a very warm welcome back it's hot. in moscow it's a year on since. that al said president ben ali and the birth of the arab spring across north africa in the middle east people complain that even off to elections will change in their own country has yet to be seen. as it stands as its western oil town is back under control after riots that left at least and nothing can prove that beyond rest began during celebrations marking the twentieth in the central asian country won independence from the something. and in new york court finds iran's supreme leader guilty in absentia claiming to run for help in the nine

eleven terrorists the critics say it's part of a smear campaign paving the way for one. more news story than around thirty minutes after taking new on a trip to russia's fall on the west quarter. in russia's european northwest was one of the country's oldest inhabited areas the north corrado blitzed. with record stating back to midnight sentry this is a place with a rich history a powerful medieval republic it was famed for the quality of its furs and the depth of its scholarship before it was a mix to the greater russian state of the fifteenth century. the region is around six hundred kilometers from moscow and an overnight train journey will drop you right in the center of its capital. arrived in the famous old city of great north road but i'm not actually going to stay here because i've heard that this region s'posed to be one of the most beautiful in russia so that's one that.

so this is telling me exactly the right way to go my problem is how do i get from a to b. and with lakes and dense forests making up sixty percent of the region that's not always an easy task one thing about travelling through the novgorod wilderness is that you are likely to come across some fairly sizable obstacles including the largest area of swamp land in northwestern russia and if i'm going to get across that i'm going to need some serious help i think these gentlemen might have just the ticket here. nice to meet you. to meet you guys right so we have a swamp tank and when you're dealing with a somewhat unusual means of transport you have to take

a seat where you can. be in comfort. it might get a little colder but there were some great views in good company and the breeze certainly keeps the mosquitoes off. we plowed forward and it wasn't long before we would deep and swamp we were heading for some toll spires in the distance and our tank was taking the direct approach. so we're safe. in fact the only thing that did slow us down was a quick break to pick up some local delicacies. the journey passed quickly and before long demon was showing me around some imposing ruins dating back

one hundred years. see you've picked a pretty interesting place for a weekend break here they are indeed just imagine a huge unlimited swamp the just wide spot in the middle ages the lake i mean this in the middle of this spot there's a. considerable fee just huge building of forty meters i think it's amazing to think the the monks and the nuns who lived must have been very very into the solitudes yeah yeah they really believed. that let's go up to the heavens. the ministry may have been abandoned for the best part of

a century but finally some restoration work is underway and if you don't mind some rickety scaffolding the newly covered roof let you see for miles around. well try taking a bird's eye view of the surroundings it was time to hop back on our chariot and head to my next destination. i. take you back. the only way to travel. i've been dropped to the edge of the picturesque city of star rusa it's around a hundred kilometers from north and it's supposed to be one of the region's historical highlights i'm standing on the banks of the policed in the peru sierra rivers here and if you have to get a postcard from starry roofs it's quite likely to have this on it which is the

city's main cathedral states back to the nineteenth century there have actually been churches on this site for almost nine hundred years. to star in a recession that is one of the oldest cities in the entire country and in its medieval heyday this was a bustling regional trade center. nowadays it's much sleepy but alongside its beautiful architecture there are a few natural surprises for visitors to. now this is another famous story roussillon bar it's mineral water stream this pipe goes down around one hundred eighty meters and the water is funneled up under its own natural pressure so let's see what it tastes like. well i can see why they don't bottle it because to me that pretty much resemble sea water but it's this water that's the center of the city's tourist industry.

right well if i'm all the very drink for that doesn't mean that it's not useful over here at the sari rouge sanatorium it's the main ingredient in all the treatments. people have been coming here to ease their aches and pains for more than one hundred fifty years and their cure all treatment is kept right out back. at the get is this mud consists of self-made and silt and originates from a lake that has numerous medicinal properties and we have been using it here since eight hundred thirty nine years around one point five cubic metres a day departure. but collecting always miraculous mud is no easy task. right they to learn the technique here. to stick. down

and then there's definitely a max of doing this quickly but eventually i had enough to make a delivery. of the precious mud. and reach crates that apparently holds almost four hundred kilos and i do ten of them every day. which is enough to make almost one hundred and fifty so for treatment. i think i might need one off for less. right and once we got off. lucky people get to see me i don't manage to tip this over in the process. but i thought i deserved it. but sadly it seems the mob treatments are reserved for paying customers so either i could shell out and then there's this story rue says most extreme remedy

