Kerch - Rostov region. - Voronezh region. 2016

This report, like the trip itself, does not pretend to be an event in the world of mineralogy. There is nothing special about the points I visited, except that the way I moved between them is somewhat extravagant ... It turned out to be something between a mineralogical report and travel notes. And the most described trip should not have been. When I had already planned it, I looked at my notes and realized that I planned to spend this week before the May holidays half a year ago differently. But I forgot about it and already tuned in to the trip - I did not cancel it.

I would like to start the season early. After the winter "hibernation" "the pipes were on fire." Where can you go sooner? Not to the North… Logically it turned out that to the South. So the first point of my route was outlined - Crimea, Kerch. In Kerch, the best Anapait in the world!

The road back lay through the Voronezh region. And there - the so-called "Voronezh flyers", which are actually poikilitic calcite. And just one unfamiliar person gave me a link to them, claiming that he personally dug. How not to go?

And at the same time, a rock-lover from Rostov-on-Don got in touch on the social network. Word for word, I had the idea to dig the Petrified Tree in Millerovo, Rostov Region. Again, lies on the route, it is logical to combine. What was agreed upon. Stone-lover, however, then changed his mind, but I had already tuned in ... Here is the third point of the route.

The peculiarity of the trip was that I decided to carry it out exclusively by bus transport. It’s not that I don’t have a car, but somehow I don’t like long auto throws. That. the bus route lined up as follows: Moscow - Kerch via ferry - Chelyadinovo (Anapait) - Kerch - Rostov-on-Don (via ferry) - Millerovo - Dolotinka (Petrified Tree) - Millerovo - Upper Mamon (Voronezh region) - Russian crane ( Voronezh fliers) - Upper Mamon - Moscow. A total of 11 transfers. This, of course, gave the trip some intrigue - how will this transport adventure go? I downloaded from the Internet all possible information about the bus schedule on the lines of interest, made an approximate time plan. I took the ticket only "there" - to Kerch. As it turned out, my whole logistic-time plan was a soap bubble. In life, everything is different than it seems on the Internet. But I will tell about the features of bus travel in Russia at the end, so as not to clutter up the mineralogical report.

On Friday evening I started at the bus station. There was not much choice here: trains to the Crimea through the ferry begin to run only in May. The bus was a pleasant surprise - chic, double-decker... By the way, faster and cheaper than by train.

Features of the Southern Federal District:

In Rostov, warnings and calls for vigilance in connection with terrorist attacks are constantly played at the station.

During a stop in Rostov, the driver warned that there would be no alcohol, not even beer. The people did not understand, but in vain ... During a stop in Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, a policeman and someone else in a similar uniform, but with strange epaulettes, noticed the red face and cloudy look of one of those who did not understand. Those who did not understand were removed from the flight with the wording “being in a public place in a state of intoxication” and taken away to issue a fine. Then we followed without him.

- What kind of form is this?

- Cossacks. There's a "smoking area" sign. If you do not smoke there, you will also be fined. And you won’t spit seeds on the platform - the same thing will happen.

In the Krasnodar Territory, the traffic police stopped us: “Together with the FSB, we are conducting Operation Anaconda. Please hand over your passports." They punched everyone in the base and wished them a happy journey.

Transfer to the ferry: like at the airport. We hand over our passports again, take out all the luggage. Themselves through the frame, luggage through a translucent apparatus. I had to dismantle the floor of the backpack to explain that the iron rectangle on the screen is really a sledgehammer. In general, my backpack and the shovel stick sticking out of it aroused the keen interest of those around me along the entire route. After the second explanation, I realized that such words as "geological tourism" and "collectible mineral" are incomprehensible to the people, even if I spell every word. From the third time he began to simply call himself a geologist. This removed all questions, but always gave rise to the same hypothesis for everyone: “Will you look for gold (option oil) from us?”. Like small children...

Some 27 hours passed, and I was at home with the Kerch stone-lover Alexander Demankov, in the Kamysh-Burunsky district of Kerch, a private sector across the street from the five-story buildings. We are met by nightingales and hedgehogs. He spent the night with him. For which many thanks to Alexander. Thanks also to all Crimeans, Rostovites and Voronezh residents who, having learned about my route, offered help.

