A HIKE BY THE RIVER

A river is a beautiful thing. As it flows from the mountains into the plains, it leaves behind the soft sand that it scraped with its many feet, onto the feet of the people who come to it for water. The sand is carried on by the many legs of these people, giving rise to cities, cultures and civilizations.

Moskva River

It’s a little surreal when you think about the fact that all that we see around us was once nothing more than what was carried by muddy legs after a bath in the river.

So, this Sunday (which is perhaps the last calm weekend we’ll have before the BRICS storm hits us!) I decided to dip my legs into the river that gave birth to the city that I live in. The Moscow river (called Moskva in Russian), yes, the city gets its name from it. Our hike group took the train to Mozhaysk, a city located upstream of Moscow and got down at the Polushkino station.

Hike group

From there, we entered a coniferous forest (most railway lines out of Moscow run through the forests that surround the city, so several stations are actually platforms that rise out of the muddy terrain). The hike was supposed to be 21km and was planned to last a little under 5 hours.

The forests around Moscow are quite interesting. I had noticed this on earlier hikes too. It’s not like there’s this stretch of land awash with green that looks like overgrown broccoli (or brown and white if flew over in the winter) with no signs of civilization.

The canopy above...the cover below...

No, these forests are more like clusters of trees inundated by fields with grass up to the knees. Nothing else, just grass. I mean back home, if you spotted an empty plot of land in the morning and came back with your cricket bat, stumps and the like, you would be sure to run into a board that says, “Udayam Nagar welcomes you. Riverside residences, 20 minutes from the city” Yeah, 20 minutes if you hopped onto a jet that was already at cruising speed. And here, land, rolling out till it rolled away because of the curvature of the earth. At this point, I was bubbling with property development plans. But my hike mates told me that these are actually fields of fertile land that was under cultivation not too long ago, and will soon be, as part of the regular cycle.

We continued walking into the forest, moving wild branches and hopping over fallen trees. One of the others pointed to the fallen trees and told me about the problem they were facing. A few species of

Bugged!

invasive worms were corroding the branches of the trees and killing them. Even despite the winter, he had never seen so many trees fallen. The forest canopy was less crowded than it should be, and the sun hit us quite hard.

After an hour or so, we came to a bridge. It was a footbridge, one of those that swayed like Donald Trump’s hair against a tornado. So, we had the first half of the group walk on it, while we waited, ready to jump into the water if anyone fell. But once, I got on the bridge, I realized that it was like one of those amusement park rides. While you were on the bridge, you didn’t feel it

Bridging the banks...

that much. So, I stopped for a picture at a place where none of the planks were missing. This was my first sight of the Moscow river outside the city. It was a completely different color, in fact, a completely different river.

It flowed gently and was quite shallow where the bridge was. The water was so clear that even from the bridge we could see water-plants with their heads bent in the direction of the city, almost as if trying to catch a glimpse of the Kremlin. The southern bank rose slightly, but the northern bank was relatively flat.

Weeds...Under a glass floor?!

We crossed over to the northern bank and continued to walk along the course of the river until the temptation was too much and we dropped our backpacks and jumped into the cool waters. 

Dip! Dip! Dip!!

After the hike leader signaled twice that it was time to leave and switched to stronger signals such as hoisting his backpack and walking away fast, we ran out of the river to join him.

We moved back into the forest and I ran into this charming fellow who would probably not be so charming if I got any closer. “It’s not as long as the snakes in India, but is quite poisonous” I was told. So a distant shot with zoom was to be the legacy of our meeting.

Hii there..from a distance!!

All along the river, less than two hundred meters from the water, the Dachas(the Russian word for a country-house) were ubiquitous. It must be quite something to live that close to the river, at least during the summer weekends. 

Wake up to the sound of the water smiling at the sun and produce some Vitamin D through that skin. And as the sun warms up,

“Mama, I am hungry. When do we have lunch?”
“Just a minute, darling. Papa is hopeful he’ll catch a fish anytime soon. Let’s get the grill heated, shall we?”

and that's a wrap...

   After a short break for lunch and another dip in the river, we realized that it was almost time for the last train back to Moscow. Twenty minutes and two and a half kilometers. Some of us decided to jog so they could be home for dinner. The others tightened their backpack straps and walked faster. We entered the charming town of Tuchkovo with ten minutes to go for the train. 

so long...till the next one

Tuchkovo is a slightly distant suburb of Moscow and has quite a history of its own. Named after three brothers who fought for the country, it is slightly more than a set of restaurants and grocery shops and a railway station, perhaps a Russian version of Malgudi. I had one eye on the clock and one to look around the town. We reached the station with five minutes to spare. The crowded train that entered reminded us of the drudgery of the week that lay ahead. The next hike will have to wait. 

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