Buying petrol in Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan is not quite a straightforward as back home where you fill up your machine then go and pay on your card. For a start not many garages take a card and not any in Kaz yet. You have to pay first which means you have to estimate how much you need. Most local people seem to hand over a sum of money and get the volume in litres and part litres. Or you can ask for a set number of litres.and pay the price. Problem is the garage cashiers often sit behind very small windows or a glass screen and do not speak much, if any, English and of course we do not speak much of the local lauguages. We found the easiest way was to write the required number of litres on the palm of your hand e.g.‘40' and press it to the cashiers window and say ‘litres’. This seems to do the trick - they then show you their calculator which displays how much you need to pay. After paying an attendant appears from nowhere and puts the required number amount in your tank. Sometimes you are able to put it in yourself but the pump stops when you get to the volume you have paid for. We have not found a single garage in Kaz that has water easily available, if at all - you need to go to a village and look for a standpipe.
The school kids in Kaz are great, it seems the boys uniform is often a mini lounge suite and the young girls a black dress with a sort of white lacy waitresses apron over the top. We found the girls outfits quite bizarre at first but when we thought about it both of us had seen photos from the early 20th century of our own females relatives in similar white aprons in school photos. We chatted to one group of school kids in a village and in no time at all there were nearly 20 of them all clustering round, including 2-3 teachers, all wanting to practice their English and get our autograph. We have found that whilst the older generation, 40+, rarely speak any English almost all school age kids speak a little - apparently everyone is now taught English at school along with Kazakh & Russian.
The northern steppe between Aktobe and Kostanay were at one time huge collective farms. They now mainly owned by big businesses. We thought the farms in Ukraine were big enough but these ones are enormous. Tractors go over the horizon before they finish ploughing a furrow. There is also however a lot of abandoned land or fields that have been lying fallow for many years. Water is probably a problem and in dry years not much grows. Everywhere one sees evidence of the old soviet collective farms lying in ruins and decay. Derelict grain stores, old animal barns robbed of the roofing, old combine harvesters rusting and many villages in a state of decay & depopulation as so many people have left for the towns now that the collective does not promise a job to all. A number of small towns had huge grain silos overshadowing them but no areas under cultivation for miles around and presumably now no longer in use.
One of our most enjoyable camp sites so far (one of many) was on the way to Kostanay just north of the village of Livanovka. It was ‘big’ farming country and we were beginning to despair about finding anywhere. We turned off the main road along a dirt road which clearly let to a village (signposted 38 km) and after about five km we found a large patch of fallow fields (probably been fallow about 10 years) which were dissected by rows of birch and popular trees planted as wind/snow breaks. We drove a couple of km off the dirt road across this fallow (not easy as the plough ruts were still there) and camped up in the shade of some birch trees - see picture. Immediately on getting out of the car Mike spotted the nest of a pair of Imperial Eagles about 500 m away with two birds attending. We saw them several times over the next 16 hours but they were very skillful at approaching the nest behind trees. There were also breeding Hooded Crows, Magpies, also two pairs of Red-footed Falcons and a pair of Kestrels seemed to be disputing a nesting site in a old crows nest. Grey Partridge, Pallid and Marsh Harriers, Booted Warblers were a few others and as Little Bustard showed itself in the late afternoon. Lots of Common marmots had colonies in the field but our trail camera only succeeded in getting head shots. We also saw a couple foxes.
Our route took us to Kostanay which at 53 deg North is the first place on our trip so far to be further north than the fens where we started. There were more trees here than we had seen on the steppe proper. The diversion was to meet a contact of Mike’s, Evgeny Bragin who has been responsible for ringing many Imperial Eagles in Kazakhstan’s Naursum reserve, which have turned up in Arabia in winter and so come within Mike’s sphere of interest. We met with him briefly for a cup of tea the morning of the 21st and arranged to see him at the reserve on the 24th.
