And thus it begins... Stacking backpacks into storage for the day in Moscow, some of us could barely walk with the load :/

S demonstrating how to handle salted fish to the baffled Finns. On train from Moscow to Barnaul.

The wide steppes of Russia. There were immense stands of dead birch along the railway. The land was marshy, maybe intentionally so? But why would anybody want to kill and stand-dry whole forests?

Flatlands... Somewhere after the Ural range IIRC.

Railway yard gymnastics. Sitting two and half days in the train, you start to want to move... With any excuse!

Alread on the way to Altai. Stopping somewhere before Biisk, it's yet another of the ubiquitous sashlik stands.

A rare hill on the way to Altai. The landscape was dead flat almost up to Gorno-Altaysk.

Wildflowers of Altai #1. ?

Yet another stop.

Somewhere just before Biisk.

The land of Altai was populated by more hawks and eagles I've had ever seen!

A stop somewhere already in Altai... Green hills already rising up to infinity in all directions!

Taiga forest inside the clouds! At a mountain pass somewhere before Ongudai.

Local custom is to leave shreds of your clothes at places like mountain passes and spring to ensure safe journey and return to that place.

Just. Magical.

Some local people posing for tourists in traditional clothes. (this place was along the M52, the main road to Mongolia, so many cars stopped at this pass...)