The Journey to Siberia (Прогулка в Сибирь)

[Applause] [Music] deep in the taiga where humans are a rare sight lies the beginning of Siberia's giant river the Lenna gathering strength with each bend and finally flows into the Arctic Ocean 4000 kilometers away from its source in places it cuts a 30 kilometer wide expanse of water into the Eurasian continent the taiga surrounding Elena's source is like an ocean endless and measurable and dangerous but it is habitat to many forest dwellers who go about their lives and call it home the tiger also opens itself up to people who know and respect the laws of the force our film is about the mysterious beginnings of the Lenin River its rapids and dark ancient woods [Music] our journey to the source of the Lenna begins in Irkutsk a town also referred to as the capital of Siberia as the crow flies it's over 4000 kilometers from Moscow almost 6,000 from Berlin but twice closer to Tokyo a 200 kilometer drive from Irkutsk takes us to the BRR yoga taiga village [Music] better yoga is an ordinary Siberian village like thousands of its kind where village streets are as deep as they are wide and hospitality is ingrained into local culture [Music] the villagers insist that their yoga is the last village of milena with permanent inhabitants as we've seen quite a bit of the world on our filming expeditions we don't attach too much importance to the truth walls of this statement but choose this village as the starting point of our filming journey the gentleman with the blue backpack is Vasily and carrying the red sea ho the cameramen working behind the scenes or [Music] these forests used to be home to the tunku's ik people now called a banks they have become scattered in the Siberian taiga and it's quite possible that even gennady's ancestors might have been part tun guzik this leads us to believe that we could not have found a better guide [Music] as of today we trust ourselves to gennady's care we are embarking on a 300 kilometer taiga journey and it's not going to be easy that much we know the river is the Tigers artery and often the only transportation route much like a road Gennady has the typical local transportation a spacious boat with great capacity the flat bottom allows it to pass through stretches of shallow water and to be dragged over sand banks when needed [Music] to the east America upwards as the load is same the lana runs through mountains the flow is rapid and the going gets excited we know that the last segment of our journey will be by land [Music] sandbanks rocks trees fallen into water a million reasons for an accident to happen but nothing intimidates conadi [Music] by nightfall we reach chanter village where lovely log cabins contradict the notion of the deserted wild tiger this village is like thousands of its kind in the rest of the world people have left for the cities in search of work and houses slowly wither away Mihai 'glitch the only permanent inhabitant of the village seems to hang in there spending the greater part of the year all alone his grandchild who visits in the summer helps him keep in touch with the world beyond from which mileage has secluded himself by choice [Music] passing chancho village we reach the Baikal Lenin Nature Reserve it's closed to the public but our team has been given a permit [Music] [Music] this is what the forest looks like in a Nature Reserve where two to three generations of Rangers have foregone improvement cutting the trees fall into the river forming impenetrable mazes such piles are called lumps [Music] driftwood and branches sometimes block the river completely Gennady tells us about a legendary pile on Malena persisting some ten years old at quarter Lensky lung each year when summer begins and the water recedes after spring floods foresters come and cut a narrow tunnel through the maze so that boats may pass nevertheless it's still easy to break a prop or even a bone while balancing on the piles [Music] [Music] [Music] mazes like these are the favorite habitat of otters and American minks though the mink is not a native species it was introduced as a pioneer population after the Second World War now it occupies the entire river having slowly chased down Sables and otters a similar thing has happened in Estonia where the American mink has essentially driven out the local European mink aggressive as it is it doesn't mind posing for our camera [Music] the local people also accused the American mink of destroying the Lana's already diminished fish stock [Music] [Music] [Music] Elena's headwaters formed several shallow branches so we have no choice but to drag the boat over sand banks again and again [Music] finally give up and climb to dry land we must wait here for the horsemen [Music] who knows what landmarks kannadi and the horsemen used to arrange the meeting the important thing is that the horses are now here and will carry our packs just as in ancient journeys and expeditions a long