Shelter of forest "shamans"

Hi!

After Kivach waterfall and paleovolcano, we did not make any more stops, but went to the remote taiga. Our road lay to the mountain of VottoVaara. This is a sacred place of an ancient civilization. I was surprised that there was one place along the way where we stopped and it looked more like some kind of religious center.

Even, not quite the center in the usual sense. This place was like a temporary shelter, a shelter for travelers. It was deserted (because it's somewhere in the taiga), but there was an equipped place for a campfire and eating, there was a small house built in the style of an Indian wigwam.

A multicolored flag with intricate patterns hung on a pine tree. Our instructors said it was a mandala. And this is the place where fans of various mystical teachings usually stop on their way to VottoVaara.

As a joke, they called these people "shamans" among themselves. Although, maybe these people themselves considered themselves to be these shamans. But I think it's just some romantics who believe in miracles and don't really analyze the world around them.

A forest river flowed nearby. The water in it was clear, but it was better not to drink it. In general, there are a lot of reservoirs in Karelia, there are many small and large lakes and many streams and rivers.

We were amazed by the silence surrounding us. We were gradually weaning ourselves off the hustle and bustle of cities. There were a lot of mushrooms around. We collected a huge bag of these mushrooms, and the next day we had fried mushrooms for lunch and dinner.

WE rested from the shaking of the car for about half an hour in this place. We had a snack with dry rations, there was no time to make a fire. The day was in full swing, and we had to drive more than one hundred kilometers along forest roads to our destination.

By the way, these roads are a very interesting topic of conversation. They're all rocky. Although there are taiga, pines and fir trees all around. Very often, roads are cut by rivers, without bridges. I did not believe that we would be able to wade through them and not get stuck in the mud. And there is simply no dirt there. The bottom is solid. It is much more dangerous to puncture a car wheel on sharp stones.

We got into our minibus and continued our journey along the bumpy, narrow and winding forest roads. There was a mountain ahead of us!