Krasnoyarsk, Nature City Of Siberia

The original Trans-Siberian engine is much cooler than the modern ones

After a number of weeks of large industrial cities without much more than a central park to remind you of the natural world, it was decided that a stop in Krasnoyarsk should be done due to it being beside a nature reserve which would give us the opportunity to experience the great outdoors that actually make up probably 99% of Siberia.

The Yenisei River flows along beside Krasnoyarsk

There is a small problem with Krasnoyarsk, which is that the city is another industrial monster, and the great outdoors are somewhat spoiled by the rising chimneys billowing out dark thick smoke. It must have been the thick polluted air, or maybe we just left out intellect back in the educated city of Tomsk, but we decided to march around town with all our heavy gear certain the first hotel we walked up to would have a cheap room available. The haze in our minds kept us from being wise and doing what we’d found good at Tomsk which was to leave one person at the train station with all the gear while the others found accommodation. So after walking the entire city up and down, going to about six different places, we finally found one that was cheap and available. The theme of Krasnoyarsk was started which was for us to be tired and some what miserable.

The train station of Krasnoyarsk, photos of things like this are illegal in Russia

There are bears in the forest that we walked in, good thing I had my gun

Hotel Sever was the cheapest place we’d actually found in the whole of Russia which was great, even though it came without a shower and with central heating turned onto ‘roast-‘em-alive’. After sitting around for a while, we went out to a café called Ciao. Surprising as it is, this place was actually really good. Served the most delicious Vienna coffee I’ve ever tried I was well impressed. It came as no surprise though that this place was actually owned by some Germans, there is no way a Russian café could have such good service, with actual smiles and polite conversation from the waitress. Arriving back to the hotel it wasn’t long before the heat sent us off to a nightmare inducing sweaty night's sleep.

The rock formations in Stolby Nature Reserve

The next morning we were hoping for a fantastic sunny day, we got cold miserable grey turning to cold miserable rain with grey. But this didn’t stop us from our goal (which was basically all my desire) to go to the nature reserve and get in some of the good old great outdoors. If you are ever going to Stolby Nature Park, and have a lonely planet or any other guide book, do not trust its directions on how to get there. 7, 50a are meant to be the bus numbers which take you there, neither of these actually exist. Instead we found by walking half way there then jumping on a bus which can’t possibly go in the wrong direction that it was the number 30 that goes right past it. Only about 10 km from town is this lovely preserved piece of nature. It contains a number of large rock formations that make for good goals for hikes through the forested hills. Without any map (bad idea number 23432) we took off up a hill. Fortunately it was a small hill and after reaching the top we realized we’d just missed the main track, a big road, that goes into the center of the park. Not to worry, we scrambled down the hill side onto the road and took off to the rock formation we’d spotted from the top of the hill. The next few hours were spent walking along this road with a rock formation in sight that didn’t seem to get larger the closer we got to it. And as mentioned before the weather was turning to rain. So by about 4pm we’d reached somewhat near the bottom of the rocks (which were way more impressive from the first hill we’d climbed) completely soaked and freezing cold. Spotting the rocks through some trees we turned around and heading back to the bus which was fortunately all downhill so didn’t take too long. Arriving back in the grey city we went straight to the greatest café in Russia once again to warm up and dry off our clothes.

I get lost in the nature reserve

That was about it for Krasnoyarsk. There place had potential, but weather and poor success at finding a hotel marred its rating. This was somewhat unfortunate as it was my pick to go there, but there is some other things about the place worth a mention. The city is probably a great place to visit in summer, the nature park is right there just out of town, and the place is build around the Yenisei River which is very commanding and nice to look at. Also there is music pumped out of every lamp post along the main streets, Karla Marxa, Lenina etc, trying to lift the atmosphere of the city. This is actually rather annoying but good on them for trying. Along with the music are fairy lights in lots of the trees along the main streets so if you are festive you might quite like the place. Lastly a few sights feature on the 10 rbl note, so if you are cool you could try and take a photo with the note and sight in the same photo, I’m not that cool though…

The thousands of people who made the Trans-Siberian rail lie under it these days