Episode 6There is the small town of Nevyansk about 100k’s north of Ekaterinburg with a leaning tower and a couple of other points of interest in the area so we headed off that way.This town was founded on the iron ore mined in the area around the very begining of the 18th century. An enterprising local built a smelter for processing the iron ore into cast iron. From then on the town prospered until the ore gave out in the late 1800’s or there abouts.The leaning tower was stated around 1722, but before the top was added it had begun to sink on one side. After some time it stabilised and the rest of the tower was added with a lean in the opposite direction as a counter balance. It’s still standing after nearly 300 years so their engineering can’t have been too bad.A couple of unique features about this tower; the clock in the top was made in England, so too 10 of the 11 bells in the tower. The bells were made by the same fellow who made those in St Pauls Cathedral and Big Ben. In recent decades the tower has been restored. One of the features of the tower was the clock that played tunes or parts there of every 15 minutes with a long performance every 3 hours. When it came to restoring the clock that was no longer working a few specialist clock repairs were consulted, however, they all claimed that it was beyond repair, then a young local fellow whose hobby was working with old clocks that people were about to throw out stepped in and offered to see what he could do with it. This was in the 1970’s, he got the clock working again, and with the help of music specialists got the music working too and added a Glinka tune that now plays every 3 hours on the hour.The cathedral beside the tower has been restored too, it had been gutted and used as a factory during Soviet times. A very nice lady by the name of Alina took us on a tour of the tower. We climbed right to the top and I got hung over the side for a photo, I wish they wouldn’t do that it makes me very nervous. The view up here is great over the dam and the town. The old factory and smelter were beside the tower but now all the buildings are abandoned and decaying with the forest reclaiming what it can. There is a small interesting museum beside the tower and cathedral.In a small village a few k’s away we saw the very ornately decorated blacksmiths house. It is extremely colourful too. although much of the decoration is metal fabrication there is a lots of wood decoration too. A few other places in the village have taken inspiration from this and added a tiny bit of detail to their own places.In yet another village we visited a pottery works. In the building we also found a room displaying gemstones and minerals from the Urals area and met a group of students on a field trip in the Urals from Stavropol University in the north Caucasus. They seemed amazed that we not only knew where Stavaprol was but that we had been there and had friends in the general region.We tagged along with this group of students for a tour of the pottery works although not much seems to be working. We only saw one lady doing some detail work on mugs and tankards that had been made in moulds. There were shelves full of items that were drying and had yet to be fired in the kilns. We did see one pottery wheel but it wasn’t in use. It seemed to us that most stuff was made using moulds. One of the students did some translating for us. At the end the guide presented us with a lovely glazed bowl, and a small plaque with local gemstones. She didn’t seem to speak a word of English.As we made a bit of a tour through the Urals we passed through a few more towns where there is some mining, none of it appear to be large scale although we did see a couple of large slag heaps, one was in the town of Resj not all that far from Nevyansk. No idea what they mine there. We still didn’t encounter any mountains just some hills and the highest elevation we checked was around 450m, so this is no great mountain range at least not in this region, as significant as it is geographically as the divide between Europe and Asia. In fact we even saw another Europe/Asia marker, this one we had to ourselves as there wasn’t much traffic along this road and few of them would have been tourists. This one was a little SW of Lesnoi.Along this route we also came to a pointer for PERM 36, one of the Soviet eras infamous Gulags, now a world heritage site.First thing one morning we had a guided tour of the site. It was opened in 1946 and originally held prisoners convicted of what we would consider fairly minor crimes. Turning up for work 20 mins late on more than one occasion would have seen you sent to this place. Good job that’s not a crime in Australia, there wouldn’t be anyone left to do any work.Later on in the 1960’s it was political activists and dissidents and those considered to be in need of ‘reeducation’ who were sent here. Then in 1980 under Andropov another section was added 500m away, this was for an even more strict regime than the existing prison. Gorbachov closed the whole place in 1988.conditions were harsh here without any added punishments. This far north winters are long and way below freezing for much of the year. Below -30C for 3 months at least. There was some heating, wood burners initially then steam heating later on but I shouldn’t think those buildings would have been any too warm at the best on times. Bunks were made or rough hewn boards, splinters and all in some with a hessian sheet for a mattress. Thin sort of duvet for cover, possibly filled with wool but L wouldn’t bet on it. Prisoners had a bath once a week and got issued clean clothes. In winter L doubts that that would be something to look forward to either.There was a 3m high wooden fence so prisoners couldn’t see out, inside that a few metres