Altai. Tungur - lake Kucherlinskoe

The village of Tungur is located on the left bank of the Katun, opposite the confluence of the Kucherla River, 60 km from Ust-Koksa, 894 km from Novosibirsk. The distance from Biysk to Tungur is 572 km.

At the beginning of the village there is a suspension automobile bridge across the Katun. The village is a fairly large tourist center. Tungur is the nearest settlement on the way to Mount Belukha and the starting point of numerous mountain, foot, horse and water tourist routes. There are several tourist bases in the vicinity of Tungur, from which hiking trips are organized to the Kucherlinskoe and Akkemskoe lakes, horseback riding, rafting and a trip to the foot of Belukha, which can be reached on foot by passing the Kuzuyak Pass and further rising up the Akkem River. Or on horseback and on foot - up the river. Kucherla and through the Karatyurek pass to Akkem lake and the foot of Belukha. In the village you can rent horses for a horse trail or delivery of goods. Tungur shops sell mountain honey from local apiaries.

At the entrance to the village of Tungur, to the right of the highway on the banks of the Katun, there is a monument to Pyotr Sukhov, the commander of the Red Guard detachment, defeated by the White Guards in August 1918. The village has a post office and mobile communications.

On the right bank of the Katun, opposite the village of Tungur, there are the Vysotnik camp site and the Tyungur camp site, which is part of the Kucherla tourist complex.

All camp sites have experienced instructors specializing in a particular type of tourism (rafting, horseback riding, hiking, mountaineering).

from. Tungur is known far beyond the borders of the Altai Republic. From here begin tourist and climbing routes to the very high peak Siberia - Belukha. The town of Bayda rises above the village, where you can take a sightseeing tour.
In the village, on the street Zarechnoy, d. 5, the directorate of the GU RA " Nature Park"Belukha".
Toponymy: The name of the village "Tyunur" is translated from the Altai language as a shaman's tambourine.
History: The village was founded in 1876. late XIX in. along with Katanda, the village was an important merchant camp on the way to China. The current population is 430 people, mostly Altaians. The main agricultural enterprise is SPK "Tungur", there are farms. The local lore corner at the school is headed by Adarova Alevtina Alekseevna, a wonderful specialist in her field. A small but very interesting museum of local lore is available at the club in the neighboring village. Kucherla, Tatyana Alekseevna Mantalaeva is in charge of the museum.
Some pages of the history of Gorny Altai are connected with Tungur. In Western Siberia, the most prolonged and stubborn resistance to the White Guards during the Civil War was provided by the consolidated detachment of the Red Guard under the command of the Bolshevik P.F. Sukhov. The detachment consisted of the Red Guards of Altai, Semipalatinsk, Kolchugino. Having fought the Kulunda steppe, Sukhov's detachment entered the Altai mountains in early August 1918. The Red Guards wanted to break through the Altai mountains and Mongolia to Soviet Turkestan. The inhabitants of the mountain villages provided the detachment with food, transport, and guides.
Elderly Altaians say that they led both whites and reds along short roads, simply trying to keep both of them from unnecessary bloodshed and save human lives. Entry of the Red Guards into Mountain Altai caused great concern to their opponents. A White Guard detachment of Lieutenant Lyubimtsev set off from Ulala to the villages of the Uimon Valley. Barrage detachments were organized, and 7 km below the village. Tungur on both banks of the Katun, ambushes were set up.
Here, in the narrow Katun Gorge, on August 10, 1918, the detachment of P.F. Sukhov, numbering by that time 250 fighters, was defeated. All the Red Guards who fell into the hands of the enemy were shot. They died heroes, with a deep belief in the victory of the working class. In the eastern part of the village there is a monument to Peter Sukhov.

Many times I saw a photograph with the same subject - a mountain lake in which the sky is reflected, then a couple of dark mountains that look like gates, and behind them - a grandiose shining wall of ice and snow from the very peaks. I knew that it was in Altai, and that somewhere in that mountain wall - Belukha (4509m), highest point Siberia, sacred mountain many peoples, and according to Roerich - Northern Kailash. And if road trips along the Altai tracts are the prerogative of Novosibirsk and other regions in the neighborhood, then people go to the mountains and rivers of Altai from all over the vast, and even when I was at school, the head of our tourist club took groups here. The place from the photo turned out to be Akkem Lake, the most famous trekking attraction of the Golden Mountains. And even though I myself am not a hiker (of which I had to make sure once again), the experienced Olga rode with me, and the week-long trip to Akkem became the culmination of mine.

The story about the Akkem campaign will consist of three parts: the way up from the last village of Tungur (including footage from the way down), Lake Akkem and its surroundings, radials to Yarlushka and Seven Lakes. In I showed Ust-Kan, but between it and Tungur there is also Ust-Koksa and the Uimon Valley, which I will show after Akkem. And instead of a preface -.

In the upper reaches of the Katun there is the fertile Uimon steppe, the Old Believer Belovodie. Behind it is the small Katanda steppe, the owners of which under the tsar were the Cossacks of the Bikatun line of the Siberian army, under whose protection Vasily Radlov was the first to dig their archaeologists in 1865. And outside of all the dimensions is the village of Tungur, whose name could be translated as Zabubenny: in Altai Tyungur is a shaman tambourine. Behind Tungur there are sparsely populated mountains without roads, after passing 70 kilometers you can jump out. View downstream, almost all the shots from Tungur were taken on the way back, when we left here - and this is not so easy, because there is no scheduled transport here, officially its passage is prohibited due to an emergency bridge in Katanda, and an unofficial minibus "Only for locals" they are also periodically fined - I suspect that around the time they are convicted of transporting tourists.

