Sunny big cats. Bolshie Koty – gold placers of Baikal

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Big Cats

Big Cats- a village in the Irkutsk district of the Irkutsk region on the western shore of the lake. It is part of the Listvyansk municipality.

Bolshiye Koty is located 20 km from the village of Listvyanka. The village, located in the middle of the taiga, is very popular with tourists coming here from all over the world. In summer get to Big Cats either by boat or on foot. There are no roads leading to the village. In winter, after it freezes, the ice along the coast is laid highway. In the off-season, the residents of Bolshie Koty remain practically cut off from the world.

A biological station of the Irkutsk State University operates here, a monument to the famous Baikal expert prof. MM. Kozhov. There is a regular connection by boat with Irkutsk and Listvyanka. The area is attractive with the Skriper cliff, a picturesque path along the shore a, the Two Brothers rock, and abandoned gold mining sites. There is a hotel with 70 beds, a research base of the Limnological Institute of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which receives tourists in the summer (about 30 beds), about 50 tourists can be accommodated local residents in private houses. 3 km from the village picturesque valley Cherny stream, 200 meters from the lake, there is a recreation center for 16 people.

Appendix 1. Gold mining in Koty

The name of the Baikal village Bolshie Koty attracts, if we consider it from the point of view of two languages. In the Evenki interpretation, the word "koto" means "knife". A possible Russian interpretation is associated with the concept of cats - a kind of warm footwear used in cold wet weather in marshy places, usually by prospectors of gold mines, but not only by them. As J. Kennan noted in the book “Siberia and Exile”, “the government, probably out of economy, in summer and autumn gives prisoners low shoes instead of boots - cats, which are ordered in bulk from the cheapest material to the contractor” (see 168). The fame of the village is associated primarily with old and not so old realities.

Firstly, in the valley of the rivers Big and Small Koty, Bolshaya and Malaya Sennaya, in the territories near Listvyanka and the village of Nikola, as well as at shallow depths of the Baikal coast in these places, somewhere from the middle of the 19th until the 60s 20 th century, official and unofficial gold mining was carried out. For this, dredges were used, excavation of gold-bearing soil from the water with large buckets, panning for gold with trays, etc. In all these places, one can still see stone dumps, overgrown canals, grooves and large pits, and not far from the village on a small lake, a wooden dredge “lives out” its age. In connection with the most difficult conditions of gold mining before the revolution, this hard work was mainly done by convicts. Many of them and others died in these places. Among the miners there was an unwritten law: collapsed mines and underground passages, who buried people under their vaults, never develop again. When they stumbled upon corpses littered with earth, they immediately abandoned everything and left the development site. It was considered a great sin to disturb the dead. In addition to information about the gold-bearing places in the region, it is worth adding the opinion of Academician V. A. Obruchev, who at the end of the 19th century discovered gold-bearing sands in the basins of the Baikal rivers Sarma, Ilikta, Kugan. But the exploration of deposits at that time turned out to be unprofitable, and the question of their development remained open.

Secondly, it was in Bolshiye Koty that one of the first two research stations on e was opened at Irkutsk University in 1925 (the second one was formed in Maritui). According to other sources, the station was opened by V.I. Dorogostaisky in 1917. In this scientific monastery lived, worked and buried the famous Baikal historian Professor M.M. There is also an aquarium of the Institute of Biology of ISU.

Karnyshev A.D. is mysterious, many-sided and multilingual. 3rd ed. 2010

Appendix 2 Rest in the village of Bolshiye Koty

If you want to relax on e, but you don’t want to travel for a long time along a dusty road or in an electric train, you don’t want to carry tents, sleeping bags and blankets and buy kilograms of food, then Big Cats are what you need. For example, on Thursday and you wanted to go for the weekend to. You thought about Listvyanka, about sk, the Small Sea, Olkhon. The last two are far and long rides. The first two are already boring. How to be? Go to the village of Bolshie Koty!

Big Cats. Where is it?

Bolshiye Koty is a small village on the coast and surrounded by mountains, 18 km north of Listvyanka. You can only get there by water. Or on foot, but that doesn't suit us.

On the river steamer Voskhod from the pier "Rocket" in Solnechny to the destination is only 1.5 hours by water.

Where to live?

