Visas & Russian Bureaucracy
Russia is famed for pointless paperwork and the enthusiastic nature of its policemen to fine you (and keep the proceeds) so we have been VERY careful to drive below the speedlimit and not attract any unwarranted attention From the Police. We’ve been stopped a few times – like everyone else at checkpoints – and found the police to be generally helpful and polite. We’ve only had one lot try to fine us (for going over a white line which apparently is regarded here as a much more serious offence than say fiddling the country out of a few billion and then buying a football...
Read MoreRoads, boredom and the Kamkaz
We’re now half way in our three day drive to Moscow and today the scenery has gone from long straight roads with the odd bend and fields full of Sunflowers and wheat with trees interspersed to trees interspersed with fields full of wheat and sunflowers with the odd bend on long straight roads! The roads in the morning were pretty poor and we bumped along losing one speaker, some interior trim, 2 broken shelves in the fridge and the hose for the windscreen washer along the route to vibration damage. Its not so much one bang that does it its more attritional. So at lunch we stopped for...
Read MoreStalingrad
The Volga Stalingrad – its one huge war memorial Russian War Memorial New Stalingrad German War Cemetary More Russian War Graves More Russian Graves The drive from Elista was through non stop steppe – slightly undulating, grassy and monotonous. You can see Volgograd from miles away on the horizon gradually getting bigger and bigger. The city stretches for over 60km along the Volga, but you can almost through a stone over it widthwise as it hugs the land between the mighty river and a bank of hills that run parallel to the city. Its a 2 hour drive from top to bottom or a 5 minute...
Read MoreNot that left!
We left Rostov in a hurricane and it felt like we were driving on two wheels for the first 100kms as the wind swept across the flat land. Our route was planned to keep us off the main roads and take us on the small roads to Volgograd. These by and large have been of reasonable standard and cut through the now Fenlike farmlands in a series of long perfectly straight roads with a bend every now and then to keep you on your toes. There is very little traffic, few villages just farmland growing sunflowers and some kind of wheat. After a day and a half the farmland begins to give way to steppe...
Read MoreSochi Bribes and Roads and Rostov
Sochi was not at all what we expected. The difference between Turkey and Sochi is quite astonishing. It took us a while to find our way out of Sochi and we passed glitzy hotels restaurants and bars in abundance. The roads were lined with trees some palms and loads of fairy lights. It was almost like a fairy land though probably more like Vegas. We had tried to find the camping but it is very mountainous here and the road winds up and down with numerous hair pin bends and even at midnight is heaving with traffic, so in the end I took a lead out my dads 1970’s book of his Dormobile...
Read MoreFrom Russia with Love
We were in bed and asleep by the time the ferry left Trabzon and we awoke to blue skys and calm seas, wtich was very welcome. We are right in the center of the ship and despite the mill pond of a sea its hard to walk straight in the van as the ferry rolls from side to side at any opportunity. We’d hate to be on it in heavy seas! We arrived in Sochi at around 17:30 and then began the somewhat slow process of clearing customs. First the footies are seen at the bottom of the car deck ramp but not allowed to set foot on Russian soil, then almost like starting a horse race they are given...
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