On the high bank - the grave of the Red Army. In the upper reaches of the Katun, there was also the culmination of the Civil War for Altai, and in fact, the heroes of the semi-mythical fought. In 1918, near Tungur, Pyotr Sukhov died with a detachment of red partisans, defeated by the "whites" in the Altai steppe and retreating here along the mountains. In 1921, in Katanda, in his house, the last ataman of the Bikatun Cossacks Alexander Kaigorodov, who was trying to liberate Russia from the territory of Mongolia, was killed. The locals, however, believed that he did not die, but went to China, and it was easier for the Reds to wash their hands. Here rests, of course, Sukhov:

There is also a Round House in Tungur - a clear Uimon trend:

And harsh rusty jalopies, reminiscent of the fact that locals do not live by tourism alone. I saw Altaians in Tungur, but it seemed to me that this was mainly a Russian village.

And behind the Katun - a squirrel And the highest Katunsky ridge in Altai, from which the Katun itself flows in an intricate spiral. This, as I understand it, is the Kucherlinskaya valley, and usually they go up along it, and down along Akkemskaya. But such a hike, with the Kara-Turek pass separating the valleys, lasted ten days, or even a couple of weeks, which I didn’t have. In principle, the idea to combine dynamic road trips and mountain trekking in one trip turned out to be, to put it mildly, not very successful - most of the trip we had to carry useless (except for the trekking part) cargo, there was frankly little time for trekking, but we already managed to squander.

Belukha is clearly visible from the hills above the Tungur, primarily Mount Baida. 12 kilometers down the Katun, almost opposite the mouth of Akkem, is the mouth of the Turgunda River, where a whole "magnificent seven" kezer-tashes ("stone warriors") of Turkic times have been preserved. But going there is a day, and renting a car is inadequate thousands, and I saw a lot of "stone women" on that trip. So let's go over the bridge:

The suspension bridge across the Katun, not the first and not the last along its course, literally hangs over the Tungur:

It was opened in 1982, and as I understand it, it was from that time that tourists poured into Akkem and Kucherla in a stream:

And if Tungur himself stands on the left bank, then behind the Katun - his camp sites. On the way "there" we spent the night at the camp site "White Krechet", which was served by two boys who looked like brothers. These were not service workers, but classic "enchanted by Altai", who helped their brothers in mind go to the mountains, and the fact that they took little money for this was perceived by both us and them as a convention. But the guys refused to take our things to the storage room - from day to day "White Gyrfalcon" was closed for the winter. The neighboring tourist base "Bayry" has already been closed - and this is in the first days of September! All year round only "Vysotnik" works here, combining the functions of a camp site and a forest hotel. "Vysotnik" and holds both of these valleys, organizing various casts. On Akkem, he has a "branch", which is simply called "Upper Vysotnik" here, and we also had to get acquainted with him.

On the "Vysotnik" we spent the night on the way back - and I understood that I would go to spend the night here for any money. Firstly, we were terribly exhausted and soaked to the skin in the rain, and secondly ... a hiker must either not sweat or have a winter swim: I really wanted to wash. In the summer there is a tourist shelter with sleeping bags in the common room, but in September it was already closed, and the choice was to put up a tent or spend the night in a hotel from the frame above. Rooms with amenities there cost 1500 rubles per person, without amenities - 1200. At the same time, there was nowhere to hang wet rags to dry, the water heater was designed for one and a half people in capacity, and perhaps the lack of Wi-Fi could be explained by the lack of fiber optics in Tungur. It is also forbidden to eat and keep food in the rooms, but who will control this? Otherwise, "Vysotnik" was good - a cozy area, polite staff, excellent food in the cafe (but expensive), in the tourist office they are attentive to customers, which helped us out on the way "there". And here it is not necessary to settle in order to use the left-luggage office for the duration of the trip to the mountains.

There is also a separate show. In the morning, we were lured out of the room by the noise of the propeller:

A small helicopter arrived - a light American "Robinson R66", five-seater with a cargo compartment. Heavy helicopters, as many of them I saw in Siberia, are exclusively Russian and Soviet, but small "flying cars" are the same overseas "Robinsons" with a characteristic mast under the propeller:

Helicopter tours are a very popular entertainment in Altai, and it suggests that there are not so few people with money among us as it seems. A 40-minute air excursion with a flyby of Belukha costs 70,000 rubles overboard, and this particular R66 was flying from an intermediate landing (apparently for refueling) in Tungur. In the frame - the entire cabin of the helicopter, not very different from the car. As I understand it, 4 tourists and an instructor are flying here, and the tour is read automatically.

