Of course I am aware of the water problems that Australia has been having. Let me go on record straight away and say, that if industry recycled all its water in Australia, there would not be a general consumer problem. I know there are restrictions on watering gardens, but I will still have my shower the way I like it, after all, user pays.....
I hear that the European introduced trees are starting to die out in Melbourne. That will be a real slice of reverse culture shock for me.
But first, a shot of the beautiful peaceful prairies in full song.
We passed a rather larger slough today with, I kid you not, over a couple hundred ducks. It was simply majestic. It's really wonderful to see the prairies returning to normal. There is hope for Australia yet. Don't believe everything Al Gore tells you...
Back to pitiful old me. We have just returned from the family camp in the forest of northern Saskatchewan, with over 80 people in attendance. Perhaps I am changing in life, or perhaps it is just the cultural transition stage, but I am more of an introverted person than I used to be. It was all just too much for me. I spent a lot of the time hiding away from people, but I still did spend some time relating to some of the people that I knew. I finished reading my first ever book on e-reader on the iPod, "Tarzan of the Apes" by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I won't spoil it for you, except to say, it was not the ending I expected.
I came out of my shell towards the end of the camp. I'm a little hard to please, I know, when some people did have questions to ask about Russia, they either seemed trivial or too general to be able to answer. Or some people just thought they knew too much and weren't really interested in listening. I will try harder I promise (it helps if I am not in a reclusive mood). All I can say is, if you are genuinely interested in listening and have the time, then I am sure we will have some really great chats.
Thanks to some of you who left some comments on my last post. It's nice to know that you are listening.
We need to get on with planning our calendar now. I don't feel like I have had the time to get settled in, since we have been in an artificial socially extreme environment for the last six days. I will probably have to pull myself up by the bootstraps. I just sorely need a real holiday away from everything.
5 comments:
Wow, these prairie shots are beautiful. Such wide open spaces. Does it remind you of Sibir, or does it feel different?
The terrain in Canada and Russia are in a sense similar. The Prairies would relate to the steppes. Both have vast swathes of forest. But the way the land is used is entirely different.
In Russia as you know, cities are crowded together. The land outside of the city is wild and virtually untouched. There is some farming in Russia, but in comparison to Canada, very little.
In Russia, grass just runs wild. But even yesterday as we drove home we remarked how often we saw large areas of mowed grass.
The land may be similar, but the effect of culture upon the land makes it look very different.
Prairies and steppe are similar, but different. The Prairies have a lot of water holes and bird life. I have not seen this in Russia.
Oops, I meant both Canada and Russia ALSO have vast swathes of forest as well as grasslands, not that the Prairies has forest.
It's so interesting. The wildness of Siberia is fantastic, but I guess there is so much untapped potential there due to a lack of infrastructure, like decent roads. Can it all be blamed on the weather, I wonder? Or on collectivisation and the destruction of peasant agriculture? ...
Nope, don't blame it on the weather. The Russians developed the north of Siberia, far more than the Canadians have their north. Alaska is of course more developed than the north of Russia.
The main difference is that there is not a lot of infrastructure connecting the places. During Soviet times everything was connected by air with frequent, regular, cheap flights. That has all changed, and as the air infrastructure has declined the isolation has increased.
For your curiosity:
Check out some places on the map in Siberia-
Khanty Mansiysk and Yamalo Nenets okrugs are relatively well developed because they are in one of the richest oil producing regions in the world. The train line reaches north into these regions. This is in the western part of Siberia, next to the Urals.
The central part in the Krasnoyarsk Krai is the least developed of all with the exception of Norilsk city in the far north, a rich mineral producing area (with tragically dangerous pollution). Norilsk is only accessible by air from the south.
Within in Krasnoyarsk Krai the southern district centre of Baikit in Evenkiya district will be connected by road to Krasnoyarsk city by 2010. This of course will not be a paved road, but it will still be a vast improvement. The cost of living there will definitely come down.
Further east is Yakutia. The capital of Yakutia is Yakutsk and is in a rich diamond producing area. The train line from the south to Yakutia will also be completed by 2010.
Tuva in the south has a lot of unexplored mineral wealth. It has virtually no economy at present. The train line will go south to Tuva also by 2010.
Russia will continue to boom for many years to come.
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