Blue Lakes - one of the favorite places of tourists and local vacationers. The way is very easy to find. ...
As elsewhere in Kabardino - Balkaria, the places here are very picturesque. We stopped near the monument. … We were surprised by the stones of an even round shape and in the shape of pancakes. I wonder if nature came up with it or people did it?
The road from Nalchik took about forty minutes.
And now we are near the first or Lower Blue Lake. It is also called Tserik - Kel - "rotten lake" in translation from the Balkarian language.
We do not know how it earned its name, whether by the presence of hydrogen sulfide, or by a legend about a dragon that fell to its bottom. But we did not feel any smell, the water in it is beautiful, bright turquoise, clean and transparent. It changes its color a little, depending on the weather and time of day. We have visited Blue Lake not once. It does not freeze in winter and does not change in summer. The water in the Lower Lake is like a smooth mirror. The clouds are reflected in it so clearly that it is not always clear in photographs where the sky is and where its reflection is.
The water temperature is always 9.3 degrees. The lake is very deep - the data on its depth, according to various sources, differ, there are versions of 255 meters and 389 meters. And there is the most intriguing story - that no one has actually measured its depth.
In any case, with its small area, the depth is very impressive. In some places, you can see how the bottom abruptly, almost as a vertical wall, goes into the depths, the lake has the shape of a deep well.
A whole recreation park was set up around the lake. The owners of numerous cafes attract tourists as much as they can. Tables all over the shore.
Fairly large traditional local market. Handmade knitwear, sheepskin products, numerous souvenirs.
Everything is very clean, there are playgrounds. Many residents of neighboring towns and villages come here for a walk, sit in a cafe on the shore. Wedding corteges are arriving.
There is an international research center for deep-sea research, which is called "Blue Lake". Divers come here throughout the year. Both scientific research and diving for amateurs are carried out.
Last year we were lucky enough to get here just during the research. We ourselves are not divers, but we talked with the guys. We found out that there is practically no equipment for hire. But the instructors were highly praised for their professionalism.
There is a hotel of the same name nearby. You can book seats for several days. Even if you are not diving, there are many interesting places in these parts. Do you want to stay at this hotel? _You can book a room through the servicebooking.com
The hotel room fund consists of cozy rooms of "standard", "comfort" and "luxury" categories with all the necessary amenities. Vacationers' meals are served in the hotel's cafe, the menu of which includes dishes of European and national cuisine, including barbecue.
And we went higher - to the upper Blue Lakes. I must say that they are not blue at all! But the places are very picturesque, the road is good, and we always go up here with pleasure and take a walk.
The first Upper Lake, also called the Western Lake, is located five minutes from the Lower. You can walk. A road leads up to the left, a few sharp turns and we are there. There are not many people here at all.
Upper Lake video.
There is a large asphalt parking lot, a cafe on the beach. The place is very quiet and peaceful. The lake is round in shape, surrounded by forest. They say that there are many fish here, but we have never seen fishermen.
A few more minutes drive up and here it is the Second Upper or East Lake. For 200 rubles, you can ride here on catamarans. You can stop and dine in the gazebo on the shore. There are always few people there, just bewitching tranquility of nature.
In winter, the upper lakes freeze over. But, again, Kabardino-Balkaria is beautiful at any time of the year.
After walking in the fresh mountain air, we returned to the Lower Lake for a snack. The food is delicious. Traditional Caucasian cuisine, there is simply no other, and it is not necessary.
This time we ate a dish with the ominous name "zhaobaur". This is a lamb liver in a fat net, baked, of course, on the grill. And khychiny with cheese and herbs and meat. Herbal tea is a must. As usual, lunch costs about 300-400 rubles per person.
Upper Balkaria.
After walking along the Lakes, be sure to go to Upper Balkaria. It is not far at all, several kilometers along the Cherek Gorge.
The most vivid impressions are the road along the gorge. The height of the mountains is mesmerizing. Photos, of course, do not convey all our emotions.
The road itself is narrow, with sharp turns; you can stop only where there are pockets for cars. There is no asphalt in some places, but the road is well packed. You can drive a car without any problems.
One of the attractions of these places is the tunnel and the remains of the old road. Be sure to stay here. The road inside the cliff is also impressive.
Before the construction of the tunnel, the old road connected the mountain villages of Balkaria with the outside world. It's scary to even stand on a cliff, how did they ride it? The mountains in this place reach a height of about 600 meters. Approximately 300 meters cliff down and the same amount of sheer cliffs up. The views are stunning at any time of the year.
Upper Balkaria Caravan
Parking near the Caravan cafe. There is enough room for everyone. They also offer quad biking and horse riding.
This is the only place to eat. Prices, as elsewhere in Kabardino - Balkaria, are pleasing, lunch will cost you around 500 rubles per person. The cuisine, of course, is Caucasian. Be sure to try the lamb kebab. Delicious.
You can catch the trout yourself. You are offered to cook it right away. We did not start fishing, went to see the main attraction of these places - the old ruined city and the tower.
The remains of the settlement are located on the mountain. If you dream up, you can imagine how the dwellings of the Balkars looked like before.