He did not specify whether this helicopter could be used as a means of dropping off tourists on Lake Akkemskoye or picking them up from there, in both cases also showing Belukha. A more well-known option for those who are too lazy to go on foot is a horse, but at a price comparable to a helicopter: firstly, not one, but two mares carry a tourist with a load (one for himself, the second for a backpack); secondly, an instructor will go at the head of the caravan, whose horse is paid separately at the same rate; thirdly, you pay separately for the return trip at the same rates for each horse. That is, the calculation formula is as follows: the number of horses \u003d (number of tourists) x2 + 1, and we multiply all this by the number of days + 1. Considering that renting a mare costs 1500 per day, for two we would have come out from 15 to 22 thousand rubles , of which half to a third would be spent on the return of the instructor.
The easiest option to simplify the transfer is to take a "shishige" (cargo GAZ-66) to Three Birches. The fact is that Akkem flows into the Katun about 15 kilometers below the Tungur (map), and in order to get to it, you have to overcome the Kuzuyak pass along a boring forest road: the first day of the journey promises a lot of effort and few spectacles. Taxi "shishiga" costs 10 thousand rubles, which is even inexpensive for a large group, but single tourists for 1100 rubles (100 rubles - the "Vysotnik" commission) are put on quite frequent occasions. And in the evening, when we left for the "White Krechet", we were told that there were no opportunities for tomorrow, and the maximum that they could offer was to participate in the rafting to the mouth of Akkem for the same money. However, in the morning, a car was suddenly found, transporting some materials and cargo to Three Birches, and the girls from Vysotniki, who had not forgotten about our wish, called me. To pay or not to pay 2200 for two, Olga and I did not even have a question. At 11 am, a jeep drove up to the gates of Vysotnik and took us to Kucherla - the real "last village" three kilometers further:

If Tungur seemed to me mostly Russian, then Kucherla is an almost purely Altai village. And at many houses of Kucherla there are chaks - traditional Altai hitching posts. Because the horse here is not a luxury, but a means of transportation and earnings:

Somewhere in Kucherla, the "shishiga" was waiting for us. On the Kuzuyak road, they can be found in this way, but according to other tourists, they take strictly 1000 per person from any point and do not bargain.

On the wooden bridge "shishiga" crossed the river Kucherla, even more turquoise than the Katun. The Kucherlinskaya valley, compared to the Akkemskaya one, is considered more picturesque and gentle, but also longer, and the beauty of the alpine lakes and the almost kilometer-long glacier-icefall of Mushtuairy, to which it leads, is very difficult to access, and as a rule, tourists turn from it to the Kara-Turek pass to Akkemu, along which they go down. Pay attention to the fragment of the bridge and a bunch of logs - the bridge was washed away by a flood a few years ago, but since then a new one, also wooden, has been built.

The road behind the bridge basically looks like this, and even UAZs don't drive here after the rains - only shishiga, only hardcore! And how fun it was to walk along it back ankle-deep in slippery mud or, if the edge, waist-deep in damp grass ...

A couple of kilometers from Kucherla there is a grandiose meadow, two kilometers wide itself, followed by forests and a dirty dirt road again. Just an ordinary forest, without any special beauty, which would take hours to walk through. "Estimate would have trampled on foot!" would think with Olga, understanding each other without words. The only spectacular place on 22 kilometers of this road is actually the Kuzuyak Pass (1513m). It rises 700 meters above the "Kucherlinskaya" side, 500 meters above the "Akkem" side, and the ascent to it is not extreme, but simply boring and difficult.

You can see Tungur and Kucherla, stretched along their rivers:

And this is already a descent beyond Kuzuyak, and the deep valley of Akkem, which goes into the distance, is clearly visible. Notice how the lighting has changed? In the sun, it is in this valley that unnaturally bright colors are:

Here the road was no longer wet, but dusty. A couple of times we saw tourists walking towards us, and in some places behind Kuzuyak we could see hayfields and fences.

The way back was much harder - the weather deteriorated, it rained for two days in a row, and the roads were swept away from all sides, but this time there was no opportunity. Therefore, we walked on foot, and only the wild rosehip, which grew abundantly on the "Akkem" side of the pass, brightened up the efforts - we gathered it for the future, and brewed it into tea for several more days after the hike.

The zigzags of the wide "bump" gauge are conveniently cut along narrow and steeper paths. On the slopes, the mud, held together by roots, is not so slippery, but in the lowlands there can be very nasty swamps. These trails are not so much for pedestrians, but for horsemen, who sometimes come across us:

And on the way to the pass, I suddenly noticed a dog at my feet. Looking around, we saw a caravan, but only some other:

It was not imposing tourists with a misanthropic instructor who rode here, but harsh Altaians with guns, and there were much more horses than riders, and on each horse hung something that most of all resembled a sack of potatoes. Having come up to level, the leader shouted to us: "Jump on the red! 1000 rubles to Kucherla!", apparently sincerely not realizing that a person may not be able to saddle a horse on the move.

I asked the next Altaian where you were heading from, and he answered me "What are you interested in?" in such a tone, as if for the next question he would take a gun from his shoulder and shoot. Only after seeing them off with a glance, we realized that these were cones, and the "potatoes" in bags - cedar cones from some distant plots, the location of which, of course, they did not want to shine. The meeting with the pack caravan for me at least somehow justified the difficult return trip.

Let's get back to the sunny start of the hike. At some point, an ail appeared from the bushes - there is a small camp site, where the "shishiga" materials were brought, apparently for conservation for the winter. We were taken another half a kilometer ahead of a wide meadow and landed on this clearing, popularly known as Three Birches. Birches are here more than three, and which ones gave the clearing a name - I don’t know.