It is best to go to Bolshie Koty on Friday, and back on Sunday. On weekends, transport runs three times a day. By the way, if there are no tickets, the captain of the ship can always be persuaded to leave standing for the same money. And in the boat you can perch on the wide ledges between the two salons or on the bag.

There are many houses in the village in which rooms for a different number of places are rented. In the room - beds, bedside tables, chairs, table, socket. Almost everywhere on the second floors - a balcony overlooking. There are hotels.

It is not necessary to bring food with you. There are kiosks and even mini-cafes in Koty. Almost every house sells hot smoked omul.

What kind of cats?

What the name of the village means, no one knows for sure. Someone will think that we are talking about big cats living here, but this is not so. There is an assumption that the village took its name from the river on which it was founded and on which gold miners washed. Koty is a word of Evenki origin. Koto - literally "palm tree", "knife".

Some believe that the name of the river comes from shoes koty (emphasis on the first syllable) - warm shoes, usually used by prospectors of gold mines in cold wet weather in marshy places.

Entertainment

There is little entertainment in Bolshiye Koty. You can walk along ecological path bsky national park. The trail is easy to find. If you look at, then it will be on the left, there are signs on the fences.

The path goes through the mountains. On the one hand there will high mountains and rocks, on the other - a steep cliff and a lake. You can walk along the path indefinitely.

There is also the Museum of Baikal Studies and the Aquarium of the Institute of Biology in Bolshiye Koty. The museum presents more than 400 different exhibits, a rich collection of insects: bugs, butterflies, dragonflies, lake animals, fish. Here are all the paintings drawn by the founder of the museum, Professor M. M. Kozhov. The museum is already about 90 years old.

There is also a permanently operating scientific station, on the basis of which Irkutsk students undergo summer practice.

If you manage to find a guide or a guide, you can visit a multi-meter rock-cliff called Skriper. However, you can find it on your own if you follow the ecological path. Here, on a steep slope, a cave was found with the remains of hunting tools and utensils from the Iron and Stone Ages.

There is a cave on Skriper: two small halls with an area of about 60 square meters, their length is 6 and 8 meters, their width is up to 3.5 and the height is up to 4 meters. In the cultural layer, archaeologists found stone and iron hunting tools, fragments of ornamented dishes.

Weather in Bolshiye Koty

From morning until 19.00, as a rule, the sun is hot and cloudless. After seven in the evening it gets colder and the wind appears. At night, rain and thunderstorms are most common. Sun again in the morning.

Irina Pokoeva. , 2006

Literature

Imethenov A.B. Monuments of nature a. - Novosibirsk: Science. Siberian branch, 1991. - 159 p.
Evstropeva O.V., Ryashchenko S.V., Snytko V.A. Recreational zoning of the southern Baikal region // Geography and Natural resources. 2000. - No. 1. - S. 6772.
Catalog of organizations of recreational designation, enterprises of hotel type. Irkutsk. Oblkomstat, 2000.
Kotlyarov E.A. Geography of recreation and tourism. Formation and development of territorial recreational complexes. M.: Thought, 1978. - 240 p.
Kulakova T.Ya. Recreational assessment natural complexes southwestern Baikal region (methodology, experience, practical research): Dis. .cand. geogr. Sciences. Irkutsk, 1980. - 170 p.
Lobanova T.A. Functional differentiation of recreational areas of the southern Baikal region // Geography and Pirodnye Resources. 1987. - No. 4. - S. 164-167.
Mikhailov Yu.P., Belov A.V., Ryashin V.Ya., Krotova V.M. Mapping the Recreational Resources of the South Eastern Siberia// Estimated maps of nature, population, economy. M.: MGU, 1973. - S. 73-81.
Motorin V.V. Climatic-recreational assessment of some regions of Siberia // Resort resources and sanatorium-and-spa treatment in Siberia. -Tomsk, 1982.-S. 64-65.

