The first week of October has passed, and it means that the birthday of the Volga Region University hiking club "Academy" has come. Already according to the established tradition, hikers meet it in one of the most beautiful places of the Republic of Tatarstan - in the Kama estuary.
Five years ago, the guys in the student association first came to this place and since then the tradition has taken hold. Every year the popularity of the tourist club and the famous hike to the Kama estuary grows, the number of participants has increased by more than 30 people.
It is worth noting a pleasant tendency: each hike unites not only students of our university, but also graduates and students of other universities of the republic. It speaks about the scale of the event and the tourist club reaching a high level.
The Kama estuary always welcomes its guests with sun rays in the daytime and warm twilight in the evening. But this time it was different.
It rained for two days, but such weather only gave a special atmosphere in the group: everyone tried to be closer to the campfire, closer to the company and general conversations....
Every trek is different from the previous one: the organisers always surprise the participants with innovations. Early rise, road, camp setting up and long-awaited lunch... The participants were given a safety briefing and divided into teams, after which each team explored different locations for three days. The programme included rock climbing, a walk and photo shoot near the cliff, climbing in real caves, and a tour of the gypsum tunnels where gypsum is still mined.
The uniqueness of this hike was the orienteering competition in the labyrinth format. Here everyone could feel himself an orienteering athlete, and the fastest won memorable prizes.
Dark night and shining stars, sparks from the campfire flying up into the sky, guitar sounds and... "candle" - the warmest and most heartwarming moment of the hike: a candle was passed around the circle, each participant told about himself and what memories he would take with him after the hike. Shining eyes, warm words of gratitude of the newly minted hikers, joy of the organisers speaks only about one thing - the hike was successful, it became the best, we managed!
"There's not really much difference when organising a 40 or 67 person trek - the responsibility is the same. But some problems, which appear only with a large number of people, make the organisation more complicated and no less interesting - this helps us to grow. This year I can confidently say that we were able to increase students' interest in camping activities and in the Turkklub in general. It is very rare that senior students are interested in active tourism and that students from other universities and colleges join us," says Damir Latypov, head of the Academy Tour Club and the main organiser of the trip. - We consider the Kama estuary-2023 to be the best of those that we have conducted before and the most large-scale. Feelings from this trek are very warm. We are glad that we were able to show the students that nature has no bad weather and only good mood reveals all the colours of this place. We plan to continue to conquer Bashkortostan on our next hike".
Text: Tatiana Neustroeva