There are a couple of completely abandoned houses here, and on the way "there" we dined at the table in them, and on the way back we settled down to spend the night there, literally wet to the skin: if you walk in heavy rain for several hours, no raincoats and jackets will save . Inside it was not warmer than in the tent, but unlike the tent, the house already stood. He has seen a lot in his lifetime, probably:

So, we drove 22 kilometers. As the further path showed, we wouldn’t have passed them in a day: I just don’t know how to go to the mountains, and Olga lost her strength and dexterity in three years without hiking. In addition, she was used to walking with a large group, and therefore, no matter how light the backpack was, she still gained more on the road than she could carry. I could unload it (and in the end I carried more than 30 kilograms), but in purely tourist matters - to put up a tent, cook food - there was little use from me, except to collect firewood for a wood chipper and bring water from a stream, so we set up for 3 hours, but we gathered for 4 hours at all. That is, we walked for 7-8 hours a day with an average (including halts) speed of 1 km / h up and 2 km / h down, if measured in a straight line. From Tungur to Three Birches - 22 kilometers along the road; from Three Birches to Lake Akkem - about the same in a straight line, that is, in fact, 1.5-2 times more. Ministry of Emergency Situations and border guards pass the Akkem trail in a day (this is included in their standards), normal tourists - 2-3 days from Tungur and 1-2 days back, but we went up 2.5 days from Three Birches and 2 days went down to Tungur.

Or we could go even slower, but the Akkem trail is not a wild taiga, but a park. Probably, the Chuisky tract looked about the same in the "eternal" era - at least a meter wide and with carefully sawn trunks of trees that fell on the road. For the most part of the trail, there are solid kanmi and roots, and if on the descent they pretty much interfere, then they help a lot on the ascent, forming a kind of staircase, and it’s not slippery to go here in any weather.

On the right, streams flow in steep rocky channels:

To the left, from behind the trees, a wall sometimes appears and the noise of the ferocious Akkem is heard:

There are forks on the trail, but they are all conditional - the branches will converge after a maximum of several hundred meters. And along the entire length of the trail every 2-3 kilometers, or even more often - Glades. Tourists have developed them so thoroughly that others on Maps.me were marked as campsites. Many have left some sauces, jars of salt or sugar, bottles of water - take it and use it if you don’t disdain! Walking here is not dangerous - even if you broke both legs (which is not so easy to do here), then a maximum of a few hours later (and most likely earlier) other tourists will pass by and if they don’t help themselves, they will report to the Ministry of Emergency Situations upstairs. But all this self-made infrastructure has a downside - a shortage of firewood. Even the wood chips in most clearings are chosen almost cleanly, and it takes a whole hour to collect them for one cooking in the far district of the clearing.

The main landmark on the local trails is horse manure. If you haven’t seen him for quite some time, it means that you probably managed to go the wrong way. But, contrary to expectations, there is not much garbage - somewhere one piece of paper or a tin can is lying around, but I have never seen spontaneous dumps along the entire trail. The piece of iron, resembling either a homemade stove or a burbulator for a whole camp of hippies, was the largest example of local litter, and even this, perhaps, is not litter, but a "working" pine nut sieve. And it’s not the sociability of tourists (one cattle company a month is enough to litter the entire trail to the state of a viper), it’s just that in Altai they understand that they need to clean up, and volunteers and instructors follow the cleanliness along the Akkem trail. They say that this is not the last reason - garbage attracts bears, problems with which are definitely not needed here. But if you meet Goga - remember that he is a Man!

There really isn't much to see on the trail. Forest and forest, dense and humid, and the mountains are not so much reminiscent of beautiful views, how much is the sinusoid in the vertical plane, which is the trail.

The only thing that pleases the eye is living creatures - for example, nutcracker. Didn't know they were so funny.

Squirrels here are mostly black, and there are really a lot of them:

And on the stones underfoot, such black spiders, or rather haymakers, plentifully scurry about:

The section of the trail behind the Three Birches turned out to be the most difficult - constant steep ascents, sometimes replaced by mocking descents: if the general direction was up, then each descent promised a new ascent. In addition, Olya did not immediately realize that her carrying capacity had decreased, and I did not want to stop, and as a result, on the very first kilometer, she overstrained herself so that she could not recover until the end of the trip. Every now and then we came across other tourists, and their backpacks were two times smaller than ours - and alas, I have too little experience to understand how they succeed. We walked about 6 "straight" kilometers during the day, and at dusk we stopped for the night among the boulders under the kurum near the Akkemskaya Pad stream. Until the end of the campaign, I called this place the Devil's Meadow, because on the basis of fatigue and dejection with very modest results, here I had an epic quarrel with Olga.

And the next day Belukha reconciled us. At some point, we saw a fork - one path went up, the other down, and Olga remembered from her past trip to these parts about a certain Lower Akkem path, where she had to climb through bushes and kurums. Therefore, she went to reconnaissance from above, and I - from below, and quickly realizing that the lower path was more trodden, I returned to the backpacks. And looking up, I saw squirrels shining beyond the taiga And:

