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Steppelands

Exploring Emptiness

From the high viewpoint of a trucker's cab, the vast land-sea of the Kazakh steppe extends to a flat horizon in the far, far distance. Yellow waves of hillocks and bumps and of faded green scrubby bushes and grassy tufts give texture and scale to this landscape. Barren as an ocean surface, these ripples shrink quickly into a smooth ochre and the empty horizon bends with the earth's curvature.

Power lines and gas pipes are the consistent companions of the road here and the only traces of humanity in this empty desert grassland. The monotony of this landscape both bores and fascinates in equal measure. Each kilometre is the same as the previous kilometre and we know it to be the same as the next, yet the steppes change dramatically as we hitchhike from the sandy deserts of Aktau northwards towards wet and green Oral. Geographic calculus.

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