I have now submitted a letter to the Expeditionary Center of the Russian Geographical Society in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, formally requesting them to consider naming a mountain in the Jombolok River Valley in Western Buryatia after Thomas and Lucy Atkinson. As you will recall (see below), Vladimir Chernikov, the Russian cyclist and geographer I met in a bog in Buryatia, suggested that a request should be submitted. He was able to locate an unnamed mountain peak, close to the entrance of the Jombolok Volcano Field that would be a perfect candidate to be named after the couple.

The letter, which you can find here – RussianGS-letter2 – is signed by 33 direct descendants of Thomas and Lucy Atkinson, from all around the world. We all very much hope that the request will be considered favourably. I will update you as soon as I know more.

Here is a Russian TV report about our recent expedition to the Jombolok Volcano Field in Buryatia. Interest in the Atkinsons is growing in Russia as historians realise the great contribution they made to exploring remote parts of Siberia and also their important interactions with the Decembrist exiles.

More on our incredible meeting with Vladimir Chernikov in a bog in Buryatia – see my posting of 19 July. As we were leaving, Vladimir was on his was on his way to the Jombolok Volcano Field to leave a plaque at the base of the Kropotkin Volcano. He has now returned home safely to Krasnoyarsk, having successfully installed the double plaque in front of the Volcano. You can read more about his amazing journey (in Russian) here on his blog and also here.

Vladimir had an extraordinary journey, particularly as he and his companion, Sergei Izoupov, were travelling by bicycle. Here is a picture of their memorial cairn to Kropotkin.

Vladimir was also able to travel down the Jombolok River Valley, which flows from Lake Kara Noor. For the first 20kms it flows underground, before surfacing for the next 50kms. We were unable to make this journey due to shortage of time. So I am very grateful to Vladimir, who was able to photograph the site of the Jombolok waterfall, that was the subject of a painting by Thomas Atkinson.

Here is Vladimir’s photo of the waterfall:

And here is a lithograph of Thomas’s painting of the same place:

Vladimir also had some other news. We talked during our meeting in Buryatia about the fact that some of the peaks surrounding the Jombolok Volcano Field are still unnamed. When he said he was going to approach the Russian Geographical Society about naming one of the peaks after Kropotkin, I asked him if it might be possible to do the same for Atkinson. Vladimir has now agreed to do this and has also marked out the particular peak he has in mind. Here is the map he sent, with Peak Atkinson clearly marked.

I will keep you updated on this exciting development.

 

If you would like to download a copy of my 44-page report on the recent visit to the Jombolok Volcano Field in Western Buryatia, you can do so here: Jombolok Report

 

Filmmaker Anatoly Melnikov accompanied us on our journey to Jombolok. This is his video diary of the journey. It gives a great sense of the places we visited. Enjoy!

Just getting to the starting point for a journey to the Jombolok Volcano Field in The Eastern Sayan Mountains of Buryatia is an ordeal, particularly the last 60 or so kilometres, where the road turns into a rough track that snakes its way through forests, rivers and serious bogs. On the way out, our six-wheel Zil former military truck – built in 1975) got stuck twice in deep bogs and had to be winched out.

On our return, we were luckier, although the driver of the open-top truck (no seats!) had to stop and assess his chances at one particularly notorious place. It was here, as we were waiting for the truck to make its way through the boggy ground, that I spotted the unusual sight of two cyclists! As they drew nearer, we could see that they had heavy panniers and were equipped for travelling.

Soon we were in full discussion and realised that we had a great deal in common. Vladimir Chernikov and his colleague Sergei Izoupov had cycled from Krasnoyarsk in Siberia and both men were making their way to the Jombolok Volcano Field. Their reason? To put up plaques to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the famous Russian anarchist Peter Kropotkin’s visit to the volcanoes. He made the trip 16 years after Thomas Atkinson, after reading an article in an Irkutsk newspaper about his journey. At the time he was working for the governor-general of Eastern Siberia, and had already completed a number of other important geological expeditions in the region. One of the main volcanic cones in the Jombolok Field is named after him.

For us, having just come from placing a plaque next to the Atkinson Volcano in Jombolok, this was quite an incredible coincidence. We wish Vladimir well and look forward to hearing more about his remarkable bike ride.

During our trip to Eastern Siberia we took the opportunity to visit the Decembrist Museum in Irkutsk, not least because Thomas Atkinson had planned to write a final book on the Decembrists, but died before it could be published. (For more background, see my blog post on the Atkinsons and the Decembrists of 2 March 2017). Located in the former home of Prince Sergei Volkonsky and his wife Maria, the museum has a wonderful collection of memorabilia associated with the Decembrists, many of whom were exiled to this region.

We were received with great hospitality by staff at the museum, including Anna Turevich, who has already published a short article on Thomas and Lucy Atkinson’s connections with the Decembrists. More work is planned and it is hoped at some point that research into the private correspondence of some of the Decembrists may reveal more about their meetings with the English travellers.