time ago the native event people also kept reindeer and used them as pack animals the event trails exist no more [Music] [Music] we are now in the true ancient tiger and can say with a touch of poetic license that no tree here has been felled by human hand so we find in the Rousseau n words of sour an 18th century traveller a wild romantic solitude that nourishes the soul on the other hand getting lost here would not be a good idea [Music] our Gennady resembles a native of rainforests going before us and swinging his axe to make way for the horses along the way Gennady strikes fresh ax marks and refreshes old ones on tree trunks this is important for future passages and for marking our return trail the marshy areas in the taiga are extremely difficult to pass on foot not to mention with horses this time we make the risky decision to go straight through the marsh [Music] preparing food is easy in the taiga as there is an abundance of firewood at the same time utmost care must be taken to prevent accidental sparks summertime forest fires are a regular menace in the baikal and a nature reserve during heavy rain or slight frost a fire helps pass the night under a tree one must prepare for all circumstances when on the taiga [Music] [Music] our Horseman's hunting husky is woken up a sable these old forest fire sites are a favorite hunting ground all disabled a crafty predator no chance spotting it without a husky the Husky and the hunter are truly an inseparable unit on the tiger [Music] oh sorry Roberto and that cable break oh god watch over you it also can also get on the locker Williams later - was more in a stretcher but today marks the entrance of our star the brown bear although it's giving only preliminary warnings for the time being Gennady continues to find its feces on the ground and territorial markings on trees [Music] a professional hunter covers daily about 15 to 20 kilometers of ground on the taiga this is the reference distance for building hunting cabins sometimes called winter cabins though they're also used in summer we take shelter here as well we find a stove sleeping bunks and dishes food should not be left in the cabin mice quickly eat it and if a bear should find the scent chaos would ensue food supplies and winter clothes are kept in a pillar storehouse [Music] we keep going deeper into the taiga and we find more traces of human presence poles four conic Hut's placed against tree trunks wooden household objects hunting traps could these be remnants of the travels of the events as they pass through these areas the former Soviet regime's attempts to force a sedentary life on nomadic Nations scattered the events into solitary taiga villages [Music] little by little we move upwards into the mountains the taiga recedes to the mountains slope giving way to low scrub which covers the entire riverbank a rather unpleasant place for travelers moose seem to rather like the scrub as a foraging ground shed antlers hoofprints as we know moose and deer also attract bear [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] we've had plenty of time and the distances have grown smaller accordingly we are almost at the headwaters of the Lena the horses are unable to keep traction on the slippery stone plates and so we send our able helpers back the Husky returns as well one more day of hiking we ascend above the treeline and find ourselves in the world of high mountains the Lenna has dwindled into a small Creek and can be crossed anywhere we like the river source should be somewhere close [Music] this lovely small mountain lake is where the giant Lenna is born we cannot resist the temptation to quote Robert Peary the first traveler to reach the North Pole on foot is this it [Music] [Music] on the other side of this mountain range lies the enormous Lake Baikal which the locals refer to as the sea we're not going there this time we stay in the taiga [Music] we settle into a hunting cabin and make the customary preparations while we're not going to spend the entire winter here more than a month spent in the taiga on our own is still an exciting prospect and then we send home our guide Gennady to meet him again in early winter we don't consider ourselves confused romantics who may or may not pull this off this is not survival training we are experienced filmmakers and months-long expeditions in various corners of the world are part of our everyday routine our aim is to film the life of the true master of these forests the brown bear [Music] every morning we leave behind our hunting cabin and step into the taiga we carry a camera instead of guns our trail passes under a magical forest crown consisting of Siberian pines many more than 600 years old [Music] the Siberian pine is the only nut bearing tree in the Siberian taiga it's tasty and nutritious nuts are the main food for all members of the forest fauna and for people as well Nature has arranged it so that Siberian pine seeds are