Where to stay, spend the night?
The trip to Upper Balkaria took us a lot of time, despite the fact that we had planned a trip for a couple of hours, we skated until the evening. So if you are going to see these parts, plan a trip for at least a couple of days. And better for three days. You should take your time to enjoy the beauty of the Caucasus!
If you want to stay overnight. For the convenience of tourists, there is a guesthouse with two suites. The house is made of a timber frame, and its facade is decorated with stuffed local animals.
Since we were limited in time, the end point of our excursion was the village of Terskol. I wanted to see more attractions.
On the day when we visited the Chegem waterfalls, we also visited two interesting places... The Caucasus is full of secrets and wonders ...
We drive through Kabardino-Balkaria from the Chegem gorge to the Blue Lake.
There are five karst lakes in Kabardino-Balkaria, but we saw the largest and most beautiful - Blue Lake.
It looks much less lake Ritsa is in Abkhazia, but its maximum depth is 368 meters! It is the second deepest karst lake in the world.
The lake water is crystal clear and you can see the bottom at a distance of more than 20m. Water color is changeable. In clear weather, it is pale blue, and in other weather conditions it changes to azure. The water surface of the lake is calm, it seems, it froze, froze in its mysterious, enigmatic beauty.
Cherek-Kol - translated from the local means "rotten lake", as there is a slightly faint smell of hydrogen sulfide. Despite the crystal clear water, there are no fish in the lake, but only a small crustacean Gammarus lives, and there are some algae.
It's a pity, the foliage was still not very autumnal ... it would be more beautiful.
They do not swim in the lake, even in the hottest season the water temperature in it does not rise above 10 degrees, and usually it is 9 degrees.
Not a single river flows into it, the lake is fed only by underground springs... However, the water slowly flows out of the lake, forming a small pond nearby, and from there it enters the river Cherek.
Englishman Martin Robsonended up in intensive care after a perfect record dive to 209 meters in the Blue Lake in the mountains of Kabardino-Balkaria. It is reported by ITAR-TASS with reference to the diving center on the Blue Lake in the Cherek region of Kabardino-Balkaria.
"A record dive to a depth lasted for about nine hours. Robson safely left the depth, fixing a mark of 209 m. However, in the evening and at night he felt bad, he was hospitalized in the republican clinical hospital in Nalchik," said a representative of the diving center. www.newsru.com/sport/20jan2012/diver.html
3 January, when diving into the lake, a scuba diver died Andrey Rodionov, who was part of the group of the famous diver Martin Robson. The Russian diver became ill after he dived to a depth of 60 meters. When the diver was taken to the hospital, he was no longer breathing.
And below the Blue Lake, 16 km along the road, On the bank of the Cherek River, into which water flows from the Blue Lake, there is the Kabardian village of Aushiger with a thermal iodine-bromine spring ...
The village is famous for its hot springs that flow from a depth of about 4,000 meters. The springs were discovered in the 1950s during an oil prospecting expedition.
Sodium chloride water of low mineralization, weak alkaline reaction and high temperature - 50 degrees or more. Gas saturation mineral water allows you to refer it to nitrogen-carbonic waters, you can drink it.
We arrived late in the evening. A visit costs 100 rubles. Change in the dressing room and into the water!
There were already quite a lot of people in the large pool ... We talked with one girl. She has been coming here for about the tenth time - she looks like a serious problem, it didn't help right away ... She rents an apartment in the village and goes swimming every day. In total, you need to take 10 baths, and the duration of the session is 15-20 minutes.
Made more or less, but without invention. This is not Hungary with its famous resorts, or at least Poland ...
The pool is very shallow. At the bottom, stones covered with something slippery, it was unpleasant, I swam more ...
I wish we could make this pool in the form of a jacuzzi bath, or at least some part of it. And so we ONLY have a large-diameter pipe from which water flows. There are a lot of people in this place, everyone gets warm.
But it is impossible to come closer under the stream of water - local young guys, horsemen are standing in a semicircle, and gawking at the women ... They have already put down roots there, because I was in the water for 20 minutes, and they were not going to go out.
There are souvenir shops and mud shops around the pool, and there is also a place to eat.
It is possible to take a bath in the indoor pool for several people, but the payment is different. There you will also receive a massage.
A good place for health improvement. I would very much like to have such a source in my Crimea ... I would visit it.
(function (w, d, n, s, t) (w [n] \u003d w [n] ||; w [n] .push (function () (Ya.Context.AdvManager.render ((blockId: "RA -142249-1 ", renderTo:" yandex_rtb_R-A-142249-1 ", async: true));)); t \u003d d.getElementsByTagName (" script "); s \u003d d.createElement (" script "); s .type \u003d "text / javascript"; s.src \u003d "//an.yandex.ru/system/context.js"; s.async \u003d true; t.parentNode.insertBefore (s, t);)) (this , this.document, "yandexContextAsyncCallbacks");
I can't help but show the way to the Blue Lakes of the KBR. She is not only beautiful, but incredibly picturesque.
Blue Lakes are located 60 kilometers from Nalchik, the capital of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic. From Pyatigorsk to the Blue Lakes of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, about 160 kilometers.
