Saiga's Notes

Last Saturday, I crossed the Volga and started jogging down the stream. Twice in two hours I had to pass tributaries swimming and towing my backpack as a raft (it is equipped with a waterproof covering). Then I turned back, reaching the limit of my endurance. The bank, nevertheless, was good to run much farther. The Volga banks in many territories are good for adventure races of the offroad-run-and-swim formula. Take the left shore (standing face down the stream) between from  Gorodets  to  Nizhny Novgorod , for instance: it spreads about 40 kilometres unobstacled with hedges, boat yards, settlements or private properties. Down the stream from the backwater Memory of the Paris Commune  there's even longer empty bank. May be one day I will be ready to initiate some adventure race here. I cross my fingers for saving of the virgin state of these places.

If you have been to Moscow, NN's climate is much the same, it's humid continental. The difference is that we have 1-2 weeks longer winter and a bit more snow. We've got two large rivers, the Volga and the Oka, and a large hydroelectric reservoir 50 kilometers from the town, named Gorky Sea. Climate makes possible the following outdoors: skiing (there are 3 big ski parks in the city and lots of other facilities in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast), mountain skiing (there are about 5 or 6 equipped facilities in the region), boating of all kinds, biking. Hilly right bank of Oka  makes possible mountain skiing and rocky biking just in the centre of the town. There are some large forestlands, mainly pine-trees and fur-trees.