National Parks in Europe

A short day trip south of the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, sit two rather different attractions. One of the particularly odd natural phenomenon is the mud volcanoes. With the majority of Azerbaijan's nearly 700 mud volcanoes (over half the number in the world), Gobostan is a great place to see the bubble-bubble action. Although not for bathing, simply wandering around the other-worldly landscape is worth the trip in itself. But, sharing the site is the UNSECO listed Rock Art Cultural Landscape. On the plateau overlooking the mud volcanoes are some 4,000 rock carvings covering 40,000 yeas of rock art. Gobostan is a rare chance to see both natural and man made wonders with having to wander too far.

The Curonian Spit (Kurshskaya Kosa in Russian) is a nearly 100 km long, narrow, sand dune spit that separates the Baltic Sea from the Curonian Lagoon. The southern section lies within Kaliningrad Oblast (Russia) and the northern within Lithuania. At its narrowest, the width is merely 400 m, making it possible to look across when standing on a high sand dune. The uniqueness of this fragile landscape of drifting sand dunes has made it an UNESCO World Heritage Site, the only one in Kaliningrad Oblast. The National Park Kurshskaya Kosa makes up most of the spit, but there are several villages along the single road that goes the full length of the spit. The two main sights are The Dancing Forest, a collection of twisted trees, and the giant sand dunes at Efa. Not every local has been to these semi-famous spots, so beware when asking for direction or taking transport. The rest of the spit is mainly pine forest and long sandy beaches favoured by picknicking families during summer.

A twenty-minute bus ride from the centre of Krasnoyarsk brings you to the Stolby National park. The park is famous for the 60-90 metre-high karst peaks (stolby) scattered throughout the area that the locals say ressemble "a land of forest giants". The bulbous formations were created by pulses of magma squeezed out of the pores of the earth's crust. A little like squeezing Vegemite between crackers! If you come in the colder months, hiking can be challenging to say the least but if you manage to climb to the top of a stolby and look out away from the rocks into the taiga forest, the view is incredible.