2016-05-29 58 56

Location

In a forest near Perm, a city in Russia west of Siberia.

Participants

Expedition

Kathryn and I have been traveling in Russia on the trans-Siberian railway for a few days. Due to bad timetabling, we found we had an extra day to spend in the city of Perm before our next train across the continent. Discovering that the Perm-36 gulag museum has been closed for political reasons meant we needed an alternative activity. Relatively accessible geohash to the rescue!

We got up in the morning and used endlessly useful Google Maps Public Transport to direct us to the correct bus heading across the Karma River to the north. Upon alighting in an outlying suburb we quickly accosted a cab driver and engaged in a very difficult conversation to convince him to take us to a completely random point on the forest road 15kms out of town. He kept stopping to ask us "Why???".

But, paying him 300 rubles got us there at last. We walked back from the slightly less weird intersection to the closest point on the road. Tall, dense trees lined both sides and we hurriedly dived in.

MOSQUITOES!!! So many mosquitoes! They were as dense as molasses and the size of thimbles. They relentlessly attacked every square centimeter of bare skin and no amount of waving or jumping around would put them off. Right now I type this on the train two days later, covered in itchy bites.

Frantically stomping our way through the bogs and thick undergrowth, getting caught in spider webs and slipping on fallen trees, we at last traversed the 300m to the hash. Not mucking around we took photos and got out back to the road. Phew!

Totally failing to get a ride on the busy highway with our thumbs out, we ended up walking for 10kms to the next intersection, having lunch on the way. It was very hot and kind of muggy. Not the Russia I was expecting.

At last, we got to the intersection, and the Google Maps recommended bus straight to our hotel vicinity quickly showed up. We paid our hotel 350 rubles to reshower (we'd already checked out). Masses of mosquito carcases washed off my body, and the shower water went red with the blood. What an ordeal!