JONATHAN CAMPION is a British travel writer, copy editor and Russian-language translator. He now lives in England, after spending 14 years working and travelling in Eurasia.
Photographs from the steppe of south-east Kazakhstan, between Almaty and the border with China… *** Horses on the steppe at Karabulak. *** The way to Kaindy lake. *** Some yurts at Shymbulak, a ski slope outside Almaty, close to the border with Kyrgyzstan. *** Horses on the steppe at Karabulak. *** The village of Saty, … More Nature of the Kazakh steppe
Photographs from the steppe of south-east Kazakhstan, between Almaty and the border with China…
A story that I wrote about my son Andrew, and a trip we made to Bulgaria’s Thracian Valley when he was four, is included in a new book by Bradt Travel Guides called ‘Kidding Around: Tales of Travel with Children’. … More Kidding Around: A story in the new Bradt Travel Guides anthology
Severnaya Dvina embankment, Arkhangelsk; north-west Russia, close to the Arctic Circle.
To my left: the path beside the Severnaya Dvina river, which led me to the town’s timber port, buried in the snow, then to Svyato-Troitskaya church, then the bridge over the river. … More Calm in Arkhangelsk (northern Russia)
*** A stunning street in the Cihangir district of Istanbul – one of the world’s truly magnificent cities.
The Flame Towers loom above every street in Baku. At night their neon displays light up the city on their own: first orange and red flames lick up the sides of the towers; then they fill up with splashes of water; then the complex turns the colours of Azerbaijan’s flag – green, red and blue. It is a needless show of wealth, but an extraordinary sight. … More Flame Towers and Şəhidlər məscidi – Baku, Azerbaijan
I arrive at Yerevan’s train station just after dawn, and buy coffee and bread from the underpass between platforms – fuel for the four-hour journey to Gyumri, Armenia’s second city.
The train is dusty and dilapidated; it has hard seats and filthy windows. It goes slowly, bumpily, its wheels making soothing clunks on the rusted tracks.
The journey is haunting. The landscape of western Armenia looks abandoned, left for dead. But this isn’t so. This rocky corner of the Caucasus is far from an unwanted wasteland: it is one of the most emotionally charged places on earth. … More Photo essay: Armenia’s sorrow (Yerevan to Gyumri by train)
