Halfway Point of "Baikal Mile – 2021" Grand Tour Successfully Passed

Фото: vk.com/album-175588756_263286433
Фото: vk.com/album-175588756_263286433

The participants of the expedition "Grand Tour ‘Baikal Mile – 2021’" have covered more than 7 thousand kilometers and will reach Baikal on March 5. The routes cover almost all of Russia, and the final destination will be the village of Maksimikha in Buryatia. This year, the race is held instead of the international speed festival "Baikal Mile ", which had to be canceled due to the difficult epidemiological situation. 14 teams  are competing in the Grand Tour.

It should be reminded that the teams of the “Baikal Mile” expedition set off on February 19 from the Headquarters of the Russian Geographical Society in St. Petersburg and on February 20 from Poklonnaya Gora in Moscow. Along the route, the travelers are performing special tasks of the Russian Geographical Society related to geography, history and nature conservation, and the tasks of the Ministry of Tourism of the Republic of Buryatia related to the culture of the region.

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Фото: предоставлено участниками экспедиции "Байкальская миля- 2021"
Фото: предоставлено участниками экспедиции "Байкальская миля- 2021"

A special place in the year of the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War is given to preserving the memory of the military and labor feats of our people. In this regard, the representatives of the Immortal Regiment of Russia movement also prepared thematic tasks for the Grand Tour. For example, the participants of the Grand Tour have been entrusted with an honorable and very important mission: to transfer capsules with soil raised from the bottom of the Baltic Sea where the Soviet submarines had been sunk, and a search report with historical documents  to relatives and friends of the hero sailors in Ufa, Orenburg and Novosibirsk.

One of the amazing and stunning points on the map of the expedition, which was visited as part of the task of the Russian Geographical Society, is the “Taganay” National Park of the South Urals.

For the teams this place was another discovery – picturesque mountain ranges with hiking trails leading to their tops, turbulent rivers and diverse fauna.

While fulfilling of the obligatory heroic-patriotic mission prepared by the Immortal Regiment of Russia, the BraapX team ended up in the Museum of the Machine-Building Plant in the city of Zlatoust. In addition to the unique architecture of the Victory Palace building and the amazing beauty of the interior created by the workers themselves, the original memoirs of the labor veteran of the Machine-Building Plant Abram Yakovlevich Paperman and the monument to the workers of the plant who died in the Great Patriotic War turned out to be interesting finds.

In Novosibirsk, the expedition members visited the SPECTR Design Bureau, where the hope of the Russian car industry is being revived – the “Marusya” supercar. The most cherished dreams of motorsport fans are embodied in its parts. While "Marusya" is still getting used to Novosibirsk, winter and temperatures below minus 30 degrees, the teams of the "Baikal Mile" expedition, overcoming road difficulties, are moving on to the designated goal. 

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Фото: предоставлено участниками экспедиции "Байкальская миля- 2021"
Фото: предоставлено участниками экспедиции "Байкальская миля- 2021"

“The rally is not like a family trip, where at any time you can stop for a meal in a cafe you like, choose an overnight stay with a view of the sea or the forest – this is not like this at all. The rally is always on a strict time limit. Discipline plays a decisive role in it. You can sit for half the night talking, but from the very early morning all team members should be ready to go on the road again. There is no ‘I'll take a shower and have a cup of coffee’. An hour to get ready, and everything that we didn't have time to finish, we finish on the move, " shared his impressions a member of the Fertoing team.

In the city of Kemerovo, the most daring spkbmax and f_motorsport buggy teams visited the Museum of Cosmonautics, taking a memorable photo with the flag of the Russian Geographical Society in honor of Alexei Leonov, who still inspires many to move towards new records. For reference: Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov was a member of the Russian Geographical Society and took an active part in many of its projects.

Finally, the teams got to the next independent assignment. At this stage, the teams went to the city with the symbolic name Divnogorsk (from the Russian word “divo” meaning “wonder”) to the Krasnoyarsk hydroelectric power station, the construction of which was the work of about 100 thousand people, including Komsomol detachments and former front-line soldiers. It was the construction of the hydroelectric power station that gave light and warmth to the Siberian Krai. In addition to contemplating the grandeur and monumentality of the views of the power plant itself, which dynamically fit in the surroundings of the not-so-long-ago wild nature, the St. Petersburg BraapX team managed to visit several preschool institutions. Among them were a kindergarten, a club for young engineers and a Bazeev Art Studio for children with disabilities, where the team members were entrusted with a special mission – to transfer the students’ drawings on the subject "My Baikal" to the administration of Maksimikha (the final destination of the expedition) to create an exhibition.

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Фото: предоставлено участниками экспедиции "Байкальская миля- 2021"
Фото: предоставлено участниками экспедиции "Байкальская миля- 2021"