The next day, with Alexander, we go to the 2nd Black Sea quarry, which is near the village of Chelyadinovo. On the way I watch Kerch. The city made a depressing impression on me. And if the center even more or less has a view, then a little to the side: abandoned houses, collapsed roofs, broken windows are found regularly, even in two-story houses. Desolation. I understand that the metallurgical plant was stopped long ago, but why destroy the buildings? Locals say that he is now in worse condition than when he was released in 1944. However, movement is also noticeable. A large shopping and entertainment complex is being built in the center on the embankment. And one of the workshops of the shipbuilding plant, where orders from the St. Petersburg shipyard were transferred, was restored and painted. What is strikingly different from other shops.

Alexander brings me to the quarry and leaves me alone. It is in this career that the best Anapait in the world is found. Moreover, the name of the mineral comes from the city of Anapa, which is located across the strait - on the Taman Peninsula. Anapait is worse there, but there is more of him left. In the Crimea, Anapait is found, as far as I know, only in this career. Moreover, for most of the quarry, it is the same as everywhere else in the world. And only in a small zone did she live with the best Anapait. It just went through. For when in the 80s the threat of recultivation loomed over the quarry, local stone-lovers chipped in and raked the whole vein into one pile in order to agree, even though this place should not be filled up. However, either the explosives overdid it, or the bulldozers - but they raked too much into a pile, not only the "fertile layer", but also the layer below the vein. There is information that they raked several times. In general, such a “mess” has formed that even local geologists, the initiators of this raking, can only guess where it is better to dig. Although the search zone itself on the territory of the quarry does not raise questions. The information I received in Moscow and in Kerch completely coincided. I think the Crimean stone-lovers will probably want to add or correct something in my presentation, but that's not the point. There is only one conclusion - you need to dig! Which I began to do, since the pickaxe, shovel, sledgehammer and chisel that I had brought made it possible to do this effectively. He laid two shurfiks. Then he focused on one of them. And to my surprise, the material went quickly enough. But the main luck was waiting at depth. A large block turned out to be very cavernous, and I took 60% of the material from it. There were also shells with Anapait. I got not a small Vivianite with a green tint. And even a fossilized fish with visible vertebrae and a tail. But this is not immediately ... In the meantime, I spent the night in a tent. The very process of mining Anapait, as well as minerals at other points of the route, was photographed little - he was afraid to ruin the lens with sandy dust. This has already happened to me in Altai.

At night, some bird flapped its wings all the time nearby. In the morning it turned out that I pitched a tent under a magpie's nest. And then a hoopoe flew in to visit. Everything, as seen in the pictures: crest, curved beak. Decided to inspect the nature of the quarry in the morning. I went to the lakes located there. And then two hares crossed my path. More precisely, apparently, a hare and a hare. The hare chased her for a long time until they disappeared behind the edge of the quarry. The lakes met me with waders, which, standing on their long red legs, actively screamed, which lowered the status of the lake to a swamp. In the reeds hid, split into pairs, black and white ducks, of which there are many.

However, it's time for the next destination. I packed Anapait and sent it from Kerch to Moscow by a transport company. The package was heavy. I would not have beaten on the road ... But what to do? You want a lot of everything, but less energy than you want.

Minibus - Kerch - their wonderful schedule for some flights "every other day" (even or odd were ashamed to indicate) - bus - Rostov-on-Don. And although I was passing through Rostov, the city made an impression. It is located along the Don on the high right bank and at the entrance to it from the left bank it opens in all its splendor - in the entire width of the horizon: new skyscrapers, overpasses, highways. Rostov took first place in the unofficial borscht competition at the railway station catering. Rostov borsch on the cartilage of the ribs is incomparable! In second place in borscht is the Voronezh region. On the third - Moscow. Ticket to Millerovo, and three hours later I'm there. A small, but seemingly prosperous city, pleasant with its good-natured provincialism without Kerch poverty. Interested questions of local natives - the standard explanation "I am a geologist" - PAZik - the village of Dolotinka. At the bus stop, a man who arrived on my bus exchanges coins with a friend who was waiting for him there. Their lively conversation about numismatics. Life is everywhere... Dolotinka is a village of contrasts. The village already has its own site, but there is no good road yet. Back in Moscow, I read two main news on their website:

- Vehicles of the latest modification of the SU-30 fighter, assembled in Irkutsk, were brought to the air regiment located next to us,

We finally got the roof fixed.

Fighters really practice maneuvers in the sky all day long. Worth the roar of the engines. To look at this in Moscow, you would have to go somewhere to the MAKS air show.

