Things to do in Urals: Tyumen hot springs
enjoying Tyumen hot springs
For a long time we’ve been planning to go to the Tyumen region, remarkable for the deposits of oil, and also for our local “Urals Sea”- the hot springs of Tyumen. The road from Yekaterinburg to Tyumen takes a 5 hours fast car drive, so we decided to leave early in the Saturday morning. Spring came to our lands so we departed in a good mood.
So, what exactly is the hot springs, and how were they formed in Tyumen? As I’ve already mentioned, the Tyumen region is rich in oil. In the 70s of last century, geologists began to explore regions where oil could be extracted. They began to drill wells into the ground. But it turned out that out of some wells made by geologists very hot water run. The fact is that these wells were drilled in the regions, called geothermal areas where magma is located close enough to the surface and heats the overlying rocks. The ground waters circulate in pores and crevices of rocks and are heated. Going out to the surface ground waters form lakes of hot water with high content of mineral salts. Such steamy lakes could be often found in the Tyumen woods in the winters. The view is impressive.
Nowadays, a lot of such springs have become entertainment centers, where we headed headed for.
We arrived in Tyumen after 5 hours of driving under the bright sunny sky. The springs are located in the resort of “Upper pine forest”. We bought tickets and went inside. There is the hotel near the resort, equipped with changing rooms for bathers and showers. And also there is a cafe, a solarium, massage, rental, where you can buy everything necessary for bathing.
Dressed in swimsuits and sandshoes, wrapped in towels, at + 15 C we were willing to go outside. A thought came to our mind – Not so far but yesterday the winter was outside, and already today we found ourselves dressed in bathing suits going to bathe in the open air, leaving the boring winter behind. It inspired us and we went to the pool outside. Swimming pool consists of two bowls filled with mineral water; the temperature is always +40 ° C to +42 ° C. Water from the hot springs goes to the pool area of about 200 square meters. The bowls are located beside each other at different height levels with overflow of water from one to another.
What a bliss is the warming salt water under the sunny sky. Having warmed ourselves at the bottom bowl of the pool we felt ready to try the water in the upper bowl of the pool. Water at the top is much hotter, but the effect of warming is deeper. The duration of bathing in hot springs should not exceed 15 – 20 minutes; you should always take a break. That is why time elapsed for us very quickly.
As we stepped outside the pool and looked around we saw a sauna and a lake near by. In winter a hole is hacked in the lake so that people could dive in ice water. Having warmed up in the sauna we sat down on the bench and enjoyed this spring sunlight.
 pool with the mineral hot water |
 the ice hole near the sauna |
A few words about the usefulness of sources:
Even in ancient times people have discovered the healing power of natural hot springs that help in treating variety of diseases.
The composition of water: Mineral water “Tyumen-2 bromine, sodium chloride, the well number 10, the depth of 1233 m, the mineralization-75, at liter.
Chlorine 420 Calcium 1250 Magnesium 25
Bicarbonate 300 – 350 Potassium 38 Bromine 25 – 30
boron fluoride 0.76 35 Iodine 2.5 -5
acidity 75
After bathing we took a shower which is obligatory as the water is 50% of mineral salts and felt ourselves hungry. Our next destinations were Tyumen and Tobolsk, we will tell about them in the next post.