was a barbed wire fence with very fine steel thread woven through it that couldn’t been seen, then several metres to the 3rd and innermost fence. This strip also had loose guard dogs, probably hungry ones.One unusual thing at this Gulag is the avenue of trees. Mostly in such places all trees are removed however, these were left here and the prisoners used the shady areas beneath as a sort of recreational area in the summer months.There was a solitary confinement cell, and a solitary room, in the strict regime prison where prisons who repeatedly offended could be placed for months at a time on reduced rations. In the very strict regime prison there are several such cells and in that prison prisoners could be kept in them for months at a time too. The strict regime prison could hold 250 prisoners, the very strict regime one about 30 to 40 prisoners who were convicted of crimes that were considered especially dangerous to the state.It was late in the day when we went on to Perm and spent a few hours in that relatively pleasant city.Perm has some rather lovely old buildings that mostly date from the mid 19th century. It must have been quite a prosperous city during those times because it was mostly merchants who built those lovely places. In recent times they have been restored. In Soviet times many buildings never got any maintenance even though they were being used, though some cultural sites were kept in good order.Like most Russian cites there are trams and it always amazes my lot that these trams never seem to derail despite the fact that some of those tram lines are decidedly ‘wonky’. Riding along in some of the older trams in -40C on a pitch dark morning in February wouldn’t be L’s idea of the best way to start the day.A swim at Oaks beach in +30C is more her thing. Don’t really think David or me would be any too keen either.Leaving Perm we headed back out on the Ekaterinburg road for quite a way before turning south to take very minor roads through this part of the Urals to Zlatoust and onto the Chelyabinsk/Ufa road far to the south. There are a few National Parks or reserves in this area but L can’t find any roads going into them either on our map or on Gertie #3. Driving along in a line of traffic, mostly large trucks and traveling about 70’s ph with thick regrowth forest off to the side, suddenly a young moose emerged full pelt from the thicket rushed up the high embankment to the edge of the road, then fortunately for all concerned did a swift u-turn and returned to the forest. It was just a fleeting glimpse of the animal and it is our first ever sighting of one. My lot have never encountered one on any of their previous trips to Russia. This year though we have seen several signs warning that they might be on the road, not seen that in past years either.The trip along these minor by ways through small villages proved quite interesting. There are vast areas of cleared land, some cultivated with broad acre cereal crops but much left seemingly unused. We did see several good sized dairy herds, the most we seen in any given area, along with the first sheep we’ve seen, quite a lot of goats, gaggles of geese, and plenty of hens pecking by the road side. Again we noted that the Moslem villages seemed more prosperous than obviously Christian ones, though on this trip most of the villages seems more prosperous than those we have encounter up to now. Many of the houses have new brightly coloured steel roofs, bright blues and turquoise being the most popular. Fences painted in similar colours are popular and several of the houses too. A lot of renovated houses and some of them have vinyl cladding siding that we have only rarely seen before. We know that it is vinyl or plastic as we have seen a couple of burnt out places that did have such cladding. It melts:About two thirds of our way south along this route we came to much higher hills or even mountains and we climbed to well over 600m at one point. There were far fewer villages and much more thick forest. We had run out of sealed road so up and over the mountains was on a gravel road with very little traffic. A bit corrugated in places but not too bad. Just before reaching Kusa we rejoined the sealed road. Then we came to the big town of Zlatoust that sits on the shore of a lake. This lake, like so many we have seen is actually another dam. It seems like the Russian have damed almost every stream in the country at least in one spot, some rivers have many dams along their length, such as the Volga.In Zlatoust we came upon a large market with all sorts of fresh produce for sale. Home made yogurts, buttermilk, cottage cheese, butter and some hard cheese on a few stalls. Then there was the fresh meat stalls, mostly pork though we did see some beef too and lots of chicken, duck and goose all ready for the pot. Smoked fish is very popular, dried fish too, but you don’t want to smell it while its drying. Plenty of places selling plants and seedings both vegetables and ornamentals. Then we came to the livestock section with pens of chickens from day olds to a few weeks, ducklings and goslings in the same age groups. One lot of chickens died green, no idea why but they can hardly protest can they. Oh, and some quail. Eggs from all species were on sale too.There were a few piglets, several pens of rabbits and even one puppy that looked like a blue heeler cross, very unhappy he looked and that made L unhappy too. Clothes, kitchen wares and most of the other stuff you find at markets could be found here too. David took several photos however he didn’t bother with my appearance in most of them, I’m not really happy about that, I like to be seen.We joined the main road westward towards Ufa for a short way then turned off towards a National Park or reserve. L had found a