{"id":37416,"date":"2016-04-26T11:22:30","date_gmt":"2016-04-26T08:22:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mountainguides.pro\/?p=37416"},"modified":"2026-09-10T16:11:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T13:11:18","slug":"something-i-will-always-remember-part-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mountainguides.pro\/es\/2016\/04\/26\/something-i-will-always-remember-part-three\/","title":{"rendered":"Something I Will Always Remember. Part Three"},"content":{"rendered":"

Next year we certainly will not be able to do without Elbrus<\/a>. It really would be foolish not to put to use the experience we gained. Now we know exactly how to stand on the roof of Europe. So much of it was a first for us back then: being at such a formidable altitude, and being among ice in July. We had genuinely never been so cold or so tired before. The walk back to the tent was a real struggle. But we made it in spite of everything, packed our things and headed back towards the cable car. By evening we were all in our rented flat. Some of us had lost four kilograms, others five. We decided to mark our return in a caf\u00e9. And so it was our twelfth day in the mountains. We handed back the keys to the flat and set off for the sea, driving unhurriedly and doing our very best not to cross the solid white line. Some daredevils overtook us all the same, even on blind bends. Now we were heading for Gelendzhik. We fell some one hundred and ninety kilometres short of Gelendzhik itself on the mountain hairpins that day. We thought that arriving in an unfamiliar town without anywhere booked to stay was not a very good idea.<\/p>\n\n

So the next day we drove on to Gelendzhik. The road there is a fairly twisting series of hairpins with roadside stalls along the way. It took us a while, but we did find a woman there who offered to rent us a flat. We moved in and went out to walk around the town. We spent the whole of the following day travelling along the Black Sea coast. We also had the pleasure of visiting relatives in the Krasnodar and Stavropol regions.<\/p>\n\n

On one of those days in Gelendzhik we were lucky enough to meet some people who turned out to be from our own part of the country. As it emerged, they had been travelling around the country for two months by then. It was a father and daughter. Before reaching these parts they had been to St Petersburg and Moscow. What we liked best of all was the beach at Praskoveyevka. There are not many people there and the water is fairly clear. Right next to the beach there is a holiday base with excellent toilets, and you can use them free of charge. Sad as it was, the time eventually came to head home.<\/p>\n\n

And so it was already the nineteenth day since we had left home. It was hard to believe how much time had passed. We planned to leave at ten, but as the owner of the flat was late we only got away at eleven. We reached Salsk without any trouble, even though the weather was certainly not on our side: there was a downpour and a strong, gusting wind.<\/p>\n\n

The twentieth day of our time in the mountains. It rained all night until about half past six. We woke, packed the tents quickly and set off again. We drove to Volgograd. The city made no particular impression on me that time: apart from the Glory Memorial we could not find anything especially interesting there. I also remember that we had to search a long time for somewhere to have lunch. We spent the night in the fields beyond Engels. It is worth noting that the soil here is cracked almost all over, and clouds of dust hung in the air. Our tents were still genuinely damp from the previous night.<\/p>\n\n

On the twenty-first day we had breakfast and set off towards Ufa. I remember that it was very hot on the road and we wanted to swim, but we never did find anywhere suitable to do so. We had lunch in one of the roadside caf\u00e9s. Later, beyond Ufa, we decided to stop at a caf\u00e9 called Yelena. The setting was decent and the menu, you might say, extensive. That night we ended up sleeping in a rather lovely spot \u2013 a forest, not far from some wind turbines. In the morning we wanted to photograph them. And now it was the twenty-second day, which meant it was time to get ready for the road. So we happily photographed the turbines, had breakfast and set off. Because we had decided to travel as separate cars rather than in convoy, the departure was, you might say, a little unusual. I felt very tired by then. Over those twenty-four hours we covered one thousand four hundred and sixty-five kilometres. We had no overnight stop at all. It poured with rain all night long. I dozed for about twenty minutes in the car and that was it. Our speed at night was around one hundred and twenty kilometres an hour. It is worth saying that this really is not a safe speed at night.<\/p>\n\n

And on the twenty-third day we were all in Novosibirsk. Our families and friends gave us a warm welcome. We were genuinely overjoyed by that reunion. And of course we could not let such a special meeting with friends go unmarked.<\/p>\n\n

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What to read next<\/h2>\n

See the programme:<\/strong> Climbing Elbrus from the south, 9 days<\/a><\/p>\n