September 29, 2026
Trekking – done; now for Buryatian rafting fun!
My tales about our 10-day hike along the Karavshin mountain trail have all been shipped, but, as they say, “not so fast”… For next up was part-two of our action-packed summer vacation, which saw us teleported northeast from Kyrgyzstan’s Pamir-Alay to the Sayan Mountains. Plan: rafting down the Oka River. Result (spoiler): it was brief but unforgettable!…
Technical details will come later; for now, as per tradition, teaser pics to give a sense of the scale involved, to roughly map out the directions, and to give you an idea of what the scenery looks like [in good weather] // and that’s important.
Surprise! The banks along the river are all made of volcanic rock! Brief history: an old mountain valley was flooded by lava flows from a newly emerged volcano: the lava flowed down the mountain valleys and then solidified, and later water and nature carved out new riverbeds – carving out canyons like these. The views left and right are just mind-blowing!
The Oka River at first carried us along at 10–14km/h – that’s how fast the current runs in its upper reaches.
Oh, the views!
Waterfalls cascading down the same volcanic cliffs:
Of course, we headed on over – and under!
This is where our CTO, A.I., went and… left his sunglasses behind:
This all went on in the mostly Buddhist Republic of Buryatia. Hence the mantra Om mani padme hum appears on mountains ->
The campsites along the Oka are pretty decent, but I I’ll save the details for a little later…
Drone pics of the Sayan landscapes:
A rushing tributary – where it meets the Oka there’s a good campsite:
The river’s main channel:
Views from the water:
Lunch break :)
And “back to work” again :)
But we didn’t come here just for the contemplative views; we came for something else that’s wholly wholesome for hardworking office plankton in need of some proper recuperative time-off: adrenaline! – the kind that courses through the veins from activities like this! ->
More on both contemplation and adrenalization in the Sayans coming right up!…