road leading into this one. It was another gravel road and there seemed to be plenty of other traffic heading the same way. It was a Saturday.We came to a barrier in a small village and had to pay 40 Rouble ea. not for me though, fortunately L says, otherwise I may have been left outside. Thats less than $1 AU each. One of the features to see in the park we discovered is the fountain. It’s really not much in summer, we decided once we arrived at it. It looks like an uncapped high pressure artesian bore that pushes the spout of water about 10m into the air. It looks its best in winter when it forms a frozen fountain. Whether or not it really is a bore or a natural feature my lot couldn’t find out. Some distance further on we came to the main lagaar or camping area. There were a great many cars parked along the road side wherever they could as the parking area really didn’t cater for the amount of people that were here. As camp sites go we’ve seen better. None of the grass is mown and the ground is quite rough. There are narrow well worn paths through the grass and weeds where everyone walks. Some picnic shelters that have small fire places beside them, they were all occupied. Many people had chosen not to camp in the open area but in amongst the trees where there were a few more picnic shelters. At the bottom of the slope there was a stream and this served as the place to have a wash. When we walked beyond the stream and along one of the tracks we came to an area where there were more campers, they had to carry their camping gear quite a way from their transport. The toilets were the things to avoid if possible. A positive health risk L says. For a supposedly developed western culture, a well educated populous, the Russians can’t seem to cope with toilets. Only in the most expensive of hotels do you have ones that you can actually flush the paper, mostly, as is the case in much of Europe and all of South and Central America, you put the used paper in a bin beside the too. That takes a lot of getting used to for us westerners who have, for all our lives, just flushed it down the loo. My lot have had plenty of experience with putting it in the bin but can’t ‘get used’ to the idea.These toilets here though at this park well, they were gross. No other way to describe them. L took a photo and says you should be glad you can’t see any more. The thing is, they don’t even dig a deep hole in the ground, so it no ‘long drop’ dunny. It’s a little A frame shack with a wooden floor with a hole cut into it, so squat toilet, with the pile of ‘doings’ below nearly up to floor level and spilling out behind the back wall, and an overflowing bin of used paper. The one loo serves both sexes and it seems most peoples ‘aim’ isn’t all that accurate so the floor is wet too. Only in desperation did L use it and she felt as if she needed disinfecting after. She shudders whenever she thinks about it.Some of the highest peaks in the Urals are around this area and relatively short walks from this campground. The highest is 1440m, and another 1220m, each a 16k’s round trip walk. Not that much of a climb from the 500m level we were at. David, however, didn’t feel like doing any long walks and he certainly couldn’t do that climb now despite the fact that it was really quite chilly. L would have liked to have done one, but she is a bit hopeless at following trails on her own so she settled for a relaxing time and short walks around the area.The range rover with GB plates attracted a bit of attention here and we met a number of people. Some asked where we were from and were always aghast when we tell them Australia. Although in this part of Russia it’s not much further to Australia than it is back to the UK.Two or three groups of campers have come from Ekaterinburg and that’s quite a long way from here. Another group were from Izjevsk and that is at least twice as far away. Their group had hired a ‘big’ mini bus to bring them here for about 3 days, other groups had done likewise. One member of this group is a musician and composer and he composed and sang a song he had written in our honour. They were a lovely group of young people whose common factor seemed to be a yoga class.Another group of young people invited us to share their fish soup with them. It has to be the best ever fish soup my lot have ever eaten. Gee it was good!There is a lake in the north of the park accessible by car from a different road so when we left here we drove into the town of Satka to get some more supplies before heading off to the lake where we would be camping for the night. Satka was a surprise. As we came over the hill and got out first view of the town we saw that is was backed by huge mountains of overburden from big mines. We think it is possibly iron ore but couldn’t find out for sure. Once in the town we saw it had other attractions too. There is a very pretty old style wooden church, and some lovely municipal buildings. In the middle of the lake there appears to be a castle or monastery on an island, while in the middle of the town there is a great rusting relic of an ore processing plant of some kind. It may well be still operational, but it is certainly an eyesore. We had to pay 40 roubles each and 40 for the car too, on entering the park to go to the lake. Again the camping was just a s crowded, it didn’t seem to have thinned out being a Sunday evening. There was a strong wind blowing and it was cold and the lake, another dam, was very choppy. There appeared to be a number of small boats for hire but none were out on the water. Later in the evening it began to rain and turned even colder. Next morning it was still raining, though not so heavily. We found out that it is a long weekend that’s why there are so many people about.© Lynette Regan 17th June 2016