After a wild time outside Yekaterineburg in the Ural Mountains, we’re back in-transit today and making a quick stop in the city of Novosibirsk.
On the banks of the Ob River in southwestern Siberia, Novosibirsk or New Siberia is the third-most populous city in Russia.
But instead of staying in the city, we again opt for open spaces, so we meet up with one of Yaro’s local friends and she takes us to the beach to recharge from the train.
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Honestly, It’s been an amazing non-stop journey thus far, but upon arrival in Krasnoyarsk, we decided to take a much-needed rest day.
We eat some delicious traditional dishes right at the hotel
and I even manage to check out a local fitness center.
My favorite part of the day however, was a long walk through the streets of Krasnoyark by myself.
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Just 10 kilometers south of Krasnoyarsk is the Stolby Nature Sanctuary – and you can actually get here just by taking a city bus.
It’s one of the oldest nature reserves in Russia and with an area of over 47,000 hectares, only about 3 and a half % of that is open to the public.
Our goal today, is to make it up the 16 kilometer hike to the park’s main attractions.
Stolby actually means pillars in Russian, and the park gets its name from these incredible rock formations rising up from the forest.
In total, the reserve has more than 100 pillars, some reaching as high as 90 meters, each with their own names and stories.
and we’re determined to conquer at least one to get a bird’s eye view.
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The views from above are absolutely stunning, but it’s always the small conversations along the way that I remember most.
We sit on a giant rock with a Russian family, who are really eager to talk even if we can’t communicate perfectly.
The matriarch is incredibly curious, and this little guy wants to start YouTube channel about Fort Nite.
Inevitably our time here is way too short, but today was a great window into the region.
