The day after New Year's I sat at home and watched 3 and a half movies and took 4 and a half naps, convinced I would spend the rest of my vacation in pseudo-hibernation. Partway through this wonderful day of lounging, my phone rang and for some time I let it ring, wondering if I should pick it up. Finally, I decided to answer and it was my friend Dina: "Would you like to go to the farm?" she asked. "Sure," I answered. "Okay, I'll come by tomorrow at noon." And that was the end of my relaxing vacation.
The next day, Dina's husband drove us to a small town an hour north of the city, from which we took a bus to the farm. As we meandered through the picturesque hills, we passed by an ancient settlement whose people used to raise horses. Today, there is another such mini-civilization of which I would soon become privy to.
The bus dropped us off here:
Vlad helped us carry our luggage.
Beautiful, right? Vast, rolling, snowy fields, large mysterious hills bristling with leafless forests. The beautiful scenery and of course the horses made everything else tolerable: no electricity, no running water, no bathrooms!
After we arrived, we went to the cowshed where there is a little room and a very hot old stove. We drank some tea as Dina chatted with Luda, who works there and is living in that little room temporarily with her two children. She is from the nearby village.
Luda, preparing something at the stove.
Sitting down for a bowl of borsch and bread with thick cream... delicious. The workers at the farm sometimes only eat in the evening, but they have tea breaks almost every two hours.
After dinner, I went with Dina and the kids to go get fresh water that comes up from a spring a few hundred metres away from the farm.
That night, we slept in a little cabin that was built for workers and other tourists like ourselves. We shared a single room with 7 other people! Some were there to ride horses, others were there just to relax and play a very complicated board game that lasted a few days.
On my way to the outhouse that night, it was spectacular to see the stars, but I was so afraid of meeting a tiger, which are not uncommon in the area.
This was the temperature the next morning. Don't worry, it went up to -15!
I waited all day but I finally got to ride a horse. Of course, I didn't come prepared, so all the clothes I'm wearing are mostly Luda's!
The horse's name was Cascade, and he is about 2 years old and very energetic. I've ridden horses before, but never with so much freedom to do what I liked. We trotted and galloped around the field.
Dina on her pony:
To add to my experiences, that evening I learned how to milk a cow!
The next day we took the horses out across the fields to bring this Pinto back to the herd that stays in the forest for the winter.
This is Dina's horse, and the reason why we came. He's of course unwilling to come back to the farm with her, since he is so much enjoying getting fat off the grass and cabbages he finds under the snow.
Cascade was really happy to be out in the open and I had to work really hard to stop him from galloping at any chance he got. When we got back to the farm, though, I let him run as fast as he liked!
This is another horse, a full-grown stallion.
We stayed for another night and then went back to Vladivostok.
No comments:
Post a Comment