East of Saint Petersburg, the land swells into a low ridge of moraine, left behind by the great ice sheet. The Koltushi Heights are not high, only some tens of metres above the surrounding plain, but in a country as flat as this, they are noticed. The landscape is a patchwork of pine and birch woods, wetland and open farmland, with the village of Koltushi scattered along the roads. A century ago it was a rural district, and the physiologist Ivan Pavlov, famous for his work on conditioned reflexes, founded a research station here, which people half-jokingly called the capital of conditioned reflexes.
During the Second World War, the ridge belonged to the ring of defences around Leningrad, and trenches, bunkers and batteries lie among the trees. The Northern battery No. 4, on the neighbouring ride, is part of the same system. Walking in these woods, you may still find shallow depressions and concrete remnants, so stay on paths and do not touch anything that looks like metal, because the region has unexploded ordnance.
Koltushi, with about ten thousand people, has fuel stations and supermarkets, and smaller places like Staraya and Yanino are close. Gatchina, a short way to the southwest, has a great palace built for Paul I, with an extensive park, and it makes a good pairing with this district. Local food is plain: pirozhki, soups and tea, with berries and mushrooms picked in the woods in late summer.
The Moskovskaya Road and the roads around Koltushi are flat to gently rolling, with fast traffic and plenty of trucks, but lanes through the villages are quieter. Rain is common, and the roads can be slippery after a shower. In June the evenings are bright until midnight, and the air is full of mosquitoes. In September, the mushroom season, the woods are busy with pickers, and in October the leaves are golden.