After 3 months of almost daily commuting by bus between the hotel and MIK, we run more than 6000kms in the steppe. Through this period, we saw the different colours of this semi desert landscape shifting from white, to reddish and slightly green now. Many pictures have been already published to address this side aspect of the campaign. But this last trip gives the opportunity to remember this significant time spent in the steppe and report few of the unusual facets of our daily trips. As it can be easily understood pictures are difficult to shot from the bus as the roads are extremely bumpy and full of potholes...
You may think that steppe is completely flat, it is not entirely true. There is a bit of relief here and there.
There is even one hill which funnily reminds the great Egyptian sphynx of Gyza (with the broken nose) ... an older Kazakh version of it? :-)
You may want to see it from the front, just to be sure...
Another omnipresent element of the landscape is the only tree which grows in this semi desert area: the Саксаул Saksaul or Haloxylon. The Haloxylon Aphyllum, or Black Saksaul, is likely the variety found around the Baikonur area. We saw few of them during our trips to the MIK mainly along the roads. They also contribute to break the monotony of these flat landscapes.
Around Turyatam, domestic animals are easily visible and part of the daily life of the city: beyond pack of semi wild dogs, you will see cows, goats and camels ...
(note the tied legs of the camel preventing him running)
Camel is definitely a fascinating animal despite its lunatic character (it won't hesitate to spit on you when it is not happy!). Apparently this young one below was not so impressed by our encounter :-)
During the winter period, animals were rare and not so easy to observe: magpies, pigeons, Corsac foxes, wild horses... were the ones visible in the coldest and harshest conditions we had. This completely changed when the spring broke through. Susliks, Steppe eagle, falcons, crows, hoopoe, wagtail, seagulls... could be often observed.
Of course this list is not complete and photos were quasi impossible to shot from the bus.
The picture below shows wild horses grazing in front of launch pad 109 just one day after the CryoSat-2 launch.
From the bus we could also observe funny constructions like this one: something between a minaret and a hunting elevated post; No clue what it is used for...
The cosmodrome is also crossed by a rather dense railways network. Trains departing each morning from the Gorodskaja central station surely (but slowly) transport thousands of workers who operate the cosmodrome the whole year!
Some other trains are dedicated to rocket or equipment transport.
As a consequence of this traffic, there are numerous small or big railways stations on the cosmodrome and people living there to operate and maintain this network. Here under is the Minskaja railways station shot on 20/02/2010 when we brought back CryoSat-2 from Launch pad 109 to the MIK for the baby sitting period.
Passing the Donskaja railways station on the same day...the Station Manager was greeting the convoy.
Trains and locomotives have definitely been part of our daily landscape traveling to the MIK.
As it was mentioned before, the roads are in rather poor conditions and car accidents happen as we saw on 1/02/2010. Along the roads, small monuments remind those who lost their lives on the cosmodrome after car crashes.
To reach the MIK we had to stop at several controls. This was rather easy due to the escort team (1 or 2 persons traveling with us). Here is the control on the on-going trip to enter the Cosmodrom. This border is flagged with the beautiful Gagarin emblem (note the tracking station just behind).
On the return trip here under, the control to to enter to the Baikonur city. Between those 2 control points it is the territory of Kazakhstan.
The other side of this control shows a monumental statue inviting travelers to stop in case they forget...
These trips comes to an end now and we shall certainly remember the positive side of it: the beauty of the steppe as it surprised us on the first day. On the the other hand we are happy not to board anymore on the ГАЗель or GAZelle minibus which is really reacting on the road like... an antelope!
