Snowy Craca - the Southern Urals

Region: Urals

Reserve: Bashkirian Reserve Shulgan-Tash Reserve

South Urals is an ideal place for winter holidays. Winters are still snowy and frosty here and mountains stay covered with white blanket shining in the sun.
We invite you for a journey on sleigh or horses along forest and mountain trails. The rout of this exotic programs passes spurs of Kraka-Tau mountain range, Kaga and Agidel rivers flood plains.

Our guides

Itinerary:

Day 1	04.00 - 06.00 Meeting at Beloretsk railway station (local time). Arrival to Kaga village. Accommodation in Tengri refuge. Breakfast. Excursion around the village: local history and traditions, ironworks of Urals. Visit to Nikolskaya church, to the springs (1 km). Lunch. Learning to manage horses and to use harnes. Sleigh riding, snowtubing. Dinner. Banya.
Day 2	Breakfast. Preparations to start off. Journey on sleigh along the border of Bashkirsky reserve (20 km). Nature observation: spurs of Middle and South Kraka mountain range, pine, pine-birch and larch forests. Lunch (lunch-box). Accommodation at a forest refuge with stove heating. Dinner. Night in sleeping bags.
Day 3	Breakfast. Journey on sleigh (35 km) across mountain pass. Views of Bolshoi Shatak and Middle Kraka mountain ranges. Lunch (open-air piknic). Accommodation at a forest refuge, dinner cooked on stove. Night in sleeping bags.
Day 4	Breakfast. Return journey on sleigh to Tengri refuge. Lunch. Free time at the camp. Dinner. Tea ceremony: herbal infusions, Bashkiria honey, liqueurs. Banya.
Day 5	Breakfast. Journey by bus to Bashkirsky reserve. Visit to watch tower, Nature museum. Transfer to Shulgan-Tash reserve. Lunch at the reserve. Excursion to Kapova cave: paleoliph petroglyphs. Excursion on wild-honey farming. Dinner. Night at the reserve's guesthouse / Back to Kaga village, night at Tengri refuge.
Day 6	Breakfast. Free time. Lessons on horse-riding. Optional: horse-back riding, skiing and skating. Lunch. Village works: horses care, stove kindling, pelmeni (Russian ravioli) cooking. Dinner.
Day 7	Breakfast. Transfer to skiing center Abzakovo (100 km). Lunch (sandwiches, hot tea). Transfer to Beloretsk railway station at 21.00 local time.

Price:

Period 11.12.- 24.12.10;
22.01.- 10.02.11. 28.11.- 12.12.10;
10.01. -19.01.11;
14.02. - 26.03.11. 06.03.- 12.03.11. 06.01. - 11.01.11. 26.12.10.- 06.01.11.
Price, RUB per PAX10 260 11 400 12 400 13 400 14 900

INCLUDED:

accommodation at forest refuge, meals, horses and equipment rent (sleigh, sleeping bags, snowtubes, thermos), Russian-speaking guide, excursions, banya, insurance for 50 thousand rubles, transfers from / to Beloretsk railway station and during the program

NOT INCLUDED:

English-speaking guide, equipment rent in Abzakovo skiing center, ski-pass

Additional services, expenses:

- piknic with barbeque;
- horse riding;
- skis, skates and snowmobiles rent;
- transfer from / to Ufa / Magnitogorsk by microbus

Notes:

The tour starts at 04.00 - 06.00 a.m. at Beloretsk railway station.
There is a cook at the refuge in Kaga village. During the active part of the program tourists take part in cooking.
Accommodation at the refuge in Kaga:
Large village house, rooms with two-storey beds for 8 - 15 pax, cafeteria, living-room with a TV set, table tennis. Stove heating, electricity, bio WC.
Accommodation during the active part of the program:
Wooden houses with stove heating (rooms for 10-15 pax), candle light. WC outside.