After a long lie in on a rock solid bed we discovered there was no electricity in the village. The power cut had happened in the night, which must have been why the light outside our window had switched off around midnight and we’d been able to fall asleep so easily. There was no water to be had but soon some had been collected from the river.
Not having any plans we wandered around finding old buildings and potato patches, a shipping container shack and a sausage dog being walked that crouched and rolled in such submission when it met a lady it knew. Somewhere else a dog got shouted at for eating a toy car. The people of Bolshie Koty seemed to enjoy shouting. In a wreck of a ship on the shoreline a boy wearing a pirate hat and holding a toy gun sat on the rails and stared out to the lake. We sat on a dead tree and tried unsuccessfully to photograph the barn swallows, creeping into the cowshed to photograph the nest. A man rounded up some of his horses and they all followed each other up the track. We decided to walk into the wood and headed up the river. There was a spot with so many butterflies that you might have been mistaken for thinking it was raining. There were fungi galore and huge ants were busy making massive mounds, as well as walking up our trousers!
Back on the beach we looked at the lake and I paddled in the freezing cold water (while Jenny watched as she has a cold), but most significantly we saw a real live Nerpa seal. An endemic species and not commonly sighted from Bolshie Koty. This meant we had had a very successful day. The stray dog must have known howling like a wolf as we walked back to the hostel, where we then saw a chipmunk and Jenny a ground squirrel.
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