Peak 47 | Dzyarzhynskaya Hara, Belarus | 347m | 12th September 2019
- Adam Stevenson
- Sep 12, 2019
- 3 min read
Updated: Jan 2, 2020
Belarus' 347m high point posed no challenge to ascend, but it did involve a bit of bureaucratic red-tape for me to actually get there. Something that has been virtually absent from my European adventure up until now.
Quick Summary
• Starting point - Skirmantovo
• Route taken - Taxi from Minsk
• Total ascent - Minimal
• Total length - Minimal
• Total time - 1 minute (40min Taxi)
• Expense - #Modrate (Transport)
• Equipment - #None
• Difficulty - #Level1 of 5
• Enjoyment - #1star of 5*
Reaching the highest point of Belarus
I had decided to travel to Belarus by plane as they offer (at least at the time of writing) a 30-day visa-free entry, so long as you fly in and out of Minsk airport. But I missed a crucial detail in the fine print, and it nearly cost me hundreds of euros in flights, and a complete mess-up of the final parts of my project...
Basically, I hadn't picked up on a rule that as a foreigner I wasn't allowed to fly directly from Belarus into Russia. Which as Sod's law would have it, was exactly what I had booked to do. So as I went to check-in to my first flight from Vilnius to Minsk, I was still non the wiser of this, and told the airline about my forward flight. Initially, they weren't going to let me onto my Belarus flight at all! It would have been a disaster for me. But then one of the staff members started making phone calls to immigration or some other government departments. Ten minutes later, I was then told I could go through as an exception, but I would be put on a 'blacklist' and not allowed to re-enter Belarus for another 12 months.
I obviously agreed and attended my flight. However, then once I had landed into Belarus from Lithuania, this information clearly hadn't been passed through. And of course, I'd forgotten to take any contact details. So, I found myself again explaining my intentions of flying onto Russia next. But the border officers here seemed less co-operative and wanted me to buy a visa for $200 to stay the one night in Belarus.
So in order to get through without the expensive visa and to use the 30-day visa-free entry system instead, I needed to convince them that I would change my flights. I told them of my new intended plan, That I would fly back into one of the #Baltic states first, before continuing onto Russia. Finally, after almost a hour of hard work at the gates, they allowed me to pass through under these conditions. I was then at last able to focus on reaching my penultimate high point.
Upon arriving in Minsk I was surprised, and also very relieved, that they had their own form of Uber (Yandex Taxi). It meant that I was able to pin my destination of 'Hara' within the app. The driver would be able to head straight there without the need of me making a fool of myself trying to explain this in a different language.
It was a long and nearly completely silent 40 minute drive out from the center of Minsk. But, I needed to explain to him that I wanted him to wait while I got a few photos before returning me back to Minsk. Otherwise I'd really be left in the middle of nowhere. I managed to communicate that I needed his WiFi so I was able to translate what I was saying. Google saved the day for me once again, but he obviously thought I was a complete nutter. I was heading to a random field to take a few photos and return.
To my surprise though, when we arrived the driver was appeared quite curious. He got out along with me and we both did the 1 min walk to the high point. He then signaled if I could take some photos of him standing at the highest point of Belarus. It seemed like this drop off had actually brightened up his day.
So after I got the high point done, I still had the dilemma of how I was going to travel onto Russia. If I was to follow the rules, I needed to book another flight out of Minsk and into another country apart from Russia. But this whole scenario seemed ridiculous to me, and I didn't really have the time or money to be taking the unnecessary flights.
I decided to take the chance and stick with the initial plan. I would attempt to get onto my original flight that headed straight to Moscow. Amazingly, I got through! I managed to pass through without a problem and got on the flight that I'm pretty sure I wasn't supposed to be allowed on...
Final score: Adam-1 / Belarus-0
Read the last chapter - Peak 48 | Elbrus, Russia
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