Piotr Malczewski: We travelled by various means of transport, first by train to Krasnoyarsk and then to Abakan, where militia were waiting for us at the door of the carriage. Then by car – because there is no railway in Tuva – to Kyzyl, the capital, with about 110,000 inhabitants. Then through the taiga by helicopter, by foot, boat, Gaz 66 truck, motorboat, reindeer, 11-ton, six-wheel Ural trucks that transported fuel to the gold mine, and then we travelled along riverbeds and did some “airplane hitchhiking”. We followed in Ossendowski’s footsteps, having a copy of his original travelogue. We visited several gold mines, we got lost in the taiga, and we slept by an excavation to the accompaniment of howling wolves. Finally, we reached Kungurtuk and the hot springs in Arshan, described by Ossendowski in his diary.
Piotr Malczewski – traveller, photographer, author of books about Siberia and the Far East.
Read the text in Polish here: https://swiatsybiru.pl/pl/wedrowka-sladami-ferdynanda-ossendowskiego-po-pograniczu-rosyjsko-mongolskim-i-republice-tuwa-2/
