The Russian Jeep

I spent most of this week out in the field looking for nests of birds of prey. It was nice to be outside again, but on Tuesday we had really bad weather. It started out nice, then turned to light rain, which slowly increased to a steady downpour. By the time we made it back to the jeep it was dumping snow on us. I was completely soaked.

Yesterday we went out to the coast to do bird counts. It was a fairly uneventful trip, but we did get to take the Lada Niva mudding on some of the trails (which were huge mud pits after the rains from the days before). We managed to get it stuck once, but for the most part those Lada Nivas are pretty bomb vehicles. Of all the cool things to come out of Russia, these jeeps are on the top of the list. They don’t have all the nice features you would find on, say, a jeep wrangler, but they are tough vehicles.

(the Niva after taking off-roading)

Our park owns three of them, all in various states of disrepair. The newest one is in perfect condition and has a tow winch and CD deck. The oldest of them is missing interior panels and functioning seatbelts, has a hole where the radio should be, and when you take it barreling down rugged terrain the doors have a tendency to pop open at random. Needless to say it makes for an exciting ride. But as beat up as they get, they never seem to die.