HOW TO FIND TAME MOOSE

MAP

CONTACTS


The farm accepts visitors from 10 to 15, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
Better to come at 10 than at 15!

No pets. Don't bring sweets: the guide will give you some carrott. Follow your guide, no self-activity. Always hold your children near you by hand.

Some adult moose are free ranging; you can suddenly meet them at parking, farm entrance, toilet, etc. Don't approach them, let them approach you. Never chase them! Selfies and embracing are for your own risk.

No booking is needed for a small group. Come and have a tour.

See previous page for details of the tour.

Print and have in your pocket this page with map and explanation.


57°42.46'N; 41°10.11'E. This is the approximate position of the right turn to the Sumarokovo road;
57°40.50'N; 41°12.40'E. This is the approximate position of the farm entrance.





SUMMER MAP



In Kostroma you can call a taxi by phone. Local numbers are 492249, 336633, 352352, 345678, 666666... you'd better ask Yandex. It's expensive: over 1000 roubles with wait and return, but easy (2023). Much more expensive is to take taxi from the railway station.


How to find the farm yourself


!!!Warning!!! Never ask the Kostroma dwellers how to find Sumarokovo. More known is another Sumarokovo in the Susanin district of Kostroma region, situated 60 km apart from Kostroma by another road. Moose are not so far from Kostroma town, they live less than 20 km away from its center. You can ask about Gridino and Moose farm but Sumarokovo.


By car: drive along the main street of Kostroma - Sovetskaya; Kineshemskoye highway continues it. (By the way: if you are traveling by a tractor or a tank, you have a chance to reach Kineshma, but Kineshma is not the aim of your trip). Having crossed the Kostroma border, watch for the left arrow sign «Karavaevo 1 km». If you see it, you are on the right way. Keep straight on. Then see a tremendous sign near the right turn to «Sanatorium Kolos». Move straight on, but slacken the speed, you are entering Poddubnoye. Just after first houses of Poddubnoye fork left, to Ikonnikovo. Do not forget to turn left here, because traffic in the right direction, towards a church on Krasnoye road is heavier. Immediately after the fork the road has a falling gradient to Semionkovo and a small bridge over Sendega River. After a rapid ascent you enter a pine forest. Next small bridge is over Tetkish stream near small cottages, then a big village Gridino appears with a school, small shops, local administration office, post office, cultural center and a bus stop on the top of the hill. You are 1,3 km away from the right turn to the Sumarokovo road. Don't miss that right turn after a small stream. An advertisement board «Sumarokovo moose farm» stands behind the turn. The board has an arrow to show visitors where to go. After the turn, on the left hand you see a borrow pit and a cemetery behind it. The new asphalt section of the road is passable all through the year. The distance from the turn to the farm is about 6 km. The last 1-km section of the road (from Sumarokovo to the farm) is a gravel type.

By bus: from the bus terminal station Kostroma take the bus routes to Guschino or Sintzovo. There are 6 or 7 bus runs every day, but only 2 or 3 of them depart in the early morning. Duration of a bus trip is about 20-25 minutes. Alight at the request stop «Spass» - next after Gridino. Don't forget to warn the driver about your stop when the bus is standing at Gridino stop! Then walk along the Sumarokovo road about 6 kilometers. About 1 km before the farm you will see a wooden «arc» (the farm entrance) on the left hand behind the field. The road from the turn to Sumarokovo is an asphalt type; from Sumarokovo to the farm -- a gravel type. On Saturday and Sunday there are two bus runs at 7:45 and 19:10 from the railway station. Back from Sumarokovo to Kostroma at 8:30 and 19:50. These bus runs are not very reliable.



Contacts:

Mail address: Grachev Nikolay Leonidovich, the director, 128a, Prospekt Mira, Kostroma, 156013, Russia. Warning! No moose there, only an office!

Phone and fax (8 494 2) 35 94 33 (the accountant-general, booking group tours in advance). Please remember that they speak only Russian.

Cellular phones: +7 920 389 53 44 (on the farm), +7 903 895 40 48 (the accountant-general; booking group tours in advance).

The cellular phone of the director: +7 910 958 01 67 (Grachev Nikolay Leonidovich)

E-mail: loseferma@yandex.ru – official negotiations for booking group tours in advance, buying moose milk and calves.

Any negotiations for booking group tours in advance, buying animals and moose milk should be held only with Sumarokovo Moose Farm administration. No preliminary booking is necessary for small groups (not a bus). Come and have a tour.



This Internet site is made and supported by Alexander Minaev, senior scientific researcher, working in the A.N.Severtzov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russian Federation. I am ready to discuss any question concerned «moose farming» except selling animals and moose milk and booking tours, because I am not the moose farm employee and live in Moscow. I spend 2-3 months a year on the farm, but in better days I could spend twice as much. Excuse me for poor English, English is not my native language. Improvements are welcome. My opinion about moose life and death may not coincide with the opinion of the farm administration.

My personal e-mail address is moosefarmer@mail.ru (English or Russian, please)

I try to receive messages at least once a day.

An author's film «Moose, a domestic animal. The Kostroma moose farm», all about life on the farm, is available (DVD, 90 min., now also in English).

this is an English version