travelling sheep

Muddy faced children stood half naked above the road looking down on us lined along the side of the road. Pigs ran around grunting at each morsel they stuck their nose into. The children watched, without expression, without comment on the proceedings below. A crowd gathered to watch us with blank expressionless faces. Then came squeal of the Korean made beige mini bus as it raced up the hill and into the thick sticky mud, the wheels spun again sending thick brown mess flying. The crowd waited in silence, holding their breath, watching. The wheels spun and then spun and then nothing. The driver cut the engine and shot back down the hill in reverse. We all sighed waiting for him to launch into another failed attack on this mountainside that has held us captive three ... read more

Arrival Getting here is a challenge in itself, the nearest train stations are Mineralnye Vody and Nevinnomyssk which are a 4 hour and 3.5 hour drive respectively. Once at the train station you can start bartering for the cost of the taxi fare to Dombay, if you're lucky there will be some other people on your train going in the same direction and you'll be able to share the cost. Or you may be even luckier and meet an Armenian driver who went to English school, Victor's English wasn't great but with our Russian and his English we had a good chat for the four drive. We agreed on 3000R for the drive eventually but expect to pay 3,500R, Victor started by charging us 4,000R. We chose to go to Mineralnye Vody because from our research ... read more