Links

History of Big Cats
Photo of the village
A unique chapel was consecrated in Bolshiye Koty // CM Number One: newspaper.
Weekend on e // Friday: newspaper.
Cats vote first // SM Number one: newspaper.
Lake, pos. Big Cats // site baikaler.ru
Shouldn't we wave to Big Cats? (5:11 min.) // RuTube

big cats

The next day started with acroyoga, which we hadn't done for a long time, but still remembered something and even learned a couple of new movements. On this day, we planned to walk to the cave, which is located near Mount Skriper. Having had a bite of homemade dumplings in the store (there is simply no cafe in the village of Bolshie Koty), we recharged and set off in a great mood. But, with such a mood, we did not go long, as giant flies were waiting for us on the way - gadflies. Everything should be as simple as possible even when the path is quite difficult, and when everything becomes so complicated that you simply cannot go forward, the ground under your feet goes into the abyss and giant insects eat you alive - then everything around says: “You chose the wrong path and it's time turn it off before it's too late!" The decision had to be made quickly, and we turned into an absolute “pathless” with a huge slope and everything rolling from under our feet. We had to go down to the shore and be as careful as possible so as not to break, not to roll, not to peel off and not get dirty. Somehow they slipped and Vasya, fleeing from the gadflies, immediately dived into Baikal. The rest of the way to Mount Skriper, we continued along the coast. We found the mountain, the view from it is just bomb! But even the locals didn’t know about the cave, but we didn’t give up and climbing the mountain, we saw a small hole in the rock. We decided it was her.

Hike to the cave

It was very difficult, to put it simply, we thought that it was impossible to get to it at all. After all, the path to it is just a slope from the mountain without the slightest bump to step on or catch on. The slope was such that it was possible to slide down on the bottom, thorny plants and heat, all this gave the trail plus 500 points in difficulty. It’s okay to climb up to the cave, it was still difficult to approach it, again rocks, again stones and a lot of lost strength during the ascent, I wanted to quit this business, having not reached just thirty meters. You feel like in a reality show when one of the characters gives up at the last moment, and you think: “Oh, it can’t be!”. In front of the rock itself, over a hundred-meter cliff, you first walk about ten meters like James Bond from window to window on the fiftieth floor on a ledge, then you generally need to climb the rock without any insurance. But we still got to this cave, and were more impressed by the road to it than by the cave itself. They say primitive people lived in it, and it's hard to believe! Unless of course in their time the cave was not at such a height. It was a small opening in the rock, and it seemed to us that huge birds lived here rather than Neanderthals. Probably the second main feature this cave is a beautiful and unusual view of Baikal. Satisfied that we had made this way, we went back to the place of our camp, where we immediately collapsed from fatigue.

The way home

We also went back along a dangerous path, because it is the shortest and we did not want to overcome the eternal ups and downs through the forest. This time it seemed much more difficult, apparently from the fact that we were exhausted in two days. The rocks seemed somehow unrealistic, there was a desire to go to another path, but we decided it would be better to go as we were going, because this path had already been tested! The narrow paths seemed even narrower, and these big flies again stuck to us. With them, every step became more difficult and dangerous, the main thing was not to make sudden movements and not stumble, they flew right in the face, and it was difficult to do without sudden movements. During the whole way back, Vasya finished off seventy of them. And although the situation was again at a redistribution, this was a big plus! We walked without rest and reached faster than planned. Our hike ended in the village of Listvyanka, where we swam and rested, and went home under great impressions of the trip to Bolshie Koty.

Bolshie Koty is a village on the western coast of Lake Baikal, located at a distance of 18 kilometers from the village of Listvyanka.

Gold was once mined on the territory of the village, a glass factory functioned on the coast, and a biological station has been operating here for over a century - important milestones of Baikal history are closely intertwined with Bolshie Koty.

Gold mining on Baikal, its roots go back to 1842, when the valley placers near the western shores of the Bolshoi and Malaye Koty lakes, as well as Bolshaya and Malaya Sennaya were just opened for mining. For half a century, 10 pounds 12 pounds 52 spools 42 fractions of gold were discovered in the region, and this is over 160 kilograms of the precious metal!

Name The village is explained by several versions. In Dahl's dictionary, "cats" means fishing traps set in estuaries; "kotsy" - sorting in the form of a wattle fence across the river, holding the sailing fish. Omul came across more often, fish entered the Kotinka River to spawn, and then they caught it. There is another hypothesis - the name comes from the words "cats" or "cats", but again, these are not mustachioed, striped and fluffy animals, but wooden convict shoes.

Popularity Kotov is explained by the geographical proximity to tourist meccas Baikal - Irkutsk and Listvyanka. The village is close to crowded places and transport interchanges, but at the same time quite isolated, which allows nature to retain its originality.

At the Irkutsk State University of Big Cats there is biological station- the oldest among the research organizations of Baikal. Founded in 1918 at the suggestion of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and in 1923 transferred to the University of Irkutsk.

