Omsk to Irkutsk (via Tomsk)

Distance: 2673km

Starting to lose track of what time it is! Have crossed quite a few time zones, and are now at Moscow + 5 hours. We think! Lucky I'm keeping a diary or I would have no hope of knowing what day it is!

Officially in Siberia now. Lots of wetlands and marshes. So experiencing lots and lots of mosquitoes. Even just stopping for a quick loo stop you're likely to get bitten!! It is very flat. I think I was expecting more mountains. The traffic has started to thin a little bit, but the roads are definitely not what I would call quiet.

Where the M51 ends and the M53 starts near Novosobirsk, there were roadworks so we had to come off. But the detour wasn't very well sign-posted so ended up in the city and coming out the wrong road. We're working on 1cm = 15km map so didn't have much detail!. We ended up having to go cross country otherwise we would have had to take a further 150km detour to Kemerovo (we wanted to go to Tomsk, otherwise that wouldn't have been an issue). It was an 'interesting' drive, though not ideal at dusk and then dark... The road eventually thinned out to dirt and corrugations, with lots of potholes. About half-way we needed to ask directions on which road to take out of the town (which surprisingly given it's location had lots of high rises and quite heavily populated). Almost everyone was intoxicated! But friendly and willing to help. One wanted to get in the car to show us the way, but thankfully we don't have room!

Tomsk is a nice university town. There's a concentration of nicely refurbished wooden buildings and good places to eat and shop. Was a good place to have a break for an afternoon and we stayed overnight in a hotel to update our registration. We ate at a place near the hotel called Pastamama, and were a little surprised to see prices for Vodka and other spirits, not just per 100mL but also for the whole bottle! Although the road to Mineersk looked like a minor road on our map, it was pretty good. It was only gravel for about 20km, where there were also some nice, well-kept villages.

The road is getting progressively patchier. Some parts are great, others are none existent, particularly where the new road is being built. Quite muddy and rocky in places. Where the landcruiser overtakes all the little jap cars. Right-hand vs left-hand drive cars are now just as common as each other.

Some other Overlanders - We usually see at least one other 'Overlander' a day. Usually they are sensibly doing the trek in the other direction.

Yekaterinburg to Omsk

Distance: 1086km

Not much to report on this leg of the journey! Lots of wheat farms, and again changeable road conditions. Roads were really good for the first few hundred kilometres from Yekaterinburg but then there were long bumpy and rocky stretches which were 50 zones. So some of it was quite slow going.

Stopped for some 'Maclo' (oil) to do the oil change and as we were pulling off noticed a bad noise from the exhust. Turns out a weld had come sheer off at the base of the extractors. It was Saturday (town day) so had trouble finding an open mechanic ('CTO'), but did eventually. Had some fun trying to have broken English/Russian conversations with a few of the locals while we waited.

Have been eating mainly at Kafes on the way, preferably ones with at least a couple of trucks parked out front. We're starting to pick up a few words, but it can be hard to decipher the handwritten cryllic so often just point at something random on the menu!

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.

Terehova (Latvia) to Moscow

Aug 15-16

Distance: 619km

Crossing the border from Latvia, at Terehova near Zilupe, to Russia was a pretty painless exercise, but very very long. 8 hours in total.

We arrived in Zilupe mid afternoon hoping to buy the Russian car insurance before entering, turns out you can now only buy it at customs. [Once you are cleared through Latvian customs you can park and enter the building to purchase the insurance which cost us about 2300 Rubles. For vehicles up to 3.5 tonne, the premium is based on engine size]

We went to check out the queue at the border and while there were km and km of trucks waiting, there were very few cars, so after a couple of beers with some of the drivers we decided to head off somewhere to cook some dinner and try and get a couple of hours sleep. Our Russian visa didn't start til the next day.

That was a bit of a mistake! We got back to the border at 10pm Latvian/11pm Russian time and the queue had grown significantly. It seemed they were prioritising the trucks at this point, because our queue moved once after half an hour, about 6 spots up, then about 6 more after an hour and so on... 4 hours just to get to the front of the queue!

Border process

1) Once you pass the traffic light go up to the first booth and pick up a slip of paper which has a stamp of which number car you are through for the day. We were number 69. They had a computer which had hundres of licence plates and you have to identify which one is yours. Not sure where it got scanned, but the number plates seemed to be in order of arrival at the gate.

2) Shuffle up a bit further and go through Latvian passport control. Matt was able to take both passports up to the counter

3) Customs - Took a cursory look over the vehicle, in the boot. Didn't seem too concerned with us. Most other cars they even checked under the bonnet.

4) If needed, buy Russian auto insurance from the building at the Latvian customs. There are places to park once you've been cleared.

5) Drive up to the next booth where you need to hand back the slip you were given at the first booth.

