From Russia with Love

WE HAVE JUST NOTICE OUR TRACKER HAS NOT BEEN WORKING FOR THE LAST TWO DAYS. IF ANYONE NOTICES THIS HAPPENS AGAIN PLEASE CONTACT US.

Andy in his last blog publicly thanked all his donors, I would like to do the same you have all been very generous, I know it will make a big difference to the charities concerned. I would also like to thank http://trurotyrecentre.com for fitting our van tyres, driving through Kazakhstan would have been much more hazardous with ordinary tyres, thank you. Thanks also to http://www.mersongroup.com for the signage on Bluebell 2. Thanks to Town and country Nissan https://www.nissan.co.uk/dealer-homepage.1111.html/used-vehicle/search.html for servicing our car.

We had a good breakfast at our last stop in Kazakhstan and then headed to the border. We had been told the roads were much better in Russia, we were not sad to see the back of the Kazakhstan roads. Our abiding memories of Kazakhstan are potholed roads ramshackle housing, mosques (in limited numbers), non utilised land and cows and horses roaming free by the side of main roads.

Horse transport

Free roaming horses with freeze brands

Loose hay the normal way for the Kazakh

The border crossing was very straight forward. The Kazakhstan guard asked us if we had any fire arms aboard, which we denied despite having the Kalashnikov behind the divers seat, we thought it would only in crease the paper work if we admitted to it!!

The passport control seemed very happy and actually laughed when the Mongol Rally was mentioned. The last guard on the Kazakh side who opened the gates for us checked our passports. We had a long conversation about English football, he was delighted to hear that I was a fan of Chelsea Football Club, but when Andy C said he supported Watford he was not impressed!!! Anyway we left him with a smile!!

Next stop Russian border and record clearance, fifteen minutes to get through. The total time to cross the border was 1.5hrs we could not believe it.

Our first impressions of Russia was the roads, so much better than Kazakhstan, no potholes and smooth surface so we could make good progress with our travelling. We also notice that the land was being used to its full, very little uncultivated land, a large variety of crops wheat, sunflower, rye, sugar beet and various other crops. Where we saw stock it was in large numbers and under more control.

Vast fields of crops in Russia

We headed to Barnaul for the first night, first stop in the town was a bar for a pint and wifi!! Per chance we asked a young lady where the nearest bar with wifi was, expecting her to not understand a word of English, she turned out to be an English teacher. First problem solved a bar with beer and wifi, however the security code required Russian characters which we do not have on our keyboard. However the barman spoke limited English but managed to get both of us on the net.

We found a the Hotel Malta again no speak English and wifi code alphanumeric so no joy there. We returned to the bar and had a bite to eat. Back to the hotel and bed intending to leave early the following morning, so the alarm was set accordingly. We had completely missed the fact that we had moved another hour on in the time zone so instead of getting up at 5.15 we were unbeknown to us up at 6.15. The roads are so good in Russia except for small sections, we were able to power our way through long straight roads in vast open plains contrasted with windy roads through pine forests.

Along the way we were the subject of amusement, interest and surprise. At one of our stops while Andy C was visiting the WC a young lady asked me what we were up to. Fearing she would have limited English, don’t forget we are in the wilds of Siberia, I was pleasantly surprised to find she understood every word I said. She had spent five years in America. We travelled 570 miles to try and get ourselves in a position to visit Mongolia if the borders opened. We spent the night in a hotel in Krasnoyarsk which was also a gym. We thought we ought to have a work out, but instead opted for a pint, food and bed.

With our clocks set right we managed an early start and forged ahead. The country side was much the same, the vastness of Russia is impressive. We were happily travelling along when we approached a roundabout with our exit blocked by a police officer diverting traffic through a local village. We looked down the road and saw a jackknifed over turned Lorry, this was to be one of three serious accidents we saw that morning. Possibly caused by early morning fog but more likely due to the way thr Russians drive, overtaking on bends, overtaking at speeds that shocked me (and I drive fast) and pulling out with oncoming traffic a short distance away.

We traveled a few more miles down the road and stopped for breakfast which Andy order using sign language and entering the kitchen. It was really tasty and set us on our way.

Further down the road we were overtaken by a Skoda that started its hazard warning lights and indicated to us to pull in. It was sign written Skoda35000km.ru. We were worried that there was something wrong with our car, but no, they wanted pictures of us and the car as they were journalists from Top Gear Russia magazine. We also got an invite to meet up with them when we arrived in Moscow after our trip on the Trans Siberian Railway.

At another stop we met two young men who were driving a Lexus 4wd, they were amazed at what we had achieved so far in a tiny Nissan Micra

We have heard that we can now go into Mongolia, so we will head for the border south of Ulan Ude tomorrow to spend 2-3 days in Mongolia

Sorry this is a rushed blog but late at night and I need my bed

Cheers for now Andy P