Crystal-clear Lake Baikal is a vast body of the bluest water, surrounded by rocky or tree-covered foreshores behind which mountains float like phantoms at indeterminable distances. Baikal’s meteorological mood swings are transfixing spectacles, whole weather systems dancing for your delectation over Siberia’s ‘climatic kitchen’.
The most memorable attractions in Kyzyl are ephemeral – meeting shamans, hearing throat-singing or watching a wrestling competition. Tuva’s capital may grandly claim to be the ‘centre of Asia’, but architecturally it’s mostly disappointing Soviet-era concrete. Fortunately, the central area’s streets are pleasantly tree lined. From the riverside are quietly picturesque views across to a tiny Buddhist shrine on the unpopulated north bank. Behind that the steppe is backed by a horizon of arid, low mountains.
Kyakhta lacks the cinemascope landscapes of Novoselenginsk but retains three once-grand churches, a great museum and a surprisingly good hotel. Formerly called Troitskosavsk, Kyakhta was a town of tea-trade millionaires whose grandiose cath- edral was reputed to have had solid silver doors embedded with diamonds. By the mid-19th century, as many as 5000 cases of tea a day were arriving via Mongolia on a stream of horse- or camel-caravans, which returned loaded with furs. Compressed tea ‘bricks’ were used as money, a practice continued by Buryat nomads as recently as the 1930s.
Vast and beautiful, the Greenland-shaped Krasnoyarsk Region stretches all the way from the Arctic islands of Servernaya Zemlya to a mountainous tip at Mt Borus near Sayanogorsk. Formerly divided into three autonomous regions, it was reunited following a 2005 referendum. This is likely to further aid the growth of its lucrative petroleum industries which make Krasnoyarsk city such a buzzing, forward-looking metropolis.
Vibrant, youthful and backed by attractive spikes of jagged forested foothills, Krasnoyarsk has a much more appealing setting than most typically flat Siberian cities. While its architecture isn’t a particular strength, amid the predominantly unaesthetic concrete of post-WWII industrialisation are a few outstandingly well-embellished timber mansions and a sprinkling of Art Nouveau curves. Pleasant river trips and the nearby Stolby Nature Reserve as well as the region’s best concert halls, theatres and museums make Krasnoyarsk a most agreeable place to break a trans-Siberian journey between Tomsk (612km west) and Lake Baikal.
Clouds allowing, the best views on the whole Chuysky Trakt are between Aktash and Kosh-Agach. Wide if distant panoramas of perennially snow-topped peaks rise formidably behind valleys known somewhat misleadingly as the Kuray and Chuy Steppe (km821 to km840 and km870 onwards). These are interspersed by more great canyons and a colourful mountainside that looks like marbled chocolate pudding (km856). The Kuray Steppe hosted Russia’s 2005 paragliding championships (www.triadaclub.com/kurai).
The Ireland-sized Khakassia Republic rises from lake-dotted taiga through a vast agricultural plain to meet richly forested mountains on the Tuvan border. Geographically, it is inextricably linked with Southern Krasnoyarsk Territory. For both areas, transport connections focus on on the city of Abakan.
Historic if vaguely seedy Irkutsk, 1090km southeast of Krasnoyarsk, is the nearest big city to glorious Lake Baikal, though it’s still 70km inland. With some fancifully rebuilt churches and areas of grand 19th-century architecture it’s well worth at least a brief stop. If your Russian is poor, Irkutsk has plenty of Anglophone agencies eager to help, and now has some real (if small) hostels too.
Gorno-Altaisk, the capital of the Altai Republic, is a narrow ribbon of Soviet concrete blandness scarring an otherwise attractive valley. From Mayma on the M52, Gorno-Altaisk’s main street, Kommunistichesky pr, winds on for 7km before reaching central pl Lenina.
From Krasnoyarsk a popular day trip by bus and/or summer hydrofoil follows the Yenisey River 27km to Divnogorsk town through a wide, wooded canyon. Some 5km beyond Divnogorsk’s jetty is a vast 90m-high dam. Turbine-room visits are not permitted but if you’re lucky you might see ships being lifted by a technologically impressive inclined plane to the huge Krasnoyarsk Sea reservoir behind. A few kilometres beyond you can observe ice fishing from December to March or rent boats and yachts from Aly Parus (3912-403 187; per hr R700-1000; summer).