Unfortunately, we did not see Nalchik, as we were driving along the edge of the city.
But they saw the triumphal arch of Nalchik, erected for the 450th anniversary of the union of Russia and Kabarda.
The road to the Blue Lakes in winter
Most tourists see this road in summer. In warm weather, the Blue Lakes are a place of real pilgrimage for lovers of the real beauty of the North Caucasus. And in winter there are not so many people here.
The road to the Blue Lakes is very beautiful
The Chereksky district greets us with fluffy trees.
Winter in Kabardino-Balkaria gave us a snowy tale
The road offers beautiful views of the snow-capped mountains.
In Kashkhatau, there is a large bowl on a pedestal.
Kashkhatau
In Balkar Kashkhatau means "Bald Mountain" - this really rises above the village.
Kashkhatau HPP on the Cherek River
The village of Babugent is surrounded on three sides. Here heights are up to 966 meters above sea level. There are wolves and bears in the surrounding forests.
Babugent
In Babugent, cows walk the roads with absolutely no fear of cars.
But motorists cautiously drive around the horned ones.
At every turn I wanted to get out of the car and take pictures of all this beauty. But it gets dark early in the mountains in winter, and we have big plans for this day: lakes, the Cherekskoe gorge and Upper Balkaria. Therefore, I took all the photos of the road on the move from the car.
The gorge behind Babugent
Kabardino-Balkaria is beautiful in winter
The road leads to the very shore of the famous Lower Blue Lake.
How to get to the Blue Lakes of Kabardino-Balkaria. They are located in the Cherek Gorge. Drive along the federal highway P217-Kavkaz to settlement Urvan. There will be a right turn (if driving from Nalchik). Then we go along the P-217 highway. From the turn to the Blue Lakes 39 kilometers.
Our video with the road to the Blue Lakes of the KBR and pleasant music lasts a little over two minutes.
Having looked at it, you can appreciate how beautiful the winter way there is.
Did you like itThe road to the Blue Lakes of Kabardino-Balkaria in winter?
© Galina Shefer, Roads of the World website, 2016. Copying of text and photos is prohibited. All rights reserved.
(function (w, d, n, s, t) (w [n] \u003d w [n] ||; w [n] .push (function () (Ya.Context.AdvManager.render ((blockId: "RA -142249-2 ", renderTo:" yandex_rtb_R-A-142249-2 ", async: true));)); t \u003d d.getElementsByTagName (" script "); s \u003d d.createElement (" script "); s .type \u003d "text / javascript"; s.src \u003d "//an.yandex.ru/system/context.js"; s.async \u003d true; t.parentNode.insertBefore (s, t);)) (this , this.document, "yandexContextAsyncCallbacks");The secret of the Blue Lake in Kabardino-Balkaria - one of the deepest in Europe - remained unsolved.
There are 8 million karst lakes in the world. The blue lake is the deepest. There is no exact data on the depth of the lake, and unmanned underwater vehicles were able to descend only to a depth of 365 meters. Scientists understand how it formed and what's down there.
The last time the Blue Lake was explored was in the 20s of the last century. It is known that its level can change several times a day. For what reason, scientists still do not know.
The blue lakes of Kabardino-Balkaria are located in the Cherek Gorge. There are 5 lakes in total. All of them have a karst nature of formation.
Lower Blue Lake is the most interesting and unique. It is located at 809 meters above sea level. It has a total water surface area of \u200b\u200bjust over two hectares, and its depth is 386 meters. But there are suggestions that the depth of the lake is much deeper, because no one has yet reached its bottom. In terms of its depth, this lake ranks third in Russia after Teletskoye in Altai and Baikal. The uniqueness of the lake also lies in the fact that not a single river flows into it, and about 70 million liters of water flows out per day.
Tserik-Kel - this is what the locals call this lake, which translated means like a rotten lake. There is a legend about the origin of this lake among the local population. Once on the territory of Kabardino-Balkaria lived the fearless hero Bataraz, who defeated the evil dragon in a duel. And when the dragon collapsed, a hole formed in the mountains, which was filled with water. The dragon to this day lies at the bottom of this lake and sheds tears, thereby filling the lake with water and an unpleasant smell.
Directly from the water's edge, sheer walls are visible going into the depths, and from what he sees one gets the impression that this is a huge well. Depending on the time of day and weather, the shades of the water are constantly changing and have different colors. The water temperature in the lake in winter and summer is the same +9.3, so the lake never freezes.
Upper Blue Lakes are 2 lakes, East and West. Also these lakes are called Communicating. A dam has been built between them, and water from the East Lake flows into the West. The East Lake is larger and deeper than the West. Fish are found in these lakes.
Secret Lake is located near the Upper Blue Lakes. And it is so named because it is located in a deep karst funnel, overgrown with a dense beech forest.
The dry lake, or it is also called missing, was formed in a large karst sinkhole with sheer walls reaching depths of up to 180 meters. Previously, this sinkhole was completely filled with water, but as a result of the shuddering of the mountains, the lake disappeared and remained only at the bottom of the canyon.
