Boat trip

Every year, Sergey takes his employees on a boat trip. This year, he and Irina invited us to come along. Unfortunately, Alla was unable to come because her shoulder was bothering her, but I really enjoyed the chance to paddle a boat down a really beautiful river. Maybe I'll be able to show you some pictures of the river later, but I didn't get out my camera while I was in the boat because everything was wet. Irina had an underwater camera and she took photos yesterday, so I hope to get copies of them later.

We got off to an inauspicious start, as the bus got stuck in the mud at the launch point. We tried to free it ourselves with the troop transporter that brought the boats, but we were not successful. Instead we ate lunch.

After lunch, the guide told us that there would be no more drinking for the rest of the day because being on the river is serious stuff. Five minutes later, he poured a giant goblet of champagne and invited everybody to have a drink or to load extra bottles into their boats. This pretty much indicated the sobriety level of the day.

We had a great time floating and paddling down the Islich river. The territory is beautifully comprised of forests, florid meadows, and some dramatic cliffs.

After dinner, I had my first Russian banya. Even more unusual, the banya was outdoors in a tent. They built a bonfire in a pile of rocks, smothered the fire, and set up a big tent over the pile of hot rocks. Throwing water on the rocks created a very effective steam room. Then we flogged ourselves and each other with bundles of aromatic boughs and jumped into the river.

The boating and the scenery couldn't have been better. I'd love to do more trips like this, though if I organized my own it would be somewhat more sober. At least everybody was good-natured about my unwillingness to drink. They worried the first day about how they'd relate to me, but after a few toasts, campfire chats, and dancing into the night nobody seemed concerned about what I was or wasn't drinking. It was a special privilege for me to be at leisure with people doing and sharing what they like to do.

If you're curious about other details of this trip, I've posted more pictures here.

Alla asked me to add this picture of myself with Irina, the captain of our boat.