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Isn’t it a fantastic feeling when you can go out your house and see a beautiful mountain range? If you are staying in Primorye, this might be the case. A small village called Anisimovka in Shkotovo area offers access to mountains of southern Sikhote-Alin range. The village was established in 1901 as a chinese settlement named Kangauz (Warm valley). Aside from trekking on the famous mountains Pidan and Falaza, you can spend an evening enjoying the sunset on a small hill of the Vorobey (Sparrow) range nearby the village, which is just 10 minutes away by car. The route is quite easy and doesn’t take much time. After having crossed the railway and climbed up the hill you get a view of the whole valley. The smells and the sounds will soothe you away from your everyday problems. Wild peony and lily flowers, small rabbit holes and birds flying around create unique atmosphere of a wild meadow. Breathe it in and enjoy the evening with a good company of friends.

Autumn begins much earlier in the Hills than in the city or on the islands. At the end of September it’s already chilly in the shade of the trees, and in the morning the tent is covered with frost. But the air is more transparent – you can see all the cities in the district from a big mountain, and at night on the horizon you can see the light dots of the Russian bridge. And here we go again together in the night forest, shivering from the sound of breaking branches. The storm just passed and we had to sit under the roof until midnight, waiting for the rainfall to stop. There’s a full moon in the sky and the storm cloud has moved to the horizon and is still blazing. It’s light and you can walk without a flashlight. Water drops fall from trees on the head and neck, roll down under the clothing and evaporate from the body, overheated by walking . The water evaporates from the road too – the mist is not carried away by the wind and is spreading low over the ground, recalling the atmosphere of the movie “The Headless Horseman.” We’ve been making […]

Epiphany is one of the main Christian holidays. The holiday begins in the night of January 18 when all Orthodox Christians celebrate the Epiphany Eve. In Russian orthodox christians the Epiphany Day is associated with sanctifying the water, including natural reservoirs. The sanctified water is believed to heal and wash away any sins, as well as dark spirits, walking around on the earth surface during Yule festival. Epiphany bathing is performed as a sacred act of cleaning and renewal. As the holiday is associated with severe colds, all natural reservoirs are generally frozen by that time of the year. Therefore, cross-shaped holes are cut in the ice. These are named Jordan – after the river between Israel and Jordan. The bathing should be performed at night, when the outside temperature is the coldest – sometimes up to 30 degrees Celsius below zero, or even colder in the northern regions of Russia. This year’s Epiphany eve turned out to bring really nasty weather to Vladivostok: the speed of the wind reached more than 30 meters per second, and the snow didn’t stop for two days. Nevertheless, many people still came to challenge their health by diving into ice-cold water. It should […]