And I didn’t know then that it was Belukha itself, coupled with the round Delaunay peak (4260m). From the Russian side, they look like a dome and a pyramid, if you like - like Easter cake and Easter. The Altaians call it Kadyn-Bazhy, which means the Head of the Katun, but at the same time Katun itself means "Lady", and then Belukha is simply the Main of the Main. According to the Altai belief, its top is a channel that connects our world with the heavenly one, and to approach sacred mountain forbidden even to shamans. I started with photographs of Beluga whales. Well, the entire Belukha massif among the Altaians is known as Uch-Sumer (Three-headed), and its third element is the West Belukha (4435m), the second highest peak of Altai and the most spectacular of the mountains above Akkem. Behind the mountains there will be a gentle slope with the Gebler glacier (military doctor Friedrich Gebler first explored the mountain in 1835), from which the Katun originates, and the steep northern slope is the Akkem wall, from which Akkem himself breaks out with a roar. "Ak" in all Turkic languages means "white", "by whom" - a river in the ancient Turkic language. Akkem is really not turquoise, but white all over:

And the sign on the stone near the path reminds him of his furious burrows:

Akkem doesn't seem to be deep, but it's really not even quite a river, but something transitional between a river and a waterfall. Continuous threshold 40 kilometers long. Here, look - the slope of the channel is visible to the naked eye! In the distance, behind the trees - the western peak of Belukha:

But the taiga sinusoids ended, and the path now led along Akkem, and the slope, which was huge for the river, was quite bearable for the path. The main obstacle on the second day were kurumniks, however, also mostly found ones. When we went up, I remembered that there were two or three of them, on the way down it turned out that there were at least five.

And side streams, still coming across every now and then. Bridges have been made through many, here is the most solid one:

A large butterfly was beating on the stones of one of the kurumniks, buzzing helplessly, like a fly. Her time has passed:

In the mountains in September it can also be -15, and the eezi (mountain spirits) were favorable to us - although the nights were cold, and it rained on the way back, the temperature never dropped below 5-7 degrees.

Here the goblin met, who did not pay the slightest attention to us - he bypasses his possessions before conservation for the winter:

Sod canopies under twisted roots came across such that they can be used as a hut:

However, we passed not only them, but also the largest parking lot in front of the Tekelu waterfall, which apparently most tourists reach from Three Birches in a day. Near the waterfall, they say, it is very beautiful, but there are no bridges over the Akkem, and photo No. 39a shows how the attempt to ford might end. Moreover, I am sure that there the river carried away much stronger and more experienced people than we did. Therefore, they usually go to Tekelyushka with a separate radial from above:

Behind Akkem, meanwhile, loaches are already appearing - not yet our path, but the surrounding mountains are sucked out above the line after which trees do not grow:

Having passed a couple more kilometers beyond Tekelyushka, we decided to get up for the night - on the second day we walked a little more than on the first, but still about 4 kilometers remained before the goal. Well, I chose the glades, not least because of the views that opened from the shore of Akkem - here, for example, in all its glory West Belukha before sunset ... do you see the FACE on the slope?

But at dawn - and the whole array of Uch-Sumer, in which other esotericists peep the Trident of Shiva. The view is grandiose, and thanks to the more severe climate, the icy 4-thousanders of Altai are no less majestic than.

In the morning at the same place. This is where the title frame of the post was taken from. The colors are still unrealistic:

And other tourists were walking towards us all the time, and their geography was not at all the same as that of those met on the roads - almost no one from Novosibirsk or Barnaul, but every other time Moscow or St. Petersburg, and also Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Arkhangelsk, Chesky Budejovitsy. ... Only once on the way back we came across tourists to overtake: although we were moving slowly, the flow upstairs had almost dried up (especially since they often go up Kucherla), and those who followed us went faster just a little faster and in approximately the same mode of halts and overnight stays. Passers-by appeared every one or two hours on the way up, several times a day on the way down, and we invariably greeted each other, exchanged questions about the further path, and moved on. On kurumniks, passing a group, I got off the path, and the last passerby invariably gave me a hand - as on winter roads, where one slides into the snow, and the other, having passed, pulls it out.

Sometimes horses descended with a lone instructor, most often an Altaian - they had already taken the passengers upstairs ... but downstairs, mind you, they don’t go without a load, and this load is most likely the same cedar cones:

And steadily every other day, the Akkem Gorge was heard by the crash of a low-flying helicopter - first up the valley, and after 20 minutes and down. This, by the way, is not a "Robinson", but also an American "Bell-407" (or another "Bell"), that is, the Belukha flight is carried out not only by "Vysotnik":

The forest gradually thinned all the days of the ascent, the birches and aspens became smaller, and on the third day the larch became the main tree. At some point, we ran into a gate for horses (so that they would not go down on a night pasture), which could be opened with only a little thought. But closing them behind me, I felt that the goal was very close.

In the next part - about Akkem lake and its inhabitants.

P.S.
Well, if my story seemed funny or pathetic to some of the experienced tourists, laugh and feel sorry for your health. I am not a hiker, and although Olga and I spent three weeks in the same summer, I did not gain much experience. Olga asked why I was always in such a hurry and jumping out of my skin, and after a little thought, I found the answer - because I don’t like trekking, the very situation of a long walking path with a heavy backpack is stressful for me, and the goal is always unconditionally more important than the path to it. Therefore, if I still undertake such trips, then also in "park" conditions and for no more than a few days, for example, to Seydozero or Ergaki.

ALTAI-2017
. Trip review and. Katu-Yaryk, Pazyryk, Mikhalych outpost.

Tungur village. Republic of Altai, Ust-Koksinsky district. Friends, I want to tell you about one very interesting place, which is far from civilization, where it even breathes in a special way!!!