not able to spread with the wind unlike pine fir or large seeds therefore they need help with me production this hay doggin is led by a bird by the name of Nutcracker the nutcracker prepares food stores dispersing the pine seeds in the taiga and hiding them in small portions experts claim that a nutcracker can make up to 30,000 personal stores each year can you believe this workaholic [Music] [Music] unfortunately this doesn't mean that the birds later find all the thousands of stores and hidden nuts intact some of the Forgotten seeds take root in the spring while many stores are looted by chipmunks [Music] the chipmunks living in this circular mountain range are particularly crafty at using the services of nutcrackers they pry the Nutcracker stores open with impeccable technique and carry the loot to their dens in addition they picked the pinecones dropped under trees by nutcrackers and empty them of nuts but this requires constantly venturing outside their territories pinecones lying on the ground are usually already empty the birds leave only the bad nuts inside it remains a mystery for us how they tell the good from the bad science doesn't explain it all as an old Siberian hunter once said [Music] these striped tricksters weigh so little that they effortlessly climb trees if there aren't enough nuts on the ground the Chipmunks have their own store economy they dig caches under the roots of old pines and sometimes said to contain up to three kilos of nuts and then a bear comes along in search of the Chipmunks nuts stores this is how catering works in the taiga the effects have their own legend about the stripes on chipmunk backs a long long time ago a chipmunk and a bear argued about who was quicker and more agile the argument heated up then the angry bear crazed the chipmunk with his paw hence the claw marks and the Chipmunks back but the chipmunk ended up winning the argument and taking off ever since then the bear is always trying to drag the chipmunk out of its den to resume the argument [Music] the Bears are supposed to come to this valley in the autumn to fatten themselves with the nuts stored by the chipmunks obviously they're not yet here today all we see in the forest are last year's ransacked chipmunk dens meeting a bear in the taiga requires extraordinary luck and chance the vast expanses an uncharted territory add to the trickiness or more precisely the hopelessness of the situation we're at a loss and finally decide to craft a lure for the bear the way hunters have always done near a chipmunk den we place in the ground some pinecones canned meat condensed milk and other food leftovers topped off with a stinking rotten egg mixture this stench should radiate over several kilometers but there are no takers only our old friends the Nutcracker and chipmunk posed for the camera it seems that bears have not yet arrived the first cold September night closed the forest with a new suit only the pines keep their conservative look and do not change color [Music] [Music] the autumn beauty comes and goes quickly in the taiga one morning we wake up to a frozen silent world the newly fallen snow should make us happy as it shouldn't be difficult to spot bear tracks on fresh snow the first snow usually scares the cautious animals and they prefer to stay hidden we know this and lay low as well the first animals appear only a couple of days later but no bear the snow keeps falling and the mountains are covered with a thick white blanket what's a man to do without skis in the taiga we no longer go on long outings a true hunting story needs to have a bit of luck when we return from the last attempt fresh bear tracks await us it's motive civil which knocks you to start me at Nashua boom [Music] [Music] the brown bear ursus arctos for some the king of the taiga for native peoples the son of the supreme god tooru it's now our turn to say is this it Gennady is back and he's accompanied by horses we start on our way we know there will probably be no next time we're not likely to find ourselves back in this hunting cabin [Music] those coming after us will find several weeks worth of food supplies and a thoroughly redecorated hunting cabin we lead the source of the lemon but not the venom herself [Music] 4000 kilometers to the north before water gathered from mountaintops is ceremonially handed over to the ocean the lana forms a delta of a hundred and fifty branches each spring Alayna Delta with its rough nature and climate attracts millions of birds and animals but what effect has it on people we head to the Arctic Ocean in search of an answer [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Василий Сарана

Views: 671,546

Rating: 4.7381115 out of 5

Keywords: Wildlife, Siberia, Baikal, Bear, Siberian Pine, Lena river, Taiga, Siberian Village, Baikalo-Lenskiy Nature Reserve, Happy people

Id: -A1Hc2VmO6M

Length: 45min 27sec (2727 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 26 2018