I won't need Kylo to mine wood. I hide it at the edge of the village. I'll pick it up on the way back. Still minus two kg. The goal is two careers. I stop at the entrance to one of them. The second on the road after 7 km. I pitch a tent in the forest not far from the road in a hollow behind a hillock, so that it would not be visible from the road. Wrong, of course, that in the hollow. But sandy soil should absorb rainwater, if anything, it will not flood. At eight in the evening the sun goes below the horizon, it becomes dark. I switch to the light mode: I go to bed at 20 pm, I wake up from the sun and birds at 6 am. The fighters don't let up. A couple of times the thunder from the sky is so strong: it seems that it presses into the floor. Did you pass at low level? I finally fall asleep. At night, the Beast came to the tent for the smell of porridge with sausage. Walked around and left. I did not dare to climb into the vestibule under the awning. Eh, probably.

Morning. Without getting up, I throw back the awning. The first thing I see is dew beads at eye level. I'm taking a picture. I take a shovel and go in search of Petrified Wood. Nearby, in an offshoot of my abandoned quarry, I hear the work of a bulldozer. I'm already looking forward to it: here they are - fresh exposures! Here they are - petrified stumps sticking out of them, which the locals have not yet had time to give to interior designers, or other stone lovers have not picked up! I hide the shovel, so as not to seem like a competitor to the bulldozer, and head towards him.

- And what, my dear, is there a petrified tree here?

Of course, in order to be understood, I ask this question in other words, more accessible to the people. Being misunderstood in the outback is not safe ...

- How not to meet, - the excavator operator answers just as intelligibly. Definitely meets. I just remembered how I found it as a child.

- Did you find it afterwards?

- No, after that it was not possible.

The excavator is about 40 years old... With my shovel, I begin to feel like Andrey Mironov in The Adventures of Italians in Russia, when he tried to dig up a treasure from under the monument to Leo Tolstoy with a child's scoop... But what to do, you have to look for. Quarry three kilometers. I go through it all. Not a hint of petrified wood. Not a stump, not a splinter, no sign at all. It's sad ... Especially when you consider that it has been raining non-stop since morning. At the end of the career is a shooting range. Placers of spent cartridges. So many. But once they were for us, boys, a great value ... I remember how at the age of 8 we quarreled when we could not share the cartridge case we found. I take two. What for? Throw away. How do values devalue...

I reach the end of the quarry, which is behind the targets. Rocky exits are crossed by bullets. Some of the bullets remained stuck in the stone, which sprayed out from the impact site. I was warned if I find an unexploded grenade launcher - do not touch! So that it doesn't explode. I find. I don't touch. They weren't warned not to walk on them. But they may well be in the sand of the slope along which I walk. Very uncomfortable ... Petrified wood is not worth it - I finish the search at the shooting range, I return to the beginning of the quarry.

- Well? the bulldozer asks. I just spread my arms… I’m heading towards the tent, and then my eyes rest on a petrified chain with a hole from woodworms. There is another one nearby. I pick it up, I show it to the bulldozer operator. He is surprised and interested. At this time, KAMAZ is under loading.

- Petrified wood? - the kamazist enters into a conversation. Yes, it's full of it. It must be looked for in that breed. Only not here - this is a dropout dump. passed through a crusher.

I go around the site of the bulldozer, paying attention to the indicated breed. And I find the tree I'm looking for! A knot of 10 centimeters sticks out in the monolith of this very breed. I knock him out. KAMAZ has left. The bulldozer driver became interested and let's clear the bottom of the site to the rock with his bulldozer, and then drive around the site and turn over the large size. But alas...

- What is green? I ask. Have you heard about Glauconite here?

- Heard something.

A green clay block protrudes from the bottom of the quarry.

- Can't get it out?

The bulldozer can easily cope with this task. Cool, I'm mining with heavy equipment! I am gaining a few kilograms of pieces. Glauconite will also come in handy. But you will have to go through the entire quarry in a new way: you need to check the information received and search directly in the specified kamaz rock.

In parting, the bulldozer asks:

- Isn't it scary to be alone in the steppe?

- In my opinion, the steppe is much safer than the grocery store.

“Perhaps,” he agrees.