Currently based in Koty Museum of Baikal Studies, as well as an aquarium of the Institute of Biology, founded by Professor Korzhov. As part of the museum exposition, more than 4 hundred exhibits are presented, along with a rich collection of insects.

Big Cats are located within the zone Pribaikalsky National Park. The village is limited by the real taiga forest, on the territory of which berries, mushrooms, medicinal herbs and wild herbs of rare species grow.

There are many interesting places in the village. In his "heart" rises Rock "Scallop", in 20 minutes you can climb observation deck, from where a panorama of the Khamar-Daban ridge and the age-old waves of Lake Baikal will open.

A few kilometers from Bolshie Koty and near Sennaya Pad is abandoned mine merchant Patushinsky, Irkutsk gold digger. You can go down into the vertical mines with side drifts that have survived to this day. And in the river valley there are a lot of rock dumps, in the riverbed there are gutters of precious metal miners made of wood.

In close proximity to the Sennaya Pad rises. This hill is endowed with the status of both natural and archaeological site. If you climb the path to the top of the cliff, you can see almost the entire western shore of the lake. Also on the Skriper there is a cavity, the area of which barely reaches 6 tens of square meters. But in the bowels of this cave, archaeologists discovered tools, dishes and decorative elements that belonged to ancient people.

In the village you can rent horses and ride horse riding, there are developed various routes, differing in length and difficulty factor. Those who wish will be accompanied by experienced riders-guides. There is also a rental water bikes.

In Big Cats you can stay in the private sector, a compact hotel or on the basis of the Prospector's Shelter.

How to get there: sail on a boat from the village of Listvyanka or the city of Irkutsk. AT summer period The boat service operates daily, and on weekends twice a day. From Listvyanka to Koty walking route, you can go along the coast, which is even dangerous in some places, or you can go along the taiga route leading through the pass, the length of the path is 20 kilometers. The road can be completed in one day. In winter, a temporary road is laid on the ice.

So, on the fifth of July, on Tuesday, our first meeting with Baikal took place. Let it sound like a stamp, but it was unforgettable! And we went on a meteor to the village of Bolshie Koty.

Bolshiye Koty was founded in the middle of the 19th century as a settlement of gold miners. To actually cats, as animals, this name has nothing to do. Cats with an accent on O, these are rough shoes made of leather and wood, worn by convicts. It is from them that the village got its name.

"Prospectors were walking, looking for a gold mine and went their way through the gorge, where the tramp, the fugitive convict, stopped to rest. Where he left his cats, they found gold ..."

But this gold quickly ended, mining stopped by the 60s of the 20th century. The destroyed wooden dredge, which was used to mine gold in the Bolshie Koty stream, can still be seen.

But the village has come into being. In 1916 in B.K. created a fur farm, which closed by 1932. It is believed that the Kotinsky nursery was the first state fur farm in the USSR.

In 1918, a biological station was built. On October 1, 1928, it was transformed into the Baikal Limnological Station, and on January 20, 1961, it received the status of the Limnological Institute of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The workers of the institute believe that it was from that small biological station in Koty that the science of all Eastern Siberia began.

In short, Big Cats are the beginning of all beginnings! This village was the beginning for us, the beginning of our acquaintance with the great Baikal Sea!

(Necessary note: I apologize in advance for the fact that some pictures (landscapes, panoramas) are repeated. It’s just that in Bolshiye Koty our camera failed after an hour of shooting (due to humidity, large white spots were obtained instead of the frame), there were few pictures and it’s a pity for them You will not see such repetitions in the future).

I explain just in case that first there is a photograph, and below is an explanation. :-)

A meteor called "Voskhod-2", on which we will go to Bolshiye Koty from the "Rocket" pier in Irkutsk. Since early morning the weather has been inclement.

Angara spill. Harsh landscape for the beginning of July. It seems to be the season, but the dubak is terrible.

Passengers waiting for a flight. There are practically no people like us to go there and back on the same day. Almost everyone goes to Bolshie Koty with things for a few days. However, some will get off at Listvyanka, this is an intermediate point of our trip.

I specially circled it with a red line - on Voskhod-2 there is a tiny platform where you can go out and observe the surroundings. AT good weather there is a crowd of people, there is not enough space for everyone, and in bad weather - it’s better not to go there - it’s too cold and wet!