The village of Tungur in the Altai Mountains is well known to climbers, climbers, esotericists, yogis, cyclists and motorcyclists, and has a well-developed tourist infrastructure. Indeed, interesting tourist routes to the sights of a large-scale natural park and the Katunsky Biosphere Reserve begin in this settlement. And most importantly, to the famous peak of Siberia - Mount Belukha, fanned by the aura of ancient legends and tales of the Altai people. Even the name of the village is poetic, in translation it sounds like "Shaman's tambourine".

Where is Tungur Location of the village of Tungur: Republic of Altai, Ust-Koksinsky district. The village stretched for 3 km along the left bank of the turquoise Katun, opposite the mouth of the Kucherla River, at the foot of the low Mount Camel. The northern borders are guarded by another height - Mount Baida, which is a spur of the Terektinsky Range (it offers a beautiful view of Tungur and Belukha). Distance Novosibirsk-Tyungur - 885 km; Barnaul-Tungur - 693 km; Biysk-Tungur - 541 km; Gorno-Altaisk-Tungur - 449 km; Ust-Koksa-Tungur - 59 km.

For travelers exploring the Altai Mountains, Tungur is the best village for active rest and adventure. Alpine landscapes with green forests dominated by cedars and larches stretch around. There are also acacias, small birch groves, and glades framed by bushes of bird cherry and wild rose.

To the east, places untouched by civilization begin, settlements no. And only the mountains squeeze the raging Katun in a close embrace. On many old maps of Altai marked highway Tungur-Inya on the left bank of the Katun (through the village of Inegen), 70 km long, in fact, it does not exist. It is a dead-end country road, the dirt road ends near the mouth of the Akkem River. After that, complete off-road begins, the so-called "Tungur trail", 20 km long to Inegen itself. On the this moment a project is being considered to build a modern highway on this section, which will connect Tungur directly with the Chuisky tract. Somewhere they built temporary bridges, in some places they dragged heavy jeeps on their hands, they cut through rocks in especially narrow areas, expanding the passage. Within a few years, the footbridges rotted, the path again crumbled and collapsed. The Tungur-Inya trail is passable only for tourists on foot, on horseback, bicycles and mountain bikes.

Next to the Tungur path is the "Stone of Health" - like a rock formation cut in half, into the fault of which 6 people can easily enter. It is believed that it has healing powers: if you stand inside the split for at least 10 minutes, then your health will improve significantly. Above the path, you will meet another unique rock - the "Mirror of Time", according to legend local residents astrally connected with Mount Belukha. “Stone women” perched nearby - tall statues with human faces, created by ancient craftsmen. The route is also interesting for those who want to look at the Akkem breakthrough or pipe - the roaring and raging Katun River makes its way through a narrow canyon. A five-kilometer chain of rapids and three-meter shafts is the first difficult rafting down the Katun, 23 km from the village of Tungur. Only strong-willed and courageous tourists are able to overcome it, because it belongs to the 4-5 category of difficulty.

All the most interesting is concentrated south of the village of Tungur. Wild alpine lands begin there, breathing with primitive power and introducing even sophisticated tourists into awe. The Tungur-Belukha route is one of the most popular in the Altai Mountains, the mountain is located at a distance of about 50 km, depending on the winding of the chosen path. Along the way, tourists enjoy fabulous views and visit popular natural attractions: the unique Akkem Lake with silver-white waters, behind which the Katunsky Range sparkles with snowy peaks; the valley of the Kucherla River and the magnificent Kucherlinskoye Lake (distance from the village of Tungur - 33 km), Mount Belukha is reflected in its mirror surface; The valley of seven lakes, interesting for its reservoirs with different shades of water. To the west of Tungur, the entire civilization of the Ust-Koksinsky region is concentrated - the regional center and villages of the Uimon valley (Katanda, Multa, Zamulta, Chendek, Terekta, Upper Uimon).

Every year the flow of tourists visiting this isolated part of the Altai Mountains is increasing. All paths to the village of Tungur begin either in Biysk or in the capital of the Altai mountains - Gorno-Altaisk, you can get there both by your own car and by public transport. Regular buses run from these cities to Ust-Koksa. Then local buses and minibuses will take tourists to Tungur.

The traffic along the Chuisky tract in the summer is quite large, you won’t have to wait long for passing transport. The direction from Tuekta to Tungur via Ust-Kan and Ust-Koksa is less busy, but here every driver understands that a voting person with a large backpack is going to the foot of Belukha or on, and it is customary among tourists to help their own!

Of course, all this splendor of the Altai Mountains will open before you in full.

The federal highway M-52 "Chuysky Trakt" is of very good quality, along the entire length from Biysk to Chibit there is excellent asphalt and road signs who are on the case.

The main fleet of our cars are all-wheel drive minibuses and jeeps, as the most suitable for work in the mountains. These cars may be slower than others on the track, but they solve a very important problem. Often, to the beginning of the route, for example, or, you need to throw up cargo and people so as not to waste time traveling 15-20 kilometers walking with a backpack along the road. This is where all-wheel drive vehicles come to the rescue.

If our tourists do not fit in minibuses, we launch our branded bus to Chibit with a large TV, good acoustics and a thematic selection of films and videos about Altai, hiking and extreme sports sports.

2000 rub. one way, 3700 rub. in both directions (there and back).

