Hey, this article about Russia might be of interest: 16 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Russia You Must Visit, Lake Baikal Travel Guide - Top 10 Attractions, The Majesty of Franz Josef Land - Cruising Russia’s Arctic Frontier, https://www.56thparallel.com/chara-sands/. RZD has increased the list of destinations for which tickets can be purchased 120 days before the departure date. Luckily, I had a train ticket for the following day. I underestimated the power of the local sun: since our last visit, the snow had almost completely melted and uncovered the dunes. Their length is between 150 and 700 meters and its net is stretching for 2.5 km. Almost all the dunes were covered with a thin layer of snow and only the brown tops of the defrosted sands could be seen. Sochi, Russia, Plitvice Lakes National Park in Winter, Croatia. After our first day out, the weather turned bad. Ironically, this journey was made possible thanks to the situation with the coronavirus. The sun was just appearing from behind the horizon and it would start to warm only 3 hours after sunrise. Our panoramas and photos are widely used by top western companies. In summer, this place is a popular destination for tourists and hiking lovers. It was extremely uncomfortable to ride it: there was no suspension and the amortization of the rough pathway was ensured only by low-pressure wheels. The sun was coming out from behind the clouds but only for a short time. The travel logistics for this place was not that easy: even though I could take a flight to Chara from Chita or Irkutsk, it was cheaper to fly to Krasnoyarsk and then take a two-day train to Novaya Chara station which is only 20 km away from Chara village. The houses of local people are small and no one expects tourists to come here, so there was no accommodation for rent in this area. Basically, the Chara Sands remains the desert even in winter: the wind either sweeps away the snow or carries the new layers of sand on snow. Finally, the weather forecast promised several days of sun and one frosty morning we set off to watch the sunrise in the Chara Sands. Easy travel from St. Petersburg to Murmansk, St. Petersburg and Murmansk will be connected by double-decker trains and lowcoster  Pobeda Airlines. I was struck by the empty streets and the absence of people. The journey was postponed. It was good that the breakage was not crucial and we managed to return to our home afterwards. Ten Most Popular Restaurants in Moscow in 2018, The National Restaurant Award Wheretoeat named top-10 restaurants of the capital. Chara sands - One of the seven wonders of Trans Baikal territory. AirPano Travel Book app for iOS is one of the best apps of 2014 estimated by Apple. I had no choice but to agree... An old leaning house required significant maintenance, but it wasn't the main problem. A blink of an eye and I landed on my back. Even more striking is the fact that sands are gradually moving from southwest to northeast. Basically, the Chara Sands remains the desert even in winter: the wind either sweeps away the snow or carries the new layers of sand on snow. When I finally had some free time, I was sent to explore the area, see the sands surrounded by snowy landscapes and assess the conditions. The decision was made to reschedule our trip to Tokyo for the fall and I bought tickets on the next available train to Chara and took a night flight to Krasnoyarsk. And of course, I couldn't miss the opportunity to have a quick little peek at Lake Baikal during a long stop in Severobaikalsk. The sand massif is 10 km long and 3-4 km wide. The most powerful dunes are in the middle and appear like waves frozen in time. The exhibition is a large scale industry event with more than 1,000 exhibitors from all over the world. Local people measure the distances not by kilometres, but by hours of riding or walking. Chara Sands is about 6 km from Chara, the district capital. Making the effort to climb to the brink of one of these majestic waves will offer a wonderful view of sand dunes stretching all the way to the horizon. I was going to have a 2,000-km journey through the Trans-Siberian Railway and Baikal-Amur Mainline to the sound of the steady clickety-clack of steel wheels. And this ice is as slippery, as on Lake Baikal! Located in the Trans-Baikal region of Siberia, about 25 miles from the Kodar Glaciers these yellow sand dunes are hard to miss. The American travel magazine Conde Nast Traveler annually compiles a rating of the best hotels in the world. The 190 islands in the Franz Josef chain are Russian territory – although some 3,800 polar bears who reside on the islands may disagree. In case of a flight, I could make the same-day purchase of tickets. And it was the first day of the introduction of the self-isolation regime. But when it comes to a train journey, it turned out to be rather more complicated. Besides horse riding, the program includes performances on motorcycles, races, skating from the icy mountains, traditional entertainments. The windward face of the barkhan is flat (10-15°), the slip face is steep. Rehearsal of the Russian Navy parade 2017, Rosa Khutor Ski Resort. The desert stretches from the south-west to north-east following the direction of the dominant winds. The sky was overcast, sometimes it was snowing and I started thinking that maybe it's too early to come here for taking pictures of these landscapes. I launched the drone and got oriented with the help of a map. We spent several mornings here watching the sunrise. The area is accessible by plane or by train. On 28 March, I and Sergey were about to fly to Tokyo but just before leaving for the airport we decided to abandon this plan: there was a high risk of getting stuck in Japan or having a two-week quarantine after our return to Russia. It worked for the dog but it couldn't stop the cats that were used to sleep on a coach and perceived me as an invader. It was my first time in this city. The application includes monuments of serf architecture - the Pokrovskaya and Gremyachaya towers of the Pskov fortress, ten churches of the XII-XVII centuries (including the ensemble of the Snetogorsky monastery, the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Mirozhsky monastery and others), as well as civil buildings of the XVII century - stone chambers of the merchant Pogankin and Prikaznaya Chamber of the Kremlin. The mountains framing this unique landscape are covered with snow year round, creating a spectacular contrast. I rejected this option due to the unreasonably high price and inconvenience of the way needed to be done from Novaya Chara to the Chara Sands. This virtual tour has not been commented on yet. New Service in Crowne Plaza Moscow WTC Hotel, Crowne Plaza Moscow WTC became the first hotel in Russia to provide service of delivering baggage to the airport, Astoria Hotel in St. Petersburg: Reader’s Choice Awards nominee. Chara is the starting point for many trekking tours in the Kodar Mountains, home of the only glaciers in south-east Siberia. (The virtual tour dedicated to the lake and the nearby surroundings will be released soon). Also, a control panel of my drone that was usually attached to me during the flight and weighed 1.5 kg hit me in my face. The only difference was that instead of a boat we had a roaring off-roader. Over thousands of years ago, a giant glacier came down from the mountains bringing millions of tons of sand, mud and clay. And it was my first time travelling through this legendary way. The Chara Sands are laid out at the base of snow-capped mountains and are surrounded by ice fields and frozen blue lakes. "Russian Troika" Festival in Vologda coming soon. It was -28℃ outside so when we finally reached the needed point, we were frozen to the bone. Cat lovers, I beg you to understand: imagine that every single day you have only four hours of sleep and you have to spend at least half an hour to calm down these fluffy terrorists. The Sakukan is a mountain river with a significant height difference.