Trek in Tuva and Sayan Mountains

Tuva and the Sayan Mountains have so far had few visitors and are touristically "unspoilt".The treks here are fully horse supported and have slightly exploratory character although we have now operated in the area since 1999.
Located in southern Siberia and on the northern edge of Mongolia Tuva extends from the coniferous forests of the Taiga in the north to the rolling Steppes in the south. Nowhere else in the world is so far from the sea; its capital Kyzyl has a monument proclaiming it to be the very center of Asia. Tuva is a country of great variety with almost every type of landscape: luxuriant meadows, green taiga, boundless steppes, medicinal springs, beautiful lakes, rushing mountain rivers fed in spring by melting snows, dusty semi-desert and snowy chains of mountains.
The high peaks and alpine lakes of the Sayan Mountains in southwest of Tuva give rise to the tributaries that merge to become the mighty Yenisei, one of Siberia's, major rivers flowing over 2000 miles north to the Arctic Ocean.
The mountain ranges that form its natural borders have long protected and isolated this region. Moreover, the Soviet Union kept Tuva closed to the outside world for nearly half a century, and most of this country is still remote and difficult to access. So far few foreigners have been to this remote land.

Predominantly, Tuvans are cattle-breeding nomads. For millennia they have tended to their herds of camels, reindeer, yaks, sheep and goats. Traditionally they live in yurts, felt covered circular tents, that are easily moved to different locations as they follow the seasonal pastures.

The Tuvan people have a mixed ethnic heritage reflecting the ancient powers that dominated this part of Central Asia. It is said that Tuva was the birth place of Ghenghis Khan and that Ghenghis Khan's mother was a Tuvan. It is the cradle of the Turkic language and its culture is strongly related to Mongolian. They have persisted in speaking their own language of Turkic origin even while the Mongols, the Manchu's and other groups ruled them. Even now after decades of domination by the Soviets they still remember their sacred traditions from their main religions: Buddhism and Shaman.

Shamanism was widely practised in Tuva until the forties and fifties when the Soviets enforced their campaign to eradicate religious practice. This brought a modern infrastructure of roads and systems of public education, medical care and communications to this remote part of Asia. Now after almost fifty years of communist rule interest in these ancient customs is growing.

We will meet in Moscow, then fly on to Kyzyl where we will spend a day to absorb some of these customs, to meet Lamas, Shaman doctors, to visit the National Museum and to see rock paintings and archaeological sites of ancient settlements and burial mounds outside Kyzyl.

From Kyzyl a good road leads to our trekking area in the western Sayan Mountains in the upper reaches of the Yenisei river. The area consists of series of narrow, sharp-topped ridges and of flat-topped, ridges between 2000 and 3000m high with steep slopes and strongly eroded upper sections.

The trek will pass through dense coniferous taiga of cedar, silver fir and pine, sparse larch forest and boulder fields on some of the plateaux. There are passes to cross, but not so steep as in the Fann, and rushing rivers to cross with the help of bridges, fords and perhaps even the horses. Most of the rivers lie in deep valleys with many rapids.