In our transport you are already traveling with guides and other participants of the trip, you can immediately get to know each other, ask questions of interest, listen about the sights and life in the Altai Mountains, have a bite to eat in a cafe that we trust.

In Chibit we traditionally stop at the recreation center "Nomad". Tent accommodation on the territory is included in the cost of all tours (unless otherwise indicated, for example, accommodation in houses is included immediately), but you can order more comfortable accommodation in houses or yurts on the Nomad.

to Tungur by regular bus

Distance to Tungur

From Novosibirsk to Tungur: 890 km
From Tomsk to Tungur: 1200 km
From Kemerovo to Tungur: 1000 km
From Barnaul to Tungur: 690 km
From Biysk to Tungur: 576 km
From Gorno-Altaisk to Tungur: 450 km

Buses to Tungur

There is no direct bus connection with Tungur! This is due to several difficult sections of the road after Ust-Koksa. They represent bottlenecks where cars can hardly pass.

In the summer, a gazelle seems to go from the Gorno-Altai bus station, but information about it is always vague for some reason, and it will be quite inconvenient with luggage in the form of a backpack. Maybe things will change in 2017.

The best place to get to by bus is the regional center of Ust-Koksa, and from it to Tungur (about 70 km) by taxi or hitchhiking. In extreme cases, you can spend the night in Ust-Koksa.

There is another option - to take a bus that goes to Multa to the turnoff to this same Multa. Then only 33 kilometers will remain to Tungur, but how to overcome them is the question. Either call transport from Tungur, or hitchhike. All in all. we do not recommend.

Bus Altai-Pokhod

In 2017, we plan to carry our tourists on our own bus, the cost of the trip from Biysk to Tungur will be 2400 rub. one way, 4500 rub. round trip.

It is quite a bit more expensive than on a regular bus, BUT! There are great benefits!

You do not have to solve the problem of how to overcome the "last mile" to Tungur.
You are guaranteed not to be late for the start of the hike, because the instructors will be with you!
In our transport you are already traveling with guides and other participants of the trip, you can immediately get to know each other, ask questions of interest, listen about the sights and life in the Altai Mountains, have a bite to eat in a cafe that we trust. stop for the toilet when needed, not when the driver wants.

To Tungur by car

Road

If you live not far from the Altai Mountains (for example, in Barnaul or even Novosibirsk) and drive a car well, you can get to the village of Tungur on your own.

The distance from Biysk to Tungur is 576 km on the most comfortable road, if you drive along the Chuisky tract through the Seminsky Pass, and turn towards Ust-Kan and Ust-Koksa, before reaching the village of Tuekta.

There is also a shorter road, about 450 km, through Soloneshnoye, Black Anui, Ust-Kan, Ust-Koksa to Tungur, but for the most part it is a gravel road, and after rains it is often just a dirty track.
Therefore, if you don’t have a jeep or a crossover, it’s better to drive along the Chuisky tract - you won’t lose in speed for sure!

Attention! On outdated maps of navigators and navigation programs, the program sends tourists along the road from the village of Inya (358 km from Biysk) to Tungur. Seemingly simple and fast track actually fraught with a surprise.
This route is not accessible by car! The mountain trail is accessible to pedestrians, horses, bicycles and motorcycles. Although no, once the jeepers passed this route, but there are no other applicants yet (link to video

The main fleet of our cars are all-wheel drive minibuses and jeeps, as the most suitable for work in the mountains.

If our tourists do not fit in minibuses, we launch our branded bus to Tungur with a TV, good acoustics and a thematic selection of films and videos about Altai, hiking and extreme sports.

Shipping cost from Biysk to Tungur - 2400 rub. one way, 4500 rub. round trip.

It's a bit more expensive than the regular bus, BUT! There are some nuances!

1. Regular buses to Tungur do not go!!! The closest point to Tungur is the turn to the village of Multa, and from there you can either vote on the highway or look for a taxi, which will cost you either inconvenience, lost time, or extra expenses.
2. In our transport you are already traveling with guides and other participants of the hike, you can immediately get to know each other, ask questions of interest, listen about the sights and life in the Altai Mountains, have a bite to eat in trusted cafes that we trust.

Districts of the Altai Territory

Choose the area Slavgorodsky district Smolensky district Charyshsky district Aleisky district Altaisky district Bayevsky District Biysky District Blagoveshchensky District Burlinsky District Bystroistoksky District Volchikhinsky District Egoryevsky District Yeltsovsky District Zavyalovsky District Zalesovsky District Zarinsky District Zmeinogorsky District Zonal District Kalmansky District Kamensky District Klyuchevsky District Kosikhinsky District Krasnogorsky District Krasnoshchekovsky District Krutikhinsky District Kulundinsky District Kurininsky District Kytmanovsky District Loktevsky District Mamontovsky District Mikhailovsky District Nemsky District Novichikhinsky District Pavlovsky District Pankrushikhinsky District Pervomaisky District Petropavlovsky District Pospelikhinsky District Rebrikhinsky District Rodinsky District Romanovsky District Rubtsovsky District Sovetsky District Soloneshensky District Soltonsky District Suetsky District Tabunsky District Talmensky District Togulsky District Topchikhinsky District Tretyakovsky District Troitsky District Tyumentsevsky District Uglovsky District Ust- Kalmansky district Ust-Pristansky district Khabarsky district Tse linny district Shelabolikha district Shipunovsky district

Districts of the Republic of Altai

Choose a district

Overview

In the Altai Mountains, it is well known to climbers, rock climbers, esotericists, yogis, cyclists and motorcyclists, and has a well-developed tourist infrastructure. Indeed, interesting tourist routes begin in this settlement to the sights of a large-scale natural park and. And most importantly, to the famous peak of Siberia - Mount Belukha, fanned by the aura of ancient legends and tales of the Altai people. Even the name of the village is poetic, in translation it sounds like "Shaman tambourine" .

