B - reporting
We drove 2941kms and 3 time zones, ending up in Ulan Ude on July 14th (no idea what day of the week it is!).
Siberia is surprisingy pretty, not just thousands of miles of dark pine forest, as I'd been led to believe from spy movies and Old Peter's Russian Tales. Who knew there are other ways to research?! There are some forested bits, pink flowers everywhere. And rolling hills, green valleys with meandering rivers. Big skies.
We had Vera, our trusy GPS, to help us find the right road out of Khabarovsk, then it was over 1314km with no change of direction! Some of the roads are great: new smooth tarmac. Some are awful, huge potholes and bits missing. And tens of kms of roadworks.
We got the hang of gas stations, handing our slip of paper with #2 60 l (russian L) written on it, filling the tank and jerry cans.
We mastered using the tiny shops, where the goods are all behind counters and you have to ask (or in our case, point) to the item you wish to purchase. Among our purchases was Orbit sugar free gum, which turned out to be exceedingly strong mints.
We were stopped by only one cop, who was all smiles when G told him our route.
We defeated the gigantic flies by quickly whisking our fly-screen up when we camped. During the day one landed on the side mirror when we had stopped. He clung on after we drove off, you could almost see his tiny feet gripping on as we did 20kph, then 30, 40, 50, 50, 70, 80...then he got bored and flew away.
The roads through the villages are in terrible condition, dirt roads full of holes and ruts and wondering cows. And work gangs carefully strimming the grass so the verges are all clear.
Russia is bewildering.
We drove 2941kms and 3 time zones, ending up in Ulan Ude on July 14th (no idea what day of the week it is!).
Siberia is surprisingy pretty, not just thousands of miles of dark pine forest, as I'd been led to believe from spy movies and Old Peter's Russian Tales. Who knew there are other ways to research?! There are some forested bits, pink flowers everywhere. And rolling hills, green valleys with meandering rivers. Big skies.
We had Vera, our trusy GPS, to help us find the right road out of Khabarovsk, then it was over 1314km with no change of direction! Some of the roads are great: new smooth tarmac. Some are awful, huge potholes and bits missing. And tens of kms of roadworks.
We got the hang of gas stations, handing our slip of paper with #2 60 l (russian L) written on it, filling the tank and jerry cans.
We mastered using the tiny shops, where the goods are all behind counters and you have to ask (or in our case, point) to the item you wish to purchase. Among our purchases was Orbit sugar free gum, which turned out to be exceedingly strong mints.
We were stopped by only one cop, who was all smiles when G told him our route.
We defeated the gigantic flies by quickly whisking our fly-screen up when we camped. During the day one landed on the side mirror when we had stopped. He clung on after we drove off, you could almost see his tiny feet gripping on as we did 20kph, then 30, 40, 50, 50, 70, 80...then he got bored and flew away.
The roads through the villages are in terrible condition, dirt roads full of holes and ruts and wondering cows. And work gangs carefully strimming the grass so the verges are all clear.
Russia is bewildering.
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| Camping in Siberia Mossie net is a must. |
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| We think this was to commemorate the completion of the Highway! |
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| More Camping in the wild! |
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| and treated to a wild sunset. |
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| Downtown Chita |
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| Bridget with her old mate Lenin |
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| Siberia is big sky country. |
How's the borscht?
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