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.
A lorry in the empty, flat grasslands of the Kazakh Steppe
An endless straight road runs to the flat, empty horizon. Bushes and grass fade to nothing at some inestimable distance towards the curving horizon.
The Steppe changes from north to south, east to west. Sometimes hilly, sometimes flat. Sometimes sandy desert, sometimes lush green lakes. But always there are power lines.
A lorry in the empty, flat grasslands of the Kazakh Steppe