Where is Tungur

Location of the village of Tungur: Republic of Altai,. The village stretched for 3 km along the left bank of the turquoise Katun, opposite the mouth of the river, at the foot of the low mountain Camel. The northern borders are guarded by another height - Mount Bayda , which is a spur of the Terektinsky Range (it offers a beautiful view of Tungur and Belukha). Distance Novosibirsk-Tyungur - 885 km; Barnaul-Tungur - 693 km; - Tyungur - 541 km; - Tyungur - 449 km; - Tyungur - 59 km.

Tungur village - history and modernity

The first mention of Tungur dates back to 1876 - then on the site of the modern village there was only one small settlement, by 1899 there were already two courtyards.
The village began to develop rapidly already at the beginning of the 20th century, by 1926 there were 50 households with a predominantly Russian population - immigrants from other regions.
Currently, 348 people live in the village, most of the families are Altaians.
There are several shops, good cellular communication (Beeline).
This is where the management office is located. "Natural Park Belukha" .
On a small square in the village there is a mass grave with a monument to P.F. Sukhov and 144 soldiers of the Red Guards, who were shot by the White Guards during the civil war in the vicinity of Tungur.
In 1982, the inhabitants of Tungur received free access to the opposite bank of the Katun - an automobile suspension bridge with wood finish. In 2014 Tungur Bridge was significantly damaged during the flood and is now in not the best condition. Therefore, in 2015 it was decided to build a new metal bridge, and the project was launched in 2016.

The local population is increasingly involved in the tourism business, many families provide tourists with their homes in Tungur for recreation, organize individual hiking and horseback riding in the surroundings. In addition to the private sector, guests of the Altai Mountains stay in Tungur in guest houses; at the recreation centers "Green House" and tourist centers "Tungur", "Vysotnik", "White Gyrfalcon"; tourist complex "Club-Altai".

Tungur: an overview of the surroundings

For travelers exploring the Altai Mountains, Tungur is the best village for outdoor activities and adventures. Alpine landscapes with green forests dominated by cedars and larches stretch around. There are also acacias, small birch groves, and glades framed by bushes of bird cherry and wild rose.

East direction

To the east, places untouched by civilization begin, there are no settlements. And only the mountains squeeze the raging Katun in a close embrace. On many old maps of Altai, the Tungur-Inya highway along the left bank of the Katun (through the village of Inegen), 70 km long, is marked, in fact it does not exist. It is a dead-end country road, the dirt road ends near the mouth of the Akkem River. After that, complete off-road begins, the so-called "Tungur trail" , 20 km long to Inegen itself. At the moment, a project is being considered for the construction of a modern highway on this section, which will connect Tungur directly with.

But for now, it will not be possible to drive a car along this route to Inegen, although in 2006 a group of extreme sportsmen on off-road vehicles accomplished such a feat. Somewhere they built temporary bridges, in some places they dragged heavy jeeps on their hands, they cut through rocks in especially narrow areas, expanding the passage. Within a few years, the footbridges rotted, the path again crumbled and collapsed. The Tungur-Inya trail is passable only for tourists on foot, on horseback, bicycles and mountain bikes.

Near the Tungur trail is "Health Stone" - like a rock formation cut in half, into the fault of which 6 people can easily enter. It is believed that it has healing powers: if you stand inside the split for at least 10 minutes, then your health will improve significantly.
Above the path you will meet another unique rock - "Mirror of Time" , according to the beliefs of local residents, astrally associated with Mount Belukha.
perched nearby "Stone women" - tall sculptures with human faces, created by ancient craftsmen.

The route is also interesting for those who want to look at Akkem breakthrough or a pipe - roaring and raging makes its way in a narrow canyon. A five-kilometer chain of rapids and three-meter shafts is the first difficult rafting down the Katun, 23 km from the village of Tungur. Only strong-willed and courageous tourists are able to overcome it, because it belongs to the 4-5 category of difficulty.

South direction

unique with silver-white waters, behind which the Katunsky ridge sparkles with snowy peaks;
the valley of the Kucherla River and the magnificent (distance from the village of Tungur - 33 km), reflected in its mirror surface;
Valley of the Seven Lakes , interesting for its reservoirs with different shades of water.

To the west of Tungur, the entire civilization of the Ust-Koksinsky region is concentrated - the regional center and villages of the Uimon Valley (, Terekta,).

How to get to Tungur

The Gorno-Altaisk-Tungur bus runs daily from the central bus station at 08:20, the journey takes 9 hours 25 minutes, the ticket price is 813.00 rubles.
The Novosibirsk-Tungur bus passes through Barnaul, Biysk and the regional center Ust-Koksu, runs only in the summer (Thursday and Saturday) at 19.30, the price is 2800 rubles. The flight is organized by a travel agency.

On the private car the route is laid along the Chuisky tract through the following settlements:

Maiminsky district - villages,;
Chemalsky district -;
Shebalinsky district -