Tandinsky Triangle: Brine and Steppe

Description

A one-day loop around Tandinsky kojuun, south of Kyzyl: three lakes showing the whole palette of the Tuvin basin — from almost "dead" brine to fresh depth with a sanctuary. About sixty-five kilometers along the Yenisei highway and local roads; the best season is from May to August, and in dust storms it is not worth going out onto the open basin. Start at Dus-Khol (Tandinsky), a small endorheic salt lake 45 kilometers south of Kyzyl: half a kilometer in cross-section, mineralization of about 127.5 per mille, salt sources flow out to the shores, feeding the brine. White salt ridges make it recognizable from the road; almost no infrastructure, approaches are sometimes swampy, and swimming is worth it with understanding of risks for the skin. Three kilometers east is Khadyn, "birch" in Tuvan: a round lake six by six kilometers with sandy shores and white salt efflorescences. The water is weakly mineralized, in the northern bays — plastic hydrogen sulfide muds; locals appreciate the rare combination — there is no fish at all, but also few blood-sucking insects. The Soviet boarding house on the shore is destroyed: it is not worth staying inside buildings, the "wild" beach lives without them. Finish at Chagytay, the deepest freshwater lake of the Tuvin basin: an area of almost thirty square kilometers, maximum depth seventeen meters, lies at the northern slope of the Eastern Tannu-Ola ridge at an altitude of 1,005 meters. Since 1995, the Chagytay biological-hydrological sanctuary of about five thousand hectares operates on its basis; in the sixties–seventies carp, bream and vendace were brought here. Fishing is regulated and campfires by the water are not allowed — this is a point where the route returns from the salt extremity to ordinary fresh water and forest on the horizon.