08.08.08
The “Walk”
So our next couple of nights were to be spent in Listvyanka. Our guide, Vasily, arrived that morning to pick us up. Our bags were being taken by ferry back to Irkutsk so we were told to pack enough clothes and essentials for the two nights in Listvyanka. I think our guide was a little bit shocked at how much luggage was left to be taken. Apparently another guy was coming by later to pick up the luggage and transport it back, I hoped he was bringing a team of sherpas or at least one of those russian cargo planes (An-225). More on that later. So we headed off, excited at the prospect of a walk through the countryside…and mushrooms. I think I mentioned this previously, but most of you have forgotten by now, that the other group at Bolshie Koty were so proud of the mushrooms they collected on their walk.
Things were going well as we gambolled along, although the mushroom hunt did slow us down a fair bit. Lisa had a knack for finding toadstools and otherwise inedible fungi so we would immediately discount anything she discovered. I was happy to let Vasily pick mushrooms for me since we always had to clear our own finding with him anyway. Soon we had quite the collection. Along the way we even stopped at a beach for some time to skip rocks. We continued in this manner for about three hours at which point we stopped for some lunch. I should mention at this point - The girls were still suffering a little from the “mysterious” onset of motor-bum. I always think the simplest explanation is the best … and to me it seemed a HUGE coincidence that all this started after they ate platform food but as I was told repeatedly “it can takes days for symptoms of food poisoning to surface”… didn’t really matter to me since I was not having the same problem. The advantage of eating pretty much anything - other than brussel sprouts of course. So back to lunch….
At this point we found that all this time Vasily had been carrying lunch in his pack … he was a regular Mary Poppins… out of the backpack appeared sausages, cucumbers, tomatoes, cheese, bread and Alcohol! It was some form of flavoured clear spirit. It was quite tasty and just what we needed.
After lunch we headed off again, stopping only every 15 minutes or so, Lisa loved nature so much she needed to be alone to commune with the earth at regular intervals…..tissues were in short supply. Now here is where it started to get a little interesting. We made it to the top of a relatively high “hill” all the while walking along what appeared to be a cliff face. At this point the path led down to a stream, on the other side of which was another quite lofty peak. Vasily turned to me and said “we must go down to go up”. Needless to say I was a little bit disappointed but I shrugged and followed him down, girls in tow.
When we got to the bottom Vasily said “we will rest here before the climb”. Now I don’t know about you but after having walked comment free for four and a bit hours to have the guide actually suggest resting seemed a little bit worrying to me. AND he said “climb”. Apparently I was the only one concerned by this. Lisa had gone off to do her toilet thing, Cara and Kelly were having a rest while she did and I went to the beach to skip a few rocks. When Lisa returned .. a few minutes later it was all “off we go then!” I wasn’t so sure that rest time was quite over yet but I figured well if they’re that keen….I think Vasily obviously thought so too. I still had those words ringing in my head though so I quickly dropped a Berocca into my water … I had the feeling I was going to need it.
And boy was I glad I did. The next ninety minutes were … you know what? I don’t have words to describe it. Let’s just say that lugging my “svelte” frame up that bloody mountain was one of the most rigorous workouts I’ve ever had. Lisa, lightened by her frequent nature stops, was now skipping happily along…more on this later. Anyway after a gruelling trek up the side of this mountain….it was so steep that the path was cut as a series of hairpins, ten in fact. We finally made it to the “top” at which point I had ended up right behind Vasily somehow and I called back that it was only a bit further…the reply that came back was “It’s about f*&%ing time”. And yes .. it was time for a rest break.  After which we headed off again .. strangely uphill … Vasily conveniently forgot to mention that by top he meant the ridgeline and we then needed to walk up along the ridge. Like little troopers we soldiered on .. by this stage Lisa and Cara were starting to fall behind … this didn’t worry me since they tend to yak anyway….the first time we lost sight of them we stopped and I went back to see if they were coming and yes sure enough they came strolling along. The next stretch of track was all downhill and Vasily was setting a bit of a cracking pace …. I could have sworn he was just walking but I had to almost run to keep up with him. A bit of background here. We were hoping to make it back to Listvyanka in time to intercept the ferry which had our bags so that Cara could get some medicine out of her pack for Lisa. You may think that’s a random comment but wait. So like I said … Vasily was setting a cracking pace. We got to a point where the patch led down along a rivulet branching off the stream we had been following. Kelly said she would wait at the branch for Cara and Lisa, who we had lost sight of. Vasily said we’d all wait … so we waited .. and waited .. and waited…starting to worry a little since Kelly had done a cooee and had no response I started heading back up the track to see if I could spot them. Vasily followed me up. We made it about 25m up the track when the girls came into view…..Lisa was in tears. Apparently Cara had an asthma attack.
From this point you’re going to hear my opinion only since i’m the one writing this email. There was a lot of “Why didn’t you guys wait for us? what if we got lost” etc… me being the ultra-sympathetic person I am ..ok so I’m not. As far as I was concerned there was only one path .. unless you had a machete and decided to cut your own. And on top of this I’m a great believer in calling for rest breaks when you need them. Apparently they had been tired, remember when I said skipping along earlier? yes exactly ..anyway they were looking to blame someone and possibly hoping I would feel guilty and remorseful. Right about now 90% are laughing at the thought of a guilt-ridden remorseful Suraj, the other 10% are thinking “well I never would have thought…”. Anyway, moving along … they then followed Vasily and I back down the path to where Kelly was waiting. Vasily was clearly worried at the display of hysterics but I signalled to him not to worry about it. There was a repeat performance when we got to Kelly which actually annoyed me since I knew it was being done because they could make her feel guilty. We soon made it into Listvyanka at which point there were more recriminations. At this point my patience gave out and I gave a little lecture about how there was never a need to try and be heroes and if people are tired or struggling they need to tell the guide so he can give us a rest break and how it wasn’t a competition etc etc. I may have gone a little bit overboard but I wanted to make a point … after this people disappeared to their respective rooms for a bit of sulk time.
Kelly and I decided we hadn’t had enough walking and headed down into town to buy some supplies. Vasily bid us goodbye …. I swear he’s some sort of mountain man. After all the “walking”, carrying our lunch .. running downhill … wearing three layers of clothing .. he didn’t even break a sweat. Not only that .. he wasn’t even red in the face ….it’s unnatural I tell you! I felt quite sad that we parted on “bad” terms … he obviously, unneccessarily, felt responsible for the events that brought on the little tantrums. Hopefully I see him again someday .. probably on TV in a documentary about people that scale Mt. Everest blindfolded with one arm tied behind their back carrying a 40kg pack.