Taiga is an amazing and at the same time mystical place on our planet. Deserted places here extend for hundreds of kilometers. There are also many such places where no human has ever set foot. Of course, Taiga is shrouded in various legends about the devilry that happens here at times. Whether these legends are fictions or not is up to each of us.
Mystical route. By eyewitness Andrey Bolov
This incident happened in July 1997. I still cannot explain what happened to me and my companions then. Perhaps it was a massive hallucination, and perhaps it was true. But first things first.
Our geological team consisted of four people. We with heavy backpacks, silently, walked along the taiga path, fixing our eyes on the flashing legs of the one in front and occasionally brushing off annoying insects.
I am Andrey Bolov, I was the eldest. I am a candidate of geological and mineralogical sciences and a researcher at the Institute of the Earth's Crust.
Arthur Kolesnikov was my assistant. Arthur is an ordinary student, raved about geology, and instead of going on vacation to relax at discos and walking with girls like normal students, he went for two months to the cold taiga to personally experience all the delights of geological life.
Worker Igor Antonyuk spent half of his worthless life in difficult field routes. In the evenings in the camp, when people gathered around the fire, he took out his guitar from his tent, sat on a tree stump and sang sad songs. Kind, clean, without vulgarity and obscenities.
Promotional video:
The fourth was the young journalist Lisa. The editor of a local newspaper, suddenly wanted the romance of a geological trip. How poor Liza was delighted when I looked around, looked round with a smile at the tired faces and waved my hand. All three, as if knocked down, without taking off their backpacks, fell on the grass and fell silent.
Suddenly, from somewhere came a bell ringing.
- Bolov, is it ringing in my head? Antonyuk asked without raising his head.
Not hearing an answer to his question, Igor sat down, threw back the mosquito net and began to listen even more attentively. Arthur and Lisa, too, forgetting about fatigue, began to get up on the sly, looking attentively at me.
I shrugged my shoulders, listening to the silence of the taiga, from which, it is true, came the barely audible, but real ringing of the bell. It was the ringing of a church bell. Without saying a word, I took a map out of my bag and spread it out on the grass.
- What do we have here … What can we have here? - I ran my finger, defining our place. - And we have here, friends, nothing … Taiga, one taiga you know …
“That is, you want to say that the nearest church is tens of kilometers away?” Liza asked me in surprise.
- Perhaps … - I answered thoughtfully. - Here, to Belyaevka 79 kilometers, to Yugovo - 94. There are no more settlements within a radius of one hundred kilometers. Lisa, you are a local person, you should know about this.
- Should. Only I don’t know!”The girl sighed.
- But somewhere it rings! Student, do you hear? - Antonyuk listened again.
- It rings! - Alarmed Arthur looked at me.
- Do you have the strength? Can we go further? - I looked at my companions. - If it rings, then someone is calling. Find out?
Our detachment again stretched out in a chain and moved forward along the path, in the direction from which the bell was ringing.
Taiga. Anomalous zones and holes in time
Taiga and its paths are such that they have no beginning and no end. Everyone who has been to these parts knows about it. You can walk several days or even weeks, you can break your legs about tens and hundreds of kilometers traveled on foot and return to the same place where the journey began. No one can explain this anomaly. You can simply run into a swamp or lake and see that the trail continues on the other side and disappears into thickets of reeds and willows.
Therefore, when the ringing disappeared, I continued my journey of inertia. I stopped and raised my hand up so that the other three members of the squad also stopped. Everyone listened. There was dead silence …
- Interesting … - Antonyuk said quietly. - After all, the bell has just rung! He called very close!
- It's even funny … - I agreed.
The detachment stood for a few more seconds, and then everyone looked at me inquiringly.
“That's what…” I said. - The bell came from this side, there is a river flowing, marked on the map. This means that we need to climb this hill. I think that everything is clearly visible from there within a radius of 10-15 kilometers, and all our doubts will be resolved. So, my friends, let's get off the beaten path and go up the unbeaten path!
We turned to the right and began to slowly climb the hill, which had long been sprouted with bushes. All at once we forgot about annoying mosquitoes, about the unbearable heat and about the heavy backpacks, which became heavier and heavier with every kilometer. When we climbed the hill, the sun had already passed noon. And then an amazing picture opened before us.
Along the river, near the water, there was a village. There are fifty good houses. And in the center, on a small square, there was a church. The bell was shining on the bell tower! People walked along the street and children played. Suddenly a horseman galloped by. The old man was in a hurry somewhere, in bast shoes …
- What is this? - Liza looked frightenedly at the village. - Where have we got to?
I was silent for a while. He took binoculars in his hands, examined for a long time the strange village that had come from nowhere.
- Give it! - Antonyuk took the binoculars.
- Have you seen people, Bolov? Have you seen how they are dressed? - Addressing not even to me, but to all those present, Antonyuk asked.
- I saw, guys, I saw!
- So what? - said Arthur, who had been silent before.
- Some devilry! - I said. - There is no village on the map, but the houses are as good as new! It's not even a village. This is a village. But that's not even the point, friends! By all indications, we have a massive hallucination. After all, planes and satellites fly, they could not help but notice this village, even if it was built here just recently! However, recently - this is unlikely, rather a very, very long time!
- Why? - Liza raised her eyebrows in surprise.
- And therefore, - Antonyuk smiled enigmatically, - they are dressed in the old fashioned way. Such clothes were worn two hundred years ago!
- Maybe just some Old Believers, but here we are catching up with fear! - said Lisa.
I suggested that everyone go down, rest, and then go up again and check if there is a village or not. We turned around and went down. We walked about ten meters, when suddenly, Liza grabbed her stomach and began to laugh.
- What are you, journalist ?! - I started shaking the girl. - What are you doing ?!
- And where is the village ?! - the girl screamed through tears and again fell into hysterical laughter.
All were dumbfounded looking around. Indeed, there was no village! After all, here, at this very place, the kids were just playing, and there a horseman was galloping!
The sun was setting, it was necessary to stop for the night, but no one wanted to stay in this place. We decided to find a place to sleep somewhere further.
When I returned to my native Peter, I rummaged through stacks of literature, asked my colleagues about such cases in the area of a mysterious village, but no one really told me anything.
Lisa returned to her editorial office. Arthur went to his native Moscow and continued his studies. And Igor Antonyuk left for the winter in his town, lost on the banks of the Volga River. All four of us were tied by one secret. Only once, a few years later, a colleague of mine told me about this case as another geological tale.
