An afternoon hike deep into the Eurasian forest steppe

I’ve been having a lot of fun on the excavation and in Stepnoye in general, but I haven’t had many chances to go hiking in my limited free time, which is otherwise one of my favourite activities. So when my friend Tolya, who is the son of Nadya, one of the Russian archaeologists, asked if I would join him for a hike, I jumped at the opportunity. It had been incredibly warm and humid earlier that Sunday, but thankfully it had cooled down a bit in the afternoon as the sun was behind a blanket of clouds.

He came over around 4 PM and then we started the hike out of the village and into the steppe. I’m absolutely in love with the landscape surrounding Stepnoye. It’s located on the eastern foothills of the Ural Mountains, and the colours are always amazing. That day the clouds were behaving very well and gave me the most perfect light for photography.

I wasn’t sure where we were going as all Tolya said was that he wanted to show me a large rock where there was a nice view. I didn’t know for how long we were going to be hiking, I just went with the flow. With his limited English and my absolutely terrible Russian, it was difficult to communicate, but that didn’t stop us from having some pretty amusing conversations with the help of our friend, Google Translate.

We hiked for about two hours, past the famous Stepnoye settlement and further on to a hilly place, where we sat down for a while to enjoy the incredible view of the vast steppe. During our hike, we encountered many beautiful flowers and animals. We saw several lizards, one of which Tolya caught and held in his hand for photography before setting him free again.

Not long after, we came to the large rock located beside the Uy River on an elevated place in the landscape. I think it’s one of Tolya’s favourite places in the area, which I can completely understand.

After a few moments on the rock, we started to head back to Stepnoye, but not before taking a swim in the Uy River. The sun had broken free from the clouds, so it had gotten really warm and humid again.

I hadn’t brought any swimming clothes, so I just jumped in as I was, fully clothed, which I’ve also been doing at the excavation on the sunny days. It’s so incredibly refreshing when it’s hot, and wetting your clothes is actually the perfect way to cool down!

When we got back to Stepnoye, we took a small detour to the supermarket as Tolya wanted to buy something, but it wasn’t open. Instead, we watched the daily cow ritual as the cows were taken from the field to their night resting place in the village.

At the same time, a friendly cat came walking up to us, eager to be stroked, and I can never say no to that! Most cats here in Stepnoye run away from me when I approach them, but this one wanted plenty of strokes and kisses!

We arrived back at the house shortly before sunset, and ended our day with Eva, who showed us her favourite sunset spot by some old factory ruins near our house.

The sunset was absolutely incredible, and it was the perfect way to end a wonderful day on the Russian forest steppe.