The Amur

On the sixth morning, the train was in the Russian Far East. The forest had changed. There were now Korean pine, Manchurian ash, and Mongolian oak. The forest felt closer. This is one of the wettest forests in the world outside the tropics.

Polly was alone in the compartment. Pavel had left. The soldier had moved.

A freight train passed in the other direction. It was two kilometres long. It carried timber. Polly counted thirty-eight flatbeds.

The train arrived at Khabarovsk. The city is on the Amur River. The Amur is the eighth-longest river in the world. It is the border between Russia and China. Polly could see China across the river through the haze.

She got off the train to stretch her legs.

A crane was standing at the edge of a marsh. It was black and white with red around the eye. It was nearly two metres tall. This is the Russian Far East crane. It is one of the rarest cranes in the world. Only about three thousand are left.

Polly tilted her head. The crane tilted its head back. They watched each other.

A conductor blew a whistle. Polly hopped back to the train. She turned and looked. The crane lifted its neck slowly. It walked away into the marsh.

The train turned south. The Pacific was now less than 700 kilometres away.