season, slept on a narrow cot in the rear of the stall and only went home at the end of the season, constituting her total years income. "No phone! No internet!" she said, proud of her achievement. Rode the water corrugations (wakes of other boats) coming down hard with an oomph on bottoms.
Once on dry (??) land, the Pardeys spotted a hotel with restaurant and wifi, so given the continuing drizzle, and having come to the end of the road around the part of the Lake that was open, we gladly retreated to their facilities. The fellows plotted the rest of the trip - Ozzie and Bee through Kazakhstan, and Roadie remaining in Marina’s home territory, reuniting before entering the Ukraine. Ate a delicious and inexpensive meal including salmon, quail and caviar before moving back to the neck of the Lake for a camp under silver birch trees. GirlRob allergic to something outdoors, itchy eyes, runny nose, facial swelling, headache, so went straight to bed to sleep it off.
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