Published: 14 August, 2009, 19:38
Edited: 14 August, 2009, 19:38
Summertime…and you try to make your life as easy as possible. Some Russians flock to the seaside. And where do people who live close to the sea go? For most of them the best choice is way up high in the mountains (if they can afford a holiday in the peak of the tourist season, of course).
I know some families near the Black Sea Resort of Sochi that practice “the highest” type of getaway. Five years ago they built a couple of huts in the meadows, close to the highest of the Caucasus’ peaks. Every summer they spend about a month there, doing lots of walking and horseback riding in the mountains.
So how do they get there? They have friends who fly helicopters. The airlift to the mountain lasts about 10 minutes. It costs you the equivalent of 40 bucks. The pilots also tie a huge net with the luggage to the bottom of the helicopter.
On a bright August morning, a guy by the name of Artur put his wife Karina and their three kids into the helicopter. He decided to join them later, as he had some business to attend to. So he said “good-bye” to them and went away.
He had no chance to start the work that day. 15 minutes after the takeoff, Karina called Artur from the mountains. Her voice was depressed. She had seen her rucksack fall out of the helicopter’s net – with all her personal belongings and clothes for the three children. So she pleaded Artur to do something about it.
I learned about this story as I was waiting for the helicopter to take me up to this mountain for the day. Artur came to ask the pilots if they had seen anything fall out of the helicopter’s net. One of them saw an object falling to the ground 200 meters from here. We were all sure that the chances to find something in the middle of the mountainous forest were “close to zero”. But since I had a couple of hours to kill before the “lift”, I joined Artur in his “quest”.
We drove for about half an hour over the mountainous path until we noticed something strange on a pine at the edge of the forest. We came closer and saw the tree decorated with all sorts of boots, coats, T-shirts and underwear! And on the very top there was the torn rucksack – hanging like a crown!
It took us another half an hour to shake all the things down from the tree. Later I took them to Karina at the top. She was overwhelmed with what had happened. And later on – when I was relaxing in the mountains – I thought that it’s great when such small luck comes to you. Not a bad thing in everyday life.