Orda Cave Russia

[jvanostrand]

I was at the GUE house a few years ago with a team of Russians out of Moscow who were doing cave 2. That was apparently pretty much the only cave that was even reasonably accessible to them in Russia, and it wasn't exactly a trivial trip to get there. Its sounds very cool.

I don't want you to think Orda is remote. It's a 6 hour drive from Orda to Ekaterinburg, where the FIFA world cup was just held. It's 2 hours from a 1M population city and 40 minutes from Kugur (60K). The town of Orda (pop. 5K) is walking distance from the cave. The roads were modern with controlled access sections, and gas/cafe/rest stops along the way. For Moscovites it's a 3 hour plane ride and the same 2 hour drive as I had. One diver I met drove from Moscow (about 20 hours.)

I could buy single malt Scotch whiskey and imported beer at the local store. I never felt like I was very remote. Although to Moscow city folk it must seem like backwoods.

As for me, I had to take three planes from Canada to Perm, Russia and a 2 hour drive from there to the town of Orda and the cave site. So you're right about that, it wasn't trivial for me. For a New Yorker and maybe an Altantan it's probably a two flight trip. In the end it took about 5 hours more than my drive to FL.

The area does feel a little remote because there isn't much farmland (short growing season) so there are lots of forest and like other European countries people tend to live more densely in towns rather than country homes or ranches so it looks sparse.

Log cabin houses are common there, some look a century old, so there's definitely a northern feel to the town. The rooms for rent at the cave site are also log cabins, it's a nice touch.