Many Rivers to Cross – Yenisey

Most people have no idea where the fifth-longest river on our planet is – and that’s because, for a very long time, it’s been hidden. With its source in Mongolia, before flowing 5,400 miles through Siberia and up to the Arctic Ocean, the Yenisey River existed for decades behind the Iron Curtain. So remote, and so undeveloped is this river that the only way to experience the upper section is to bring your own canoe or kayak and hire a local guide – there’s no tourism infrastructure at all. This means you need to be able to navigate by map and GPS, there’s no rescue service to come and get you if things go wrong, and you will need to eat like the local people; which means a limited and somewhat unusual diet. If you can cope with all this though, you’ll be able to explore one of the least touched landscapes in the world, starting with the tundra, then southward through various stages of the taiga forest and temperate montane forests, to the steppes and deserts of Tuva.

The Upper Yenisey is surrounded by the Sayan Mountains – the river is not exceptionally wide, which makes it odd that wildlife diversity on the two sides of the Yenisey is markedly different. For example, Great Snipe and Grey Crow have been seen only on the left and west bank, while White Wagtail and Rock Thrush inhabit the right bank. Nobody quite knows why this is yet, but it could be something to do with one side of the river – the west – becoming much colder in winter while the east bank stays warmer.

As you descend, especially when you near Siberia, shipping on the Yenisey becomes busier and there are finally forms of tourist transport available – all of it extremely cheap by Western standards. There are good ferry boats with four berth cabins, and sections of the river can also be covered in Soviet-built hydrofoils called rocketas which travel at around thirty knots but which, let me tell you, are one of the noisiest forms of river travel I’ve ever come across.

Yenisey photograph by Tengis, used under a creative commons attribution licence

 

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