a very wintry mineral water through him. and twenty odd seconds of pure health giving agony oh. oh oh oh oh oh. oh. oh well if that doesn't kill me it would have made me stronger. it wasn't the gentlest introduction to the areas waterways but i wasn't going to let that put me off. my next destination was supposed to be the most beautiful lake district in the whole of the north region. one thing about getting back to nature it means that you sometimes aren't taking the best roads so going from a to b. can be a pretty long walk. unless you can find someone to give you a lift so today has been working with horses all his life and he and hero regularly

take visitors along the scenic route to the city of valdai one of the region's most popular tourist destinations. to the horse is indispensable in the region which is why the fact is that a motor vehicle would find it hard to clear some places in this record terrain what a horse can do so easily left to go left right for right back to make him stop anyway let's go. to me you know how to control him of course see if i can get. to the cross. into the. border by huge areas of forest if you're looking to avoid the motorways this is a great way to appreciate them and keep out of the rain. and once you arrive in valdai itself you'll find it's most famous exports are all

housed under one roof nowadays if you hear a siren coming up behind you on the road in less you know you should get out of the way and things really weren't that different two hundred years ago in russia but back then of course they were using bells if you go to ring ring horse coming up on the roads they let you know there was a v.i.p. there and most of those bells were funny faction here. and this is the largest bell museum in the country. those were made in the city until nineteen thirty and according to the curator as are all the cool stories surrounding their origins. these are some of the famous valdai tales that made their appearance here in the early nineteenth century legend has it that sar ivan the third ordered the no go rebel to be brought to moscow but

the bell never made it there it refused to leave its native no gourd region as it were it broke up as it rolled on the hills with the result that fragments of it were scattered over a large area those fragments the legend says give birth to the famous valdai bells which you. alongside the homemade versions of souvenirs forced home across the centuries from russia's european wars and rescued from churches during the soviet union and they still sound just as clear today. this is the lawyers on the banks of lake valdai the north growed region second largest body of water and a mecca for one particular type of tourist. with these it isn't hard to see why hunting is such a popular sport in these parts along with

a little wander into the woods myself i just need to pick up a couple of extra pieces of equipment. and a little companionship. i won't have to use this today. i think this is going to be more of a journey of discovery. and i think that. here. is going to lead to something interesting. that's. a lot of things to do. but eventually one particular. just. because a historian craftsman and in this area he's never short of supplies.

mixture of. so these are all made from the local wood well. as. such those are quite common among hunters in europe in the middle ages as a rule. told just slightly lower. it was more comfortable for a hunter while he was in the woods. so i thought i'd join him in a little target practice to remember how to do this. and it wasn't long before i was ready to exchange the. some home comforts.

i do have. and this. i think a little and what better place to recharge my batteries than here on the edge of a lake.

well. science technology innovation all the least of melons around russia we've got the future covered. it's amazing what plenty of fresh air and a good night's sleep can do for you and also an evening on the banks of lake i was ready to get moving again and my archer friend os could put me in touch with some of his fellow craftsman. the north growing region is full of forests and there's a thriving woodworking industry here and plenty of talented guys working in it and i'm off to see some of the best examples for

a man and his father in law henrich run a successful house fronting business and almost every piece is locally sourced from the region's trees. and they do some stunning bespoke work to. with green you know me doing this is the kind of furniture we make you know it's all handmade. we construct them out of branches that we pick up in the forest you said you would see that house front things are all handmade and put together by a team of expert competence and the occasional novice. writes so my little lesson here this is what we're aiming at this is what we've got a. little bit of it before i. well at least my heart was in it. there were no girl decorations made with love but the environment here

doesn't just play a vital part in the region's economy it's also an important scientific research site for the famous valdai hydrological institute it's safe to say that this is a very wet area of russia and over the last fifty years they've been studying the rainfall here in fact it's the valdai control system has become a world renowned mature logical technique but a lot of lots. is down to these. the cutbush is negate the effect of wind on rainfall allowing scientists like fyodor to collect highly accurate measurements. he. takes the instruments from snow being picked up by the wind i'll show you. individual shrubs have been trimmed in such a way that all of them are two meters high they take up an area of seventy square meters. aside from the special grows the institute also takes

a range of samples to measure the differences in rainfall levels and it was time for the daily rounds. so these are going to be our measuring instruments containers that we're going to change and. normally the scientists would take up to twenty different measurements bert's with the temperature plummeting close to zero i was working a bit of a rush job. see what we've got collected from this is in here. approximately two point two millimeters in here so no great scientific breakthroughs in the last twenty four hours pretty typical seasonal day valdai. but it's not just rainwater that's of interest to the boffins here as well as offering some pretty.