You're now in no man's land!

6) First booth you come to you will need to show passport and pick up a migration card. Fill this out while you are waiting for a spot to be available at passport control

7) Passport control do a thorough check of the passport and the visa. They seemed to check that everything on the visa was exactly as per how it is written on the passport, so make sure there are no spelling mistakes on your visa!

8) 2 booths up is then customs. There is a form that needs to be completed, all in Cryllic. We were lucky that the Latvian driver in front of us was nice enough to translate the form for us. Still we had made a mistake but the border guard changed the form for us! We found all the border guards to be polite and helpful. All were interested in our journey. We experience none of the issues we were afraid of. Hopefully the process at the other end will be just as smooth.

The car got another cursory look, and the vehicle importation stamp and passports are double checked at stations on the way out (we had to wake one of them up, they'd fallen asleep - don't blame then) then we're in Russia!

The queue to get out of Russia looked just as long.

We took the M9 into Moscow, straight-forward enough. The road is very very bumpy though. Some big pot-holes and deep ruts from the trucks. The other thing to watch out for is the constantly changing speed limits, sometimes for no obvious reason. Being tired we missed that we'd just entered a town. Sure enough there were police waiting there. Smiley smiley but we did get fined. Paid about £4 and lesson learnt! We saw about 3 more checkpoints, got stopped at 1 as we entered the main motorway into Moscow near Volokolamsk. Just a routine check of drivers licence and insurance and we were on our way.

We stopped at a Kafe on the Motorway, looking out for one with plenty of trucks. Good hearty potato and meat stew and we were on out way. For those that are interested we did see a few camping grounds, mostly attached to a petrol station, but there were a couple that looked to be set up on a river and looked relatively decent.

Road conditions on the Motorway were great but the drivers got a bit crazier! We stayed near Izmailovo Park so took the ring road all the way around, huge big apartment blocks with crazy electricity cables going between them, big retail centres and one very space age looking building. 5 lane freeway all the way round - that's what the M25 needs to be!

Got to the Hotel (Izmailovo Vega) and just crashed. Including stops for fuel and a quick lunch it had taken us 10 hours to travel 600km. The restaurant at the hotel had exorbitant prices so we ate at Taverna nearby. Slept very very well.

While it is a bit hazy here, it is not very smokey. Apart from when the wind blew up a little bit we haven't been able to smell smoke at all.

We have only had one day to look around Moscow. The Red Square and Kremlin (St Basil's Cathedral is so unique and something really worth seeing) were obvious highlights, as were the pastries from the self-service supermarket in the GUM department store! We spent a few hours wandering through Arbat, Katay Gorad and Tverskoy. Ate to My-My (pronounced Moo-Moo) where the service is buffet-style and prices are really reasonable, it was recommended both by some people we met in Lithuania and Lonely Planet). We also stopped at a placed called Bar BQ in Tverskoy, only for a coffee, but the food there is also reasonably priced and look good. It is only a short walk to the Gallery.

Heading further East tomorrow. Would love to spend another few days in Moscow to explore the galleries, but am more keen to get going, want to know what's around the next corner! It also makes sense given we only have a 30 day visa to get to the other side and ship the car and Moscow is also expensive!

The Baltics

Aug 5 to Aug 15

Weren't quite sure what to expect of Lithuania and Latvia, hadn't done a lot of research and weren't sure how long we'd be here for, but we have loved it so far. Not as busy as the rest of Europe so we've been able to relax a bit.

Our first stop was Trakai in Lithuania, about 20km east of the capital Vilnius. It was a 'top' campsite (to use the phrasing of our lonely planet) about 5km north of the town on the opposite side of the lake. Trakai is a beautiful little place with 2 castles on the lake. We hired one of those paddle boats and took ourselves for a little cruise, having a well-deserved beer afterwards!. Nice to have some sunshine again after all the rain we've had for the last couple of weeks.

Went via the Akropolis (as in the shopping mall chain) on our way into Vilnius. That's one thing we've noticed here, there are retail parks and big shopping centres with huge hypermarkets everywhere. In Latvia especially, there are a lot of run-down buildings and apartment blocks, but there's plenty of places to shop, everyone dresses well and there's not a lot of old cars around. It's a little hard to tell what the financial situation of people really is here.

Vilnius has a nice old town centre as well, a few market stalls, selling amber (which we have since seen absolutely everywhere) but again, so quiet, nice to be able to stroll through the streets in a little bit of peace!

From Vilnius, we were heading west towards the coast, and Trakai was a little out of the way, so decided to check out the Vilnius city camping. It was literally in a disused carpark behind what looked like some retail or light industrial buildings. If you had a tent, you had the 1.5 - 2 m space between the rows of carparks. There is so much green space not more than 3 or 4km from the city centre. Hopefully it's not too long before someone sets up something a little better. In the end we took the detour back to Trakai.