At Kostanay we needed to get a truck stop overnight camp, this one had no facilities at all but it served the purpose. South of Kostanay on the way to Naurzum reserve we had our first forest camp. There are islands of sandy outcrops in this region unsuited for agriculture and as a result were delightfully wild with forests of pine, birch and poplar. Our camp was just north of the town of Awliyekol. We turned off the road at a picnic site and were able to drive much further into the forest where we found a nice secluded little glade. Two new butterflies were immediately apparent but there very few birds. We did find a Great-spotted Woodpecker’s nest only about 30 m from where we pitched the tab, two adults feeding young. Also a dueting pair of Common Scops Owls. The common pigeon of these woods is the Oriental Turtle Dove, a bit bigger and heavier than our Turtle Dove.
Throughout the Ukraine, the part of Russia we saw and here in Kazakhstan we have seen many roadside shrines, we assume to people who have been killed in car accidents (as are starting to appear in the UK). In these countries though actual headstones are placed next to the road and each has a photo engraving of the person(s) concerned on it - other than where the victim was a Muslim and there is a crescent instead. We have found this to be quite poignant as actually seeing a face (usually young-mid age men) really brings the tragedy home to those passing much more strongly.
There is now a bit of a war going on with mozzies. They have been around for a while, there are several types and some are not like any we have come across before. Three burning coils and lashings of repellent just about keep them away but this lot never sleep, they are present all day and are big things with a voracious appetite. At least there is no malaria but Mike has a bad reaction to bites and they also can carry other nasty diseases, as well as just being unpleasant to be around, so we are trying to keep them at bay.
We had our first tick in the wood near Awliyekol. We are not talking here about ‘lifers’ for a twitcher but arachnids, the carrier of tick-borne encephalitis. We had half a dozen sitting at camp and Carol found one in the bed the next morning. So there is now a second front in our battle with the wildlife. Ticks are commonly found in grassland and forest areas but seem to be very local within this but we are not sure what specifically they prefer. They are a great way of spoiling a good walk. It is hard to walk here without brushing up against the grasses etc which they collect on and it is easy to get paranoid about them crawling up you to find a nice nook or cranny where they can attach themselves. We both had lots on the morning of the 24th and when back at base Carol took her trainers off and a whole ‘nest full’ surged forth. This trip is not all fun! Although we have 90% protection through the vaccination against TBE, ticks also carry many other unpleasant diseases so again we have to be a bit careful - the tick tweezers have now been moved from the fist aid kit to our day bag but we have not had to use them yet!
The school kids in Kaz are great, it seems the boys uniform is often a mini lounge suite and the young girls a black dress with a sort of white lacy waitresses apron over the top. We found the girls outfits quite bizarre at first but when we thought about it both of us had seen photos from the early 20th century of our own females relatives in similar white aprons in school photos. We chatted to one group of school kids in a village and in no time at all there were nearly 20 of them all clustering round, including 2-3 teachers, all wanting to practice their English and get our autograph. We have found that whilst the older generation, 40+, rarely speak any English almost all school age kids speak a little - apparently everyone is now taught English at school along with Kazakh & Russian.
The northern steppe between Aktobe and Kostanay were at one time huge collective farms. They now mainly owned by big businesses. We thought the farms in Ukraine were big enough but these ones are enormous. Tractors go over the horizon before they finish ploughing a furrow. There is also however a lot of abandoned land or fields that have been lying fallow for many years. Water is probably a problem and in dry years not much grows. Everywhere one sees evidence of the old soviet collective farms lying in ruins and decay. Derelict grain stores, old animal barns robbed of the roofing, old combine harvesters rusting and many villages in a state of decay & depopulation as so many people have left for the towns now that the collective does not promise a job to all. A number of small towns had huge grain silos overshadowing them but no areas under cultivation for miles around and presumably now no longer in use.
