Adventure with a Purpose: Mt Elbrus Expedition our mountain foothills hotel and village #trek4choc #trek4kidzwithcancer

We all arrived at our hotel and met up in the lounge and it was really exciting to speak some South African and some Afrikaans. You can spot us a mile away.!!

For us South African's underground subways are a real adventure and they did not disappoint.

Trying to work out the underground metro system. Not easy as they don't write like we do!! Lol. The first time a little nerve racking but once you know which direction you think you need to be going in (well sort of) your confidence in not landing too far away from your destination increased!

We then caught the metro train to have our team dinner. The place is the Torro Grill and wow their food is incredible. you have to book in advance as they are always full. It reminded me of Fourways financial district where all the yuppies and business folk go to for their after work dinner and drinks. All the ladies are thin and dressed in Prada, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and the like, make up and hair perfect, most smoking. The men are in suits and well dressed. This is the hub of upmarket hustle and bustle. You will be forgiven if for a moment you forget that you are in Moscow but are in fact sitting down town New York's financial wall street district, or in the centre of London's hustle and bustle. A real eye opener and not what I was expecting at all. For us South Africans with our weak rand Russia was still cheap and 3000 rubles equaled to around R700.

Right next to the modern buildings stands this beautiful old church catching the last rays of the day

Read the funny burger eating instructions!!

We had a real mix in our team. 2 people who live in SA but are UK citizens, 1 South African who now lives in the UK, 2 from Cape Town, 3 from Johannesburg, 2 from Pretoria, and a couple from Australia. Only one person was climbing for the first time, for the rest this was an on going passion with several mountains under our belts. Some of the guys had climbed together before and had become great mates over the years. Amazing how we can live around the world but meet up on mountains forging some long lasting friendships. I was really excited as I could learn so much from this seasoned group and lean on their experience.

We left our hotel after breakfast and lugged all our luggage down as it was too early to ask for help. The people at the hotel desk are not very friendly or helpful. The Russian people in Moscow are actually not friendly at all very grumpy and don't seem to like any foreigners. When you find a helpful or friendly Russian its a real treat.

we had caught the bus through to one of the smaller airports- Mineralnye Vody (mineral waters) - then we flew in a small plane and when we landed everyone erupted in cheering and clapping of hands. Rather unnerving as this seem to be a common practice amongst the Russians each time we flew. Were they expecting the plane to crash - were the odd of surviving their local flights not very good. We never found out why they clapped. Mineralynye Vody Airport is a typical provincial airport found in Russia. Once you get off the plane you need to grab your luggage and head for the hills - but first haggle for a taxi. We had the driver from Pilgrim tours who was thankfully waiting for us so we were styling!! When you leave there are 2 check-ins after you have all been screened in the hall. Nothing resembling an organized queue. Once you are processed you are directed to weigh your luggage and pay for any extra kg. its an organized chaos and you may need to join another queue. You are never quiet sure what is happening as lots of shouting in Russian and no one really smiles. But the staff at the smaller airports are much friendlier than the large ones. The airport toilets are eastern style just to get us prepared for our mountain loo waiting for us. As you leave the airport you find several babushkas selling home-made sandwiches and bottled water. We even saw swords and daggers for sale!! Apparently the police in this town can be bribed easily to bribe to be prepared to pay and don't be surprised if you get pulled over in the middle of the day for speeding although you were not.

The country side started off fairly middle class looking then as we drove the 4 hours to our hotel the beautiful countryside exposed the more poorer Russians and poorer villages.

The town of Mineralnye Vody was occupied by Nazi Germany between 10 August 1942 to 11 January 1943 during WWII. The town servers as a gateway to Caucasian Mineral Waters. The airport connects the town with some Russian and international destinations. It is famous for its literary history and its health spas!!

It is really humid here and is classified as Humid continental or humid subtropical! The town owes its birth to the construction of the Rostov-Vladikavkaz Railway which was completed in 1875. Then in 1878 the town started to emerge and changed its name from Sultanovsky. during the Soviet period the name was changed to Mineralynye vody and the town's status was granted.

The mountains were getting a lot more rugged and higher and some has started to show evidence of glaciers.

The largest health resort in Russia, Caucasian Mineral Waters is not far and has more than 130 mineral springs.

Evidence of ancient volcano and seismic activities to create the beauty we see today!!

This was the fast moving water along the water ways/canals that we came accross. The water finds its origin all the way from the Cau

The water is not clear, it looks really milky, more than likely all the minerals but we never got close enough to see or were able to smell it either!!

Mt Elbrus is located close to Kabardino-Balkaria and is visible on a clear day

We start to see the contrast of green forests in the foreground and the glacier filled mountains in the background exposing spectacular and exciting hiking potential!!

This was the last town we passed and this resembled a petrol station

When we arrived 4 hours later in Terskol and it was somewhat cooler and our hotel was in the middle of a beautiful forest with a meadow filled with stunning flowers in the back. After our flights and long drive it was great to jump out and fill our lungs with fresh mountain air. The air is really clean here!

This was the view down the street as we arrived at our hotel. At the end of this road was the little village that we frequented offering good food and great "flea market" stalls to buy gifts for back home.

Our South African guide Heinrich giving out instructions!!

Happy Days!! we are here and getting ready to pick up our keys.

unpacking all our bags then carrying them up to our rooms. The beds are very comfortable, clean bathrooms with awesome hot showers. The entire hotel is clean and well maintained.

The tall pins surrounding the hotel were huge and really magnificent!!

This mountain seen through the tree tops which we later found out was called Seven mountain due to the no 7 shaped glacier - you will see this very clearly in other photos in the next blog when we climb up to Cheget.

After settling in I took out my camera to snap away at the wild flowers around us.

everything was so green!

We had a beautiful visitor that was more than willing to pose for the camera!!

I joined some of the group to go and investigate the little village in the valley below

as you walk down the main road find this road on your rights. Walk several metres along here and on the rights is a hall of sorts where you will find an ATM to draw money or alternatively you go into the hall turn right to find a forex counter where you can exchange your dollars for Repels.

This little village was amazing and a lot busier than I though it would be with both locals and tourists. Its really great to see the local community so well supported!

The boys in the hood who run the join where here in full force!!

There are a lot of little mini adventures like quad biking, horse riding, hiking and taking a trip on the ski chairs

We had lunch here it was really good food. There are many quaint little places to eat and have coffee and with the price exchange it was really reasonable

these two little pups kept us entertained on several occastions

Everything in the village is centred on Mt Elbrus and 5642m

in every little corner you find wild flowers and little meadows

This river was always running very strongly with water coming from the melting glaciers much higher up. It was freezing to the touch and very milky.

I wondered the story behind this car!!

Back inside the hotel I found these hose reels and all was well in my little fire heart!! They are really cool and different to our usual hose reels back home in South Africa.