By the time we got on board, it was raining. It became difficult to admire the beauties: the windows immediately fogged up, and even raindrops flowed down them.

Pay your close attention to this man with a beard! He served as a prototype for the new term "bikeiler" for me. Baikailer is a tourist, a traveler, a brave person who explores Baikal regardless of weather difficulties. Baikaler is not afraid of anything, he is not afraid of anything, he loves Baikal and knows a lot about it.

This is what the interior of the meteor looked like. Taken before we left.

And here we are starting. I still got out observation platform and, under not weak pitching, took a few shots. The quality is poor, but I hope I managed to convey the emotions.

What a gloomy weather it was!

We are in Big Cats. Fortunately for us, the rain stopped, although it could start again at any moment. In B.K. - a bay, so the wild wind that shook our meteor along the way died down and Baikal became very calm, albeit gloomy.

This is what the coast looked like.

And this, in fact, we have already gone ashore. Most of the passengers were met, some with wagons. The biker and company loaded their belongings onto a cart, and a truck drove up to other tourists. The people dispersed to the bases, and there were only seven or eight people like us, who arrived only for a couple of hours (among them - two Germans, a married couple).

The people go to the beach.

And here is our Sunrise. After a while, he will go back, and we are on it.

We (and the rest of the "one-day tourists") wanted to go to the "Museum of Baikal Studies", which is written about in all guidebooks. But the museum was closed. While the people were thinking and wondering what to do, the travelers resolutely headed along the Baikal (or Bolshekotovsky) coast.

The transparency of the water immediately caught my eye, the main difference between Baikal and other water bodies. And this despite the fact that the sky was overcast! What happens when the sun's rays pierce the water column?!

Looking back at the place we left.

And rushed forward along the road. We immediately saw the legendary Baikal larches. Behind the fence were several houses. Looks like a turban.

These are the powerful (and, in my opinion, ancient) buildings we observed. The inhabitants sat inside, no one leaned out into the courtyard. The rain had only stopped a few minutes ago, and it had been raining, judging by the puddles, for several hours.

Again, I pay attention to the transparency of water.

Big Cats close up.

The lowland between the mountains in Siberia (or only on Baikal?) is called "padya". It is clearly seen how houses are located in the "pad".

Visual agitation in B.K. enough. Immediately behind it are tourists in a tent. In such weather it was difficult for us to envy them.

And again a view of the Cats. The building on the left, closest to us, is the non-working museum.

pay attention to mountain ranges and those standing there ate. This is exactly what I wanted to capture, but my photographic equipment leaves much to be desired.

River Kotinka. Reminds an ordinary stream, but I think in the spring it is much wider.

She's just a little deeper into the shore.

Some kind of pier. Details, alas, remained behind the scenes.

Gradually, the trail went higher and higher, and typical Baikal landscapes began to open. Only that day we did not yet know that they were typical and just admired the cliffs. By Baikal standards, they are quite low, and if we compare, say, with Lake Ladoga or Karelia - something very impressive and tall.

Larch again.

View of Baikal.

Back towards the Big Cats.

Somewhere a lone ship rushed.

This is what the forest looked like, in which it was dangerous to enter - because of the ticks, and besides, it was wet.

At times, nice platforms opened up below, which I wanted to go to, but there was no opportunity. All that was left was to look down.

Another top view.

It seems that the stone is close, but not reachable.

We were lucky with the weather - the rain didn't start and we watched the quiet, calm Baikal.

The trail, meanwhile, kept going up.

And here is the trail itself. At some point, we realized that we had to return, because the meteor stays in Koty for only about two hours.

A few more shots.

familiar stone...

and back along the trail. The fotik could not stand the wet weather and began to give white spots, water got into the lens.

And here you can clearly see why you can’t stand on the edge of a cliff on Baikal. By the way, one of the most common causes of death for tourists here is a fall from a cliff. Indeed, I want to get closer to the edge, because you can’t see what is hiding there. From above it seems that this place is quite strong and solid, but in reality - see the photo. If you stand on the very edge, the soil will collapse under your feet.

We return back.

And we came here for a reason: my friend decided to commit a heroic deed.

See the three figures on the left? This is one of the women who decided to swim in Baikal. Her actions prompted my friend to follow a bold example, and Paumen, in this very, very cold place, made the first dipping into Baikal. "It was cool!" - confessed later my friend. "Yes, you just made a feat!" I responded admiringly.