Rafting Trip

We met at 9 in the morning and drove along the kitoy river to the starting point. But it rained for the last 4 days strait, and all the roads were flooded and with mud (they wern't paved). We got the minibus/van stuck twice, and the third time, we thought we'd never get it out! It was out in like one hour because a jeep came by and towed it out. Then we decided we must start the rafting in a small stream nearby that connected to the river. It was all good, becuse the sun all of a cudden came out. We made a camp for lunch, which was all very good food and lots of food, and then we blew up the rafts and started. It was an adventure because the guide never went on it before!

The guide was Sasha, and he was like the nature man. he was really knowledgeable, and then we had a girl to translate into english.

The stream was shallow, and full of trees and bushes everywhere, we crashed a lot. But it was fun! Then we got to a part of it where the kitoy connected and we made our night camp. Sasha built a whole cooking place with a big fire, and a tripod for the big pots, and even a shelter for the rain that came every once in a while between sun. We had herbal tea and black tea, and sasha cooked a good dish with potatoes, chicken, dill, vegies and lentils. It was like a russian/siberian food. We had cookies for desert and bread. It was sooo good!

Next morning, we continued into the kitoy river. we rafted for about an hour and landed on the place where the caves were. We made camp and had lunch, which was the same again, and then we practiced with the climbing ropes. We had fun, we swung from tree to tree! For dinner he cooked us an uzbekistanian dish with rice, pork, and some carrots, it was even better than the night before! And the cookies were better too.

The next day, we took out our climbing stuff and walked up the ridge to the cave. he set up the ropes and then we walked down steep rocks (scary!) to the cave. We saw a little of the cave, but it was blocked off with debris. The ice stalagmite was still there, but almost all gone! Then we climbed up the steep rocks again, and went to the ropes to swing from the top of the cave to trees on the other side. We were suspended on the rope about 100 feet high, swingin to the tree. Not really swinging, but sliding like a cable car does, except faster. After we were tired of going up and down, we put the stuff away, and then headed back for lunch and then dinner again. It was good too.

The last day we slowwly rafted to a town, and cleaned up and went on shore to have lunch and wait for the minivan.

Now we're back. Tomorrow we will be walking around the town and see what its like and doing other stuff like buying train tickets to ulan ude.