Onega Lake Petroglyphs are located on the Besov Nos Cape. It is pretty far from any city accessable by train or plane.
There are two ways of getting to Besov Nos. The first one is to take a motorboat in Petrozavodsk and travel 90 km over Lake Onega. This option highly depends on weather conditions. In case of strong wind or fog travelling by a motorboat is not safe. The second way is to drive from Petrozavodsk to the Chyornaya River (390 km) and sail by a motorboat down the River until its estuary.
We left from the hotel in Petrozavodsk at 08:00 on 14 August 2013. After about 2 hours driving and 170 km we made a stop at a nice cafe in the town of Medvezhyegorsk for a cup of tea. After Medvezhyegorsk the road is not good so it took us a bit less than 3 hours to get to the River Chyornaya where the local guide waited for us with two small motorboats.
We started the voyage down the River and it took about 1 hour 30 minutes under occasional heavy rain. Our boats were tented. We met untented boat with passengers wearing plastic raincoats. It did not look like they felt themselves comfortable!
Finally we reached the estuary and had a picnic lunch in the abandoned fishing village. Right after the lunch the rain stopped and the sun appeared, so during the rest of the trip we were lucky with the weather.
It is not yet the destination. We walked a bit along the beautiful beach and through the forest, passed the abandoned lighthouse and finally reached Besov Nos. Petroglyphs are located on the rocks right above the water. It is often slippery there - mind your step!
After observing the petroglyphs at Besov Nos we walked to another cape located nearby, called Pery Nos. Petroglyphs there include bird and animal figures, boats and moon signs.
There are more petroglyphs in the area but since we visited the most big and important sights we started the way back. In the estuary of the River we met a strange looking "viking"-style motorboat carrying deer horns on the bow.
We reached Petrozavodsk at about midnight. Despite of the not perfect weather the trip was successful and enjoyed by all participants.
