Our junk ship has capacity of 197 passengers and 35 crew, but it is taking aboard much more. People seat and sleep in the corridors and public areas. Why? This is Siberia. They still did’t built the roads to many settlements alond the big rivers and the ship calling every 2 weeks is the only mean of transport for the people living so far from thebig cities. No wonder that on the decks of our “old lady” there are piles of boxes, bars of steel, barrels, furnitures and baskets of potatoes.We are sailing days and nights the wide river. The coast ir rather flat and forrested. Weather is very changeable. In the afternoon we reached the little town of Khanty- Mansijsk – the capital city of okrug- like a province. We had half an hour to go ashore and to explore the town which is located just steps from the nice river terminal. There is piramide-like monument of the Siberians explorers on the hill and nice orthodox church at the main square. UnfUnfortunately it was raining. But I took few pictures anyway. 1,5 h sailing down the river we reached the conjunction of Irtysh and much wider Ob River…
