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Yulia Mirei
Julia Mireille travels a lot and writes about it in his blog.
1. Big Breakers
If you drive around the Rostov region, then among ordinary Russian forests and fields you can find … a desert!
Bolshiye Buruny is not a very massive, but impressive desert of glacial origin: the water flows of melting glaciers brought sand here. The maximum depth of the sands is 20 meters. The map is a diagram of the route “Seven Wonders of the Upper Don”/Administration of the Verkhnedonsky district of the Rostov region, and below is ordinary land.
For so many years, the sand has been preserved here thanks to small vegetation, which with its roots keeps grains of sand from being blown away by the wind. Another factor is also important – non-interference of a person. Today, jeeps are increasingly coming to the desert, damaging the tender grass, which can lead to the loss of the Rostov miracle. Therefore, it is better to walk through this unique natural phenomenon on foot.
You can get to Bolshiye Buruny by car, leaving the Rostov Region and heading to the Verkhnedonsky District. Morozovsky farm will be a reference point.
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After getting acquainted with the Rostov landmark, you can move to the neighboring Voronezh region to see real miracles, or divas – high chalk remnants standing along the banks of the Don. The locals call them divushki because the shapes of these unique natural phenomena resemble female figures. Divas are also witnessesGeology/The Divnogorie Museum-Reserve of ancient times – they are more than 130 million years old.
In addition to unique chalk divas, here you can see ancient cave monasteries that Christian monks dug out in malleable chalk.
You can admire the unique chalk divas and cave temples in the Divnogorye Museum-Reserve and in the Spassky Convent in Kostomarovo.
3. Lena Pillars
From the Don divas to the Yakut warriors. This is the name of the Lena Pillars, located on the banks of the Lena River.
The Lena Pillars are older than divas, they are over 500 million years old Lena Pillars Natural Park. In Yakutia, too, there was once an ocean, and when it retreated to the North Pole, it left behind fresh water. She washed the soft rocks, keeping only the most resistant ones. This is how the “warriors of Yakutia” were born, who now guard the Lena River and the entire Republic of Sakha.
In the middle of this magnificent army there are caves, castles, and also “places of power” in which northern shamans still perform rituals. The magical energy of the Lena warriors, according to rumors, is able to cause rain and definitely win the hearts of tourists.
You can get to the Lena Pillars National Park from the capital of the Republic of Sakha – Yakutsk. Pleasure boats and private boats depart from the city, and yachts are also rented there. Perhaps the most impressive view opens from the water to the Lena Pillars. It is possible to get to this unique natural phenomenon by car. But if you want to go up to the observation deck of the park, you still need a boat to cross to the opposite side of the river.
You can get acquainted with the “defenders of Yakutia” in any season, but it is worth remembering that the average winter temperature in the Republic of Sakha is -40 ° C. But you can rush to the pillars right along the frozen Lena on a snowmobile or ATV.
4. Kamchatka Valley of Geysers
Our next amazing natural attraction is the Kamchatka Valley of Geysers, one of the 7 wonders of Russia, protectedVolcanoes of Kamchatka/UNESCO World Heritage Center UNESCO.
Here, soft like plasticine, the earth boils most of the chemical elements of the periodic table in boiling cauldrons. Columns of steam rise from grass, stones, and water, followed by splashes from gurgling craters flying into the air. All this is cooled only by a narrow river flowing through the middle of the gorge.
An open chemistry lesson takes place in the valley of the Geysernaya River, in the Kronotsky State Reserve. There are many private companies in Kamchatka that conduct helicopter tours to this unique geyser field in Eurasia. Their list can be viewed on the official website of the reserve. Tourists are usually picked up directly from the hotel in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
The best time to visit the Far East is summer and autumn. But in May and June, the management of the reserve limits visits to the Valley of Geysers (the animals have a mating season), and from October they reduce the cost of excursions by 50%. So perhaps now is the best time to see the largest natural chemistry laboratory on the continent.
5. Krenitsyn Volcano
In the neighborhood of Kamchatka, there is another miracle of nature – the largest two-tiered volcano in the world. It is located on the island of Onekotan in the Sakhalin region and is called the Krenitsyn volcano – after the explorer of Kamchatka and the Aleutian Islands Pyotr Kuzmich Krenitsyn.
Seven thousand years ago there was anotherI. V. Melekestsev, O. A. Braitseva, et al. Age of volcanoes in the Kuril-Kamchatka volcanic region/Institute of Volcanology SB AS USSR/GIN AS USSR volcano – Tao-Rusyr, which after its super-eruption fell underground. Over time, a lake formed in its basin, and a new small volcano grew from the center. This is how a very Russian wonder of the world, the matryoshka volcano, turned out.
There are no people on Onekotan Island, therefore, to see this natural attraction, you need to hire a ship or rent a yacht in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. You can also get to the island by helicopter.
Matryoshka volcano is most beautiful in summer, but it is more profitable to use the Kamchatka infrastructure in autumn, when prices for tourist services are noticeably reduced.
Have a nice trip !
Cover: Vadim Petrakov/Shutterstock