I walk along the bottom of the quarry, rock outcrops are quite rare. I go up to one of them. There is! A small piece of light opalized wood of a pleasant shade. And one more! And one more thing ... Wow, a big piece with traces of woodworms. I move in the middle of the slope to the right and to the left. The tree is found at a width of four meters. I rise higher, trying to find the exit point of the root. The tree meets up to the top edge. Household and technical garbage comes across between the stones. Obviously, they simply dumped it along with the tree from the edge of the ravine. Well, at least something. All chose. I go down, I go up to the next outcrops of the rock. Another dump with a tree. The wood is different: ivory, dark, slightly orange. The pattern of the tree is clearly visible. The quarry ends, I rise to the weathered slope with the rock. There is nothing interesting. I hit the ledge with a sledgehammer, it falls down. Something catches the eye. I'm going down. It's done! Here it is! Pleasant field. You can make balls. Perhaps enough. There will also be the Voronezh region, but here in the village there is no transport company ... We must leave room in the backpack for the next point. The second quarry remains unexamined. Well, at least not in vain all day in the rain.

I cannot but mention the sand of the quarry. Any beach would envy such sand. The smallest, white ... But there is sand and greenish, colored, probably by glauconite. There is also red sand colored with iron oxides.

Gotta catch the evening bus. (In general, the most important thing turned out to be, having arrived somewhere, to immediately find out how to leave from there. Otherwise, you can very much “hit” ...) I manage to pack up and get on the bus at eight in the evening. It's nice to drive at night across an unfamiliar steppe with a sense of accomplishment. I am surprised to understand that I already have a favorite place in PAZik ....

At 21 o'clock I am in Millerovo. The bus to Upper Mamon, Voronezh region, is only at 23. True, it is not known whether there will be places - the bus is passing. I'm waiting. The local duty cop checks everyone's passports. I am already very unshaven, and even brunette ... My personality causes him the most questions. The answer that I am a geologist did not suit him. The story of the petrified tree, too. Asks to see the contents of the backpack.

- Do you have the right?

- I'm just asking...

Well, there are still two hours before the flight, I need to entertain myself somehow. I show. The sticky turned out to be - he wants to see exactly the tree. I show. Everything, there is nothing to cover the cop. I am moving from the status of a suspect to the status of a witness during the shmona of a youngster who has turned up.

180km. - and at one in the morning I find myself in the Upper Mamon. When the bus to Russkaya Zhuravka is unknown. The bus station will open only at five, and the locals from the canteen do not know about the bus there. I am waiting for the opening of the bus station in the roadside round-the-clock canteen. This haul turned out to be the most stressful: in 36 hours I managed to take a nap only 3 hours, and then only while sitting in this canteen. But the barbecue was delicious!

At 6 am I leave for Russkaya Zhuravka. Unlike the previous two points, here the task is not only to find minerals, but also to find the point itself. What do I know about her? It is at such and such a distance from the village in such and such a direction. And there, at the bottom of the ravine, there seems to be a limestone outlet. And above and below this layer are Voronezh flyers - poikilitic calcite. Poikilitic is calcite that, as it grows, captures sand. Back in Moscow, trying to figure out which of the many ravines I needed, I found a ravine in the indicated direction at a specified distance from space, and in it a white stripe was clearly visible along the edge - obviously, a limestone outcrop. That's where I went.

He asked to stop the PAZik in the right place on the road in the middle of the fields. I hid in the bushes everything unnecessary for the search. He walked a kilometer away and behind the forest belt, on a strawberry clearing invisible from the road, pitched a tent. What a wonderful view of the endless fields, ravines, flowering bird cherry, wild apple and pear trees! Taking a shovel and a small backpack, I went along the ravine to the white stripe on the map. To be honest, I was not sure that this is the same ravine that I need. For I don’t have GPS, and I could be mistaken when, by external implicit signs, I asked the driver to stop in an open field. The map and reality finally coincided in my head only after an hour of fast pace. However, looking at the many dense flowering bushes and trees, I did not rule out that this white stripe was not limestone at all, but the white flowering of plants. And here I am. There is no white stripe. No flowering plants, no limestone. But instead of a meadow - a plowed field. Did they smell her? There is no limestone outlet. But no, that's limestone! The local living creatures, marmots, helped me to see it. They had holes there, and not small ones. It would be quite possible to shove a soccer ball into each of them!