Just back from a quite extraordinary trip to the Jombolok Volcano Field in the Eastern Sayan mountains in the far West of Buryatia in Eastern Siberia to celebrate the visit there by Thomas Atkinson in 1851. The map below – in Russian – will give you some idea of the remoteness of this beautiful place.

Our journey started in Irkutsk, close to Lake Baikal in the east of Siberia, and was followed by a 550-km road journey south and then north-west to the small village of Orlik in the Republic of Buryatia. This was followed by a 63-km journey through forests and bogs along the Oka River, before we arrived at the thermal springs at Hoi To Gol, at the foot of the Eastern Sayan Mountains, close to the border with Tuva. From here we crossed a pass at 2,400m, before descending on horses into the Valley, where one of the volcanoes is named after Thomas Atkinson. It was here that we fixed a plaque to commemorate the visit by the four descendants of Thomas Atkinson who came along on the trip – Steve and Gill Brown, their son David and daughter Catherine.

You can get an idea of our journey from this wonderful short film, shot by Anatoly Melnikov:

https://cloud.mail.ru/public/Eb4Q/VV51yRydU

This is the plaque (in Russian and English) that we fixed at the foot of the Atkinson Volcano:

And here’s a picture of it fixed to a rock at the foot of the Atkinson Volcano. It’s fixing point has been turned into a cairn and we hope that people who visit will continue to add stones to it over the years.

This was a truly spectacular trip to an incredible place. Jombolok, which last erupted around 1200 years ago, is a giant volcanic crater, with a large number of volcanic cones strewn throughout the massive lava field. A huge lava trail extends down the Jombolok Valley and it was this that first caught Thomas Atkinson’s attention and convinced him to follow it to find its source.

As well as the volcano field, myself, photographer David O’Neill and Maddy Brown (no rel.) also travelled for 11 hours on horseback to visit the very remote and beautiful Kara Noor lake, which was painted by Thomas Atkinson. We found his old camp and our Buryat guide Rinchin told us we were certainly the first English people to visit this spot since Atkinson was there in 1851! A really incredible place which we will never forget.

Here’s his painting of the lake. You can see smoke rising from the campsite on the left side of the lake in the distance.

Just back from a quick trip to Kazakhstan, where I was able to visit the World Ethnosport Confederation’s festival outside Almaty. Formed in 2015, the Confederation is made up of countries with a steppe tradition. On display in Almaty were riders from Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Hungary, Bulgaria, as well as singers and musical performers from Uzbekistan, Turkey, Buryatia and various other countries.

Traditional wrestling, archery and eagle-hunting displays were also featured in the festival, which took place in the countryside outside Almaty. The horse-riding skills on show were truly spectacular and much appreciated by the large crowds.

In two weeks’ time, on 3 July, together with six others, I will be setting off for Eastern Siberia to visit yet more places associated with the Atkinsons. This time our goal will be the Jombolok (sometimes spelled Zhombolok) Volcano Field, in the Eastern Sayan Mountains some 500kms to the east of Irkutsk and Lake Baikal. I have written about this place before, and particularly about one of Thomas’ paintings, which illustrates the nearby Kara Noor Lake – see my posting of 23 June last year.

Thomas and Lucy visited this region in the summer of 1851. As I wrote last June: “Now known as the Jom-Bolok volcanic field, it is actually located in Russia in the Eastern Sayan Mountains. In 2011 it was the subject of a major Russian study which you can read here. That article by Alexei V Ivanov et al notes: “Despite the fact that the Jom-Bolok volcanic field has been known for almost one and a half centuries , it is little studied and no geological information has yet been published in English.”

In an appendix to the article there is a historical note which states: “Initial information about the volcanoes in the East Sayan Mts. was published in a local Siberian newspaper in 1858 by an English architect, Thomas Witlam Atkinson. Later, he devoted a number of pages in his extensive travel book to the same volcanoes (Atkinson 1859). In 1852, Atkinson travelled from the inhabited Oka river area, along Jom-Bolok river (referred by him as Djem-a-look river) up to Haranur lake and the Hee-Gol valley. Apparently, he was among the first visitors to the volcanoes, because the local Bouriat people had great dread of that valley, and never ascended it except by compulsion. His report was used later by the Russian royal Peter Alekseevich Kropotkin, who was famous for both his anarchist philosophy and contributions to glaciology (see Ivanova and Markin 2008). He visited the volcanoes in 1865 and provided a geological description (Kropotkin 1867).””

I will be travelling with my good friend and photographer David O’Neill and with Steve and Gill Brown and their children David and Catherine, who are direct descendants of the Atkinsons. A friend of theirs, Maddy Brown, is the final member of the party.

This is going to be a testing journey. We will drive west from Irkutsk for about 500kms before completing the journey on horseback. It should take us nine days. When we arrive we plan to leave a memorial tablet on the top of Volcano Atkinson, one of four volcanic cones in the valley and named after Thomas in recognition of his role in discovering this important geological site.

Keep reading this site for further updates.