RODINO – GORNOALTAYSK

Just before Barnaul we start feeling pressure in our ears, so this means we are going up slowly. We are putting all possible clothing on since temperature never goes higher that 10 degrees line, and people around are dressed pretty warm. There is a new warning at the gas stations: motorcycles are required to turn off the engines fifteen meters before it. We also meet bikers from Omsk on our way. Scenery changes back to montane: the immense steppe gains more and more of the relief and some threes strike back, too. We’ve noticed some real pines. It even smells differently. Just before Gornoaltaysk we finally see the real mountains. It’s been so many times I imagined these while reading Roerich books! Accompanied by a taxi, we get to the hotel, which in fact is a bed and breakfast ran in a private house, just what we need. Our bikes find their places in the closed yard, and ourselves, we are getting put up in the rooms where famous professor Muldashev has stayed just the night before. This man is known for the first eye transplantation in the world. He is also the author of several scientific tractates. Professor has visited Himalayas for few times already, all Tibet, Nepal and India, searching for secrets of tantric energy, medicine and sources of human being. He and his expedition have left for the Mongolian mountains this morning.