GITEX is one of the most important IT exhibitions in the world. In terms of size, it’s probably still second behind Barcelona’s MWC, but not by much (while on its website, GITEX confidently claims it’s the biggest). And considering that beyond its original event in Dubai they’ve also launched satellite exhibitions in Berlin, Singapore, and Marrakesh, with plans also for Vietnam, Kenya, Kazakhstan, and who knows where else… well, all such action seems to be turning GITEXes into the world’s main IT-exhibition places-to-be. But let’s talk just about GITEX Dubai today…

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Another day, another spot of Altai whitewater rafting – but not on the captivating Katun!…

No, this year we took a detour – yes, as the title indicates, for a stretch of rad-rapids down the Chuya river.

After the Akkem Rush and the following relaxing day, we took a break from the Katun. Why? But of course – for the rapids! For there are some good ones on the lower reaches of the Chuya – like the “Turbine” and the “Horizon”. Check these beauts out: the Turbine ->

And the Horizon ->

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As I already mentioned, after conquering the wildest ride the Katun has to offer – the Akkem Rush (or “the Pipe”) – we stopped at Argut Camp, aka the Rafters’ Museum, at the junction between the (turquoise) Katun and the (milky) Argut:

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We finally made it to the main water “attraction” of the Katun: the Akkem Rush, aka the Akkem Breakthrough, aka the Pipe. Long ago, the Katun carved out a gorge about 12 kilometers long right here, squeezing the river down to just 30 meters wide. The result: all that water rushes forward with tremendous force…

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After shooting through the Katun’s Cheeks, we had another two weeks (!) of assorted rafting ahead – “assorted” as in: some lazy stretches, some bursts of action, and the occasional bout of nerve-wracking whitewater rapidding. But the five days after the Cheeks were all one thing: lazy. We even call this stretch the “lazy Katun“. Around 200 kilometers of gentle current, ripples and pools, and only a handful of small rapids. All in all – smooth sailing: the perfect setting for quiet reflection and meditation. Andf if the weather’s nice the mind totally resets.

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Hi folks!

Since my tales from the Altai side are many and lengthy, today – an interlude in-between two of them for a breath of fresh air. Not that you can get air (or river water) fresher than that in Altai, but, I digress…

And so, just the other day, I finally managed to visit the RKK Energiya Museum in the town small city of Korolyóv (often spelled Korolev) just outside Moscow. The museum is dedicated to both the company’s own story and the history of the Soviet and Russian rocket-and-space industry as a whole. My impressions? Absolutely amazing! And with all due respect to the Museum of Cosmonautics, this place is better!

This is the very spot where all these technologies were invented and assembled, and – for those that returned from space – brought back to again. That’s what makes this place truly unique: the spacecraft you see here were typically produced in just two or three identical “copies”. One would fly into space, while the others stayed on Earth. So even if these specific pieces never made it to orbit, everything here is original – not mock-ups.

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And here we are again – back in the Altai Mountains for our second day of rafting down the Katun.

While the first day was pretty calm (therefore an excellent warm-up day for the rafting-newbies among us), on this day we hit the Katun’s first real rapids. They’re called Shyokki – the “Cheeks” because… apparently the “river is squeezed here by sheer cliffs”. I never fully understood that, but whatever; the main thing – they’re rapids (several of them), and look good ) ->

These are still the very upper reaches of the Katun, but the river’s already quite fast-flowing (and still milky) ->

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So, why the Katun? Why do I raft down it so often?…

Well, it’s simply the most interesting river you can raft down as a non-professional – as long as you’re guided by experienced pros (and ours weren’t just pros – they were Russian rafting champions: how about that?!). But, what do I mean by “interesting”?…

First, the sheer force of the water here is unusual, the rapids and riffles are fantastic, and the flow-waves you encounter here sometimes reach what seemed to us like 2–3 meters high!

Second, the river is relatively safe. There are no whirlpools where you can get spun around forever and all the rapids are passable. There aren’t any dangerous rocks you could get pinned against forever, and no other surprises either. Well, unless you’re in the very upper reaches, where you might end up under a tree hanging over the water; and one of the lower rapids in high water becomes a pretty scary – and dangerous – obstacle. But we’ll get to that…

Third, it’s one of the longest rivers there is for truly active whitewater rafting: from the upper reaches of the Katun all the way down to its lowest rapids you can paddle unhindered (without having to portage around dams or weirs) for more than 500 kilometers. Five hundred-plus kilometers of fast-flowing water – woah! And the total drop in elevation is over a kilometer. Oh my gradient!

So, for me, the Katun is the most… luxurious river I’ve ever rafted. Some real experts even told us that the best rivers for commercial rafting are the Katun, the Zambezi (I can confirm that: it looked real fierce from above), the Colorado, and Chile’s BioBio.

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Having completed the hiking leg of our summer vacation, we really wanted to take a last good look at the mountain scenery from a bit higher up – like, for example, from a helicopter window. But since we couldn’t check out everything that way, we instead had our drone take flight for a look around from up there. And the results are great! But of course they were; drone-pilot-extraordinaire DZ was at the controls! ->

Buttes at the crests of ridges. By the way, you can roughly see the direction of our route here: along (or near) the ridges. And notice how the terrain is quite gentle here – very few steep ups and downs ->

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A walk through the Yarlu River valley is an absolute must if you ever find yourself at Lake Akkem. The valley is unique in two ways: first, there’s some kind of crazy underground magnetism/energy here (which I mentioned in yesterday’s post), which makes you feel just great. Second, the colors of the mountains here are sublimely beautiful – just fantastic:

The valley is approximately three kilometers (along the trail) from the Akkem River and Lake Akkem – here:

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