Moscow to Yekaterinburg

Aug 17 to Aug 20 via Kazan and Perm
Distance: 1881km
We left the comforts of our hotel at approx 10am on Tuesday, heading East into the unknown. Weren't sure to what extent we would be impacted by the bushfires, it was hard to get exact locations of affected areas, only that the Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan regions were all alight to some extent. There was a lot of traffic heading out of Moscow so we didn't get very far very quickly. Stopped off to top up on some groceries. As we'd expected some items not as cheap as you might expect. In particular 1.5/2L bottles of water are around 25-30 Roubles, at least double what we had been paying through Europe.
We took the M7 and did see a lot of smoke, particular near Nizhny Novgorod, and quite a lot of smouldering embers and back burning. No raging fires in sight. So one area of concern now dealt with!
The quality of the roads vary considerably, and there is a lot of roadworks and towns to slow down for. The worst area would be between Kazan and Perm, the best between Kungur and Yekaterinburg. Though where the roads are good, there is also a much higher concentration of police!
Came across a group of cars from France who were on their way back having driven to Beijing. They had a total of about 60 cars, everything from Patrols, old jaguars and even motorhomes, with local guides for each section. Thought we were a bit crazy doing it on our own! Stopped at that cafe for a coffee... very very sweet, have since discovered that without milk the coffee is quite tasty.
First night we camped in truck parking for 70 Roubles. Locked gate so felt quite secure. Second night we bush camped, well attempted to bush camp on the road between Ishevsk and Igra. We pulled of the side of the road and down a little track. Were well hidden from the road with a field the other side. Cooked our dinner and set up the tent and went to sleep. Problem was, a couple of hours later I needed to get up to use 'the facilities' and could see a light coming over the field. Could swear it was a car and big torch coming directly for us. Had to wake Matt up and in the end we packed up and moved on... at 2am! In hindsight, the road probably curved around and it was just headlights I was seeing, or there are lots of oil rigs in the area, could have been lights from one of them. Drove about 1/2 an hour up the road to a truck area and tried to get some sleep in the car. Needless to say we didn't get much. Damn me and my paranoia! So we were very, very, very tired on arrival in Yekaterinburg, after 3 pretty full days of driving and a bad sleep. We tried to find camping on the outskirts of town, though "Kemping" or camping as we know it, is not camping. That or they didn't want foreigners, we got turned away. Ended up at the brand new Ramada Hotel on the road out to the airport. We were able to use their free wi-fi connection in the carpark outside the hotel to double check the rates, and this was one of the cheapest places in town at 4,500 Roubles. Good hotel, free parking and wi-fi and that rate includes taxes. The rates you initially see on hotels.com or other booking sites do not include taxes but get added on when you go to pay. The Ramada price was cheaper walking in than on booking sites.
In terms of touristy highlights. We stopped at a little town called Bogolyubovo just outside of Vladimir, where there is an old church quaintly positioned next to a river, and floodplain. Kazan's Kremlin is very pretty, with white-washed walls and beautiful church and Mosque. The town itself is also generally very pretty and much more well-kept than other places we have been. It is the capital of the Tatarstan Republic which we discovered held on to much of its autonomy during the soviet era so was able to keep much of its wealth internal. Around Ishevsk, Perm and Kurgan there are many prisons, very depressing looking places. Along with Siberia, a lot of political prisoners were sent to the Urals during Communist times. At Kurgan, there are some ice caves, that were quite interesting, and it was nice to get out of the car and have a bit of a walk! Entry is 300 Roubles each with a guided (Russian) tour. The guide seemed quite good, everyone was laughing and nodding... we caught the odd word.

Had originally planned to spend 2 nights in Yekaterinburg, though the weather isn't great, so we saw some of the main sights, like the church of the blood and the site where the Romanovs were murdered, all by car then wandered the markets and the main street (Lenina) by foot and had a pizza for lunch. Was only 3:30 so decided to make a start on the next day's driving.