Groundhogs threw earth and limestone up, forming mounds. But no signs of flyers could be found. In one place, either the slope in the place of the hole was washed out, or someone was digging out a hole, but a thick layer of limestone was exposed. I looked, dug a little from above - hopelessly. And how can there be calcite containing sand if there is no sand? One magnificent, simply amazing, Voronezh black soil. I had to go back with nothing. It started to rain again. Nature, which was so pleasing before, has become somehow non-holiday. On the way back I climbed to the other side of the ravine to a limestone outcrop. There is also nothing interesting. But! But I came across a small field of large crimson flowers with a strong pleasant aroma. I don't know what it is. They look like peonies, but the leaves are different. Never in the wild have I seen such large and rich flowers. Impressed!

Well... I packed up the tent, took away the hidden things, and at 15 o'clock, having waited for the reverse PAZik, I returned to Upper Mamon. However, while waiting for the bus, I saw something that impressed me: an unusual beetle 6 centimeters long crawled out of the grass onto an asphalt road. I began to take a picture of it, and it was clear that it was reacting to the camera: turning its head, crawling to the side. I finished taking pictures and with the thought “will he make it alive?” began to observe how the beetle was forcing the road. Because of the turn in a hundred meters, a cargo gazelle appeared. The denouement was approaching... And then the beetle stopped, turned its head towards the gazelle, and seemed to think. When the gazelle approached 50 meters. The beetle turned and crawled back into the grass. But not every grandmother can, just like a beetle, crossing the road, assess the situation ....

Then in Mamon passing bus to Moscow. This is also something! Double-decker bus. Two shift drivers and one passenger for the whole bus - me! He lay down across the cabin on three armchairs, throwing his legs across the aisle, and passed out after 36 hours with almost no sleep. They pushed me aside already in Moscow. Arrived quickly but...

Underground. Bus. Elevator. Castle. I'm home! What a blessing...

PS: And now the promised generalization of the bus service in Russia.

Bus service works! And even the schedule is observed, and at any level (federal, regional, village). And even the rolling stock up to the settlement looks pretty decent. But we don’t demand from planes that they just take off, do we? These were the demands of the 19th century. Now it goes without saying. Requirements are different now. What is missing from the bus service:

- in the Internet there is no schedule at all at the village level. The settlements have websites, but there are no timetables.

- the schedules found on the Internet turned out to be relevant only from Moscow. The rest had nothing to do with reality

- the schedule itself is nothing at all. In life, there are completely different factors that are not in the schedule. For example, there are several bus stations in the city, and it is not clear where you arrive and where you then leave. Or: “No, you can't take that flight. Your backpack won't fit. Go next, in two hours, when there's a big bus."

- in the bus stations of regional cities they know when passing buses stop there. But they don't have information about available seats and they don't sell tickets for them at all! You have to wait half the night for the bus, and if you're lucky, and there will be places, you can negotiate with the driver past the ticket office.

- in the bus stations of settlements (unlike district cities), not only do I not know about the availability of places for buses passing and stopping there, but they do not even know what time they arrive. They are not given this information. That. if two villages are on the same highway, as in my case, at a distance of 180 km. from each other, but in different areas, then the official way to get from one village to another is as follows: instead of driving 180 km directly, you should get from the first village to its regional center (200 km), from this regional center go to the regional center the second settlement (580 km). From the second regional center, get in the opposite direction to the second village (200 km). Those. 980km instead of 180km (approximate figures). To avoid this, you need to go to a cafe where drivers of passing buses have lunch. Cafe owners know everything: both the schedule and how much it will cost. And everything will be organized for you. As it was with me. And I calmly left for Moscow from V. Mamon, where the bus station does not even know when the buses come to Moscow, although they stop there for 20 minutes. Naturally, payment past the cashier ...

- waiting range for transfers (excluding minibuses within cities) - 2 ... 5 hours.

PS.PS: I passed 4 regions with stops (Voronezh, Rostov, Krasnodar Territory, Crimea). All of them (except the Crimea) made an extremely favorable impression on me: magnificent endless fields to the horizon. And everything from edge to edge is trimmed, plowed, sown. The trees along the roads are whitewashed. The houses and cottages are neat and painted. And the population, it is clear that is not rich, but does not live in poverty. I am standing on the road in the middle of the fields: on the right is a farm (150 cows are grazing), along the road the Vkusnoteevo milk trucks are driving. Behind them are trucks carrying large pigs. It can be seen that the region really works and feeds the country.

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