Lake Seliger. A car journey.

A weekend trip along the route Podolsk → Tver → Torzhok → Seliger → the Nilov Monastery on Stolobny Island. Here we continue testing our "house on four wheels" and discovering new pearls of central Russia.
The village named Panika is one of such wonderful places. It is located a few kilometres from the district centre town Torzhok, Tver region.

If you turn off the M10 highway right before Torzhok, then in just a couple of kilometres you will see a signmark with a strange name of this locality. This village, which consists of several houses, is located on the banks of the Tvertsa river, overlooking the beautiful views . And what a wonderful waterfall there is! It spouts right out of a sheer stone wall! If you happen to go to St. Petersburg one day, make sure to take a turn here, since you will not regret it! The GPS coordinates are the following: N57°0.065'; E35°4.903'.

What can you manage to see at a weekend, while driving 1,100 km by car? (And while half of this distance takes place far from the highways). Well, it turned out that, actually, a lot!

Travelling along the broken roads of Tver region, I became convinced for the hundredth time that a Toyota Hilux car is the best choice for conquering the vast expanses of our amazing homeland!
I made the first stop with an overnight stay in a pine forest on the shore of Lake Seliger, two kilometres from the famous NilovMonastery, which is located on a small island.

It is an incredibly beautiful and peaceful place. When I first visited it 20 years ago, the monastery looked like the ruins of once majestic temples and adjacent buildings. But, finally, it has been restored and now everything looks completely different. The golden domes shine at the sun, being reflected in the clear surface of the lake together with century-old poplars and pines. There is a bright and charming Church of the Epiphany with a 36-metre-high bell tower, which you can get to by following 195 steps upstairs. Having reached the top, you can breathe in the purest air of Lake Seliger and admire the magnificent view of it. Or you can also rent a small boat for 500 roubles and go around the island, being as quick as the wind and making stops to capture all this beauty in a photo!

15 km from Ostashkov town near Khitino village there is an interesting structure: a white pyramid 22 m high. This is one of the pyramids built by a Russian engineer, whose name was A. E. Golod. The pyramids were placed in different locations of Russia. The most well-known of them is the 44-metre-high pyramid, situated at a 38 km distance point on Novorizhskoe highway. It was the highest building of this type constructed by Golod, but last May it collapsed under the power of the hurricane wind.

When we approached the pyramid, we saw a sturdy 45-year-old man open the door and come out. We got acquainted with each other. Sergey appeared to be the owner and the caretaker of the pyramid and invited us inside. He rarely visits it, so we were quite lucky to get hold of him. Indoors there were numerous plastic water bottles put in rows and on the shelves there lay various amulets, bracelets made of stone, big and small pyramids made of white quartz sand. I lifted one of the pyramids, which was 30 sm high and it appeared to be quite heavy! On the walls I saw some clippings from magazines and newspapers, presenting the articles about the pyramids and their significance in the history of mankind. Sergey turned out to be a very interesting and enthusiastic person. He was pleased to tell about the amazing properties of the pyramids (that were actually the concentrators of energy flows coming from the centre of the Earth into outer space). For example, water completely changes its structure after being kept for two days in the pyramid. And the space around it becomes well-balanced, which has a very positive effect on people's health, the surrounding nature, etc.

Half an hour flew by unnoticed and after such an interesting story I was already eagering to build a pyramid in my yard and settle in it. As a result, I bought from Sergey a bucket of "energy-charged" water for 100 roubles and a small white pyramid for 300 roubles. Now the latter is placed on the bedside table next to my bed and I feel how the flow of energy, passing through it, fills the whole room from floor to ceiling and goes into outer space, taking with it all my bad thoughts and vain worries away!

Can you have failed to believe in it? If you can, then you're mistaken. The ancient Egyptians and Mayans did not build their fantastic structures just for fun. There is definitely something in it!
However, having returned home, I changed my mind about building a pyramid in the yard. I suppose, the one that is on the bedside table will be enough for now. :)