One of our most enjoyable camp sites so far (one of many) was on the way to Kostanay just north of the village of Livanovka. It was ‘big’ farming country and we were beginning to despair about finding anywhere. We turned off the main road along a dirt road which clearly let to a village (signposted 38 km) and after about five km we found a large patch of fallow fields (probably been fallow about 10 years) which were dissected by rows of birch and popular trees planted as wind/snow breaks. We drove a couple of km off the dirt road across this fallow (not easy as the plough ruts were still there) and camped up in the shade of some birch trees - see picture. Immediately on getting out of the car Mike spotted the nest of a pair of Imperial Eagles about 500 m away with two birds attending. We saw them several times over the next 16 hours but they were very skillful at approaching the nest behind trees. There were also breeding Hooded Crows, Magpies, also two pairs of Red-footed Falcons and a pair of Kestrels seemed to be disputing a nesting site in a old crows nest. Grey Partridge, Pallid and Marsh Harriers, Booted Warblers were a few others and as Little Bustard showed itself in the late afternoon. Lots of Common marmots had colonies in the field but our trail camera only succeeded in getting head shots. We also saw a couple foxes.
Our route took us to Kostanay which at 53 deg North is the first place on our trip so far to be further north than the fens where we started. There were more trees here than we had seen on the steppe proper. The diversion was to meet a contact of Mike’s, Evgeny Bragin who has been responsible for ringing many Imperial Eagles in Kazakhstan’s Naursum reserve, which have turned up in Arabia in winter and so come within Mike’s sphere of interest. We met with him briefly for a cup of tea the morning of the 21st and arranged to see him at the reserve on the 24th.
At Kostanay we needed to get a truck stop overnight camp, this one had no facilities at all but it served the purpose. South of Kostanay on the way to Naurzum reserve we had our first forest camp. There are islands of sandy outcrops in this region unsuited for agriculture and as a result were delightfully wild with forests of pine, birch and poplar. Our camp was just north of the town of Awliyekol. We turned off the road at a picnic site and were able to drive much further into the forest where we found a nice secluded little glade. Two new butterflies were immediately apparent but there very few birds. We did find a Great-spotted Woodpecker’s nest only about 30 m from where we pitched the tab, two adults feeding young. Also a dueting pair of Common Scops Owls. The common pigeon of these woods is the Oriental Turtle Dove, a bit bigger and heavier than our Turtle Dove.
Throughout the Ukraine, the part of Russia we saw and here in Kazakhstan we have seen many roadside shrines, we assume to people who have been killed in car accidents (as are starting to appear in the UK). In these countries though actual headstones are placed next to the road and each has a photo engraving of the person(s) concerned on it - other than where the victim was a Muslim and there is a crescent instead. We have found this to be quite poignant as actually seeing a face (usually young-mid age men) really brings the tragedy home to those passing much more strongly.
There is now a bit of a war going on with mozzies. They have been around for a while, there are several types and some are not like any we have come across before. Three burning coils and lashings of repellent just about keep them away but this lot never sleep, they are present all day and are big things with a voracious appetite. At least there is no malaria but Mike has a bad reaction to bites and they also can carry other nasty diseases, as well as just being unpleasant to be around, so we are trying to keep them at bay.
We had our first tick in the wood near Awliyekol. We are not talking here about ‘lifers’ for a twitcher but arachnids, the carrier of tick-borne encephalitis. We had half a dozen sitting at camp and Carol found one in the bed the next morning. So there is now a second front in our battle with the wildlife. Ticks are commonly found in grassland and forest areas but seem to be very local within this but we are not sure what specifically they prefer. They are a great way of spoiling a good walk. It is hard to walk here without brushing up against the grasses etc which they collect on and it is easy to get paranoid about them crawling up you to find a nice nook or cranny where they can attach themselves. We both had lots on the morning of the 24th and when back at base Carol took her trainers off and a whole ‘nest full’ surged forth. This trip is not all fun! Although we have 90% protection through the vaccination against TBE, ticks also carry many other unpleasant diseases so again we have to be a bit careful - the tick tweezers have now been moved from the fist aid kit to our day bag but we have not had to use them yet!
