Images of the Ural Mountains natural landscapes (from
this expedition)
you can find at Natural
Landscapes of the World section of our site.
Next year after our US educational trip, summer
1998 Association Ecosystem hosted the group of American educators in Russia. All these
people weró friends and students of our last summer leader , Bozeman (USA).
The goal of their visit to Russia was carrying out a few pedagogical workshops in
different Russian regions - Kemerovo (Eastern Siberia), Nijniy Tagil (Ural) and Moscow.
Being in the Ural mountains we seized on the idea of rafting on the canoes by Chusovaya
river, one of the famous and beautiful rivers in the Ural. Picture on the left shows our
expedition group on the Europe-Asia border, not far from the Chusovaya river.
The leaders of our expedition were from Nijniy Tagil city - Vladimir
Zikov, who was a young tourist center teacher and Lidia Vavaeva from Young Naturalist
Station .
These our friends arranged everything necessary for the expedition: canoes, tents,
slipping baggs, food, and even bodyguard !
Thank you, friends ! We are sorry that some of you are gone...
It was a real expedition: all were separated by pairs, one Russian and one
American and each pair work together - live in one tent, was on duty at the camp, paddle
in the canoe.
Each morning started from the breakfast near the fire, than we bug out the camp and begin
rafting, choosing the site for the new camp in the afternoon, setting up the camp,
preparing food...
It was a real international expedition - every Russian-American pair was on duty.
Rafting down the river we stopped often to climb the nearest bald, making
a picture of local plant and trying to identify local rock or mineral. Remember, there
were not ordinary rafters, but biologists and geographers in their professional atmosphere
!
Picture on the left shows us on the Kamen peak - the local "mountain navel",
1200 above sea level.
We were lucky with the weather - the sun was shining and the water was
warm. The picture on the left shows the workshop "The approaches and methods of
ecology and environmental education in US and Russia: comparative analysis".
Lecturers: the professor of Montana State University Dr. Michael Brody, USA and the
president of Ecosystem Association Dr. Alexander Bogolyubov, Russia.
The week of the expedition passed quickly...
Tired but happy, sting by mosquitoes and lost flesh (therefore) we landed near small local
village Kin.
We were met by wondered local citizens, the most of them have heard English language in
their wild places at first time in their life.
Farewell!, Chusovaya, see you later (maybe...).
Images of the Ural Mountains natural landscapes (from
this expedition)
you can find at Natural
Landscapes of the World section of our site.