The Hill of Crosses was quite something, particularly given the history of it being bull-dozed a number of times in the Soviet era. People lay a cross in remembrance or in asking for Mercy as a show of their faith. The crosses were stacked so densely on top of each other.

We ended up on the Neringa Spit, a small stretch of land from Klaipeda down to the Russian-governed area of Kaliningrad. Sand dunes, wooden fishermans houses, beaches, a perfect place to recuperate for a couple of days. We got some pretty heavy storms, but we just ate at the bar those nights, which actually had some great Chinese!

We met some great people from Moscow who have given us some really useful tips, phrases and places to visit while we're in Russia. They did seem a little more concerned than we are about the journey itself though :)

Straight around the coast from Klaipeda to Riga. The roads became a little worse on entering Latvia, though there is plenty of European funding being used on development. There was a large stretch of road around the tip to Kolka (the geographic centre of Europe) that looked like it was about ready to be tarred.

Jurmala, about 20km west of Riga is a Spa resort town that became popular in the early 1900s. Not my kind of place. There was a very, very long pedestrian street packed with markets, with restaurants and bars along the edge. Once you got past the first few stalls, it all started to become the same. I loved all the old wooden buildings though, but this area seems to have a lot of money (there weren't many here that were rundown). We think you're actually meant to pay a 1 Lat (about £1.20) entry fee to enter the town, though we must have missed that sign. Ooops

Now in Riga, which is really beautiful. Enjoyed a cocktail on the 26th floor of the Radisson which has a great view over the city.

Feels a bit strange now. We've kind of finished our tour of Europe and tomorrow, Saturday morning, we head East for the Russian border. We plan to camp just outside the border for a few hours and enter just after midnight. It's about a 700km drive to Moscow and we have accommodation booked for Sunday night. I know! A proper bed!!

We have been keeping an eye on the fires and the smog in Moscow. The situation seems to be improving, but we will keeping watching for updates. Fingers crossed all goes well at the border!

Deutschland

24 July – 27 July

 

Had never been to the Eastern side of Germany before, so really enjoyed our quick trip to Dresden and Berlin. Particularly for the history. Spent hours reading all the billboards on Berlin’s history both at Checkpoint Charlie and Alexanderplatz. Really interesting, and hard to imagine the limitations on people’s travel and movements, that it was only 20 years ago that the wall came down and Germany formed the Republic it is today. Both Dresden and Berlin are beautiful cities, lots of parkland, beautiful buildings...  Really enjoyed it, even got a day of sunshine to enjoy Berlin! Randomly found a Russian bookstore where we were hoping to buy some maps, which they didn’t have. Got to try out some of my Russian though and she understood me... so have a little more confidence now!

 

We need to enter Russia on 15 August so still have 3 weeks left... weren’t sure whether to spend more time in Germany or in the Baltics, but then met Marek from Poland who insisted we visit lots of places there, so looks like about 10 days in Poland! Looking forward to it.

Polski

From 27 July and still there

 

First stop was Poznan, which if it wasn’t for Marek from Berlin we would have driven straight past. A beautiful little city. Has a lovely old market square with buildings with different coloured and styles of facade. Enjoyed sitting and having a coffee and watch the world go by. Easy to see in a couple of hours. We ended up staying 2 nights. First day it just rained so caught up on a bit of my travel diary, did some washing (free clothes dryer) , worked out a bit of a plan for the rest of our days in Europe, just chilled, then rode in to have a look around the town the next morning. Stopping off at the Westfields like shopping centre on the way back for a few supplies.

 

Stop 2, the religious centre of Czestochowa, which is home to the miracle of the Black Madonna (the one with tears). So many pilgrims, bus loads and bus loads just kept on arriving. We didn’t queue to see the Madonna up close, but did see it from a distance.  Only stayed the one night then further south to Krakow. A bit like Prague, a beautiful city with a great old market square and a castle, but again rain and groups on hens and bucks parties. Again, great if you’re there to party but not for a peaceful stroll around town... Why is it that we always end up in these places on a Friday night?!!

 

Then further south towards the Tatra Mountains and the ski resort of Zakopane. Would be a great spot in the Winter. In Summer it just rains! We could only see to the first group of mountains, only about 30% of the way up when we looked at the postcards. But a very lively town. Lots of street markets and performers. Lots of hikes you could do as well. Unfortunately no mountain bikes allowed in the national park though.

 

Random stop last night, again at what seemed like a popular spot for the locals. Near a lake called Roznowskie. We ended up having to do a bit of 4WDriving to get there as part of the road we were heading along had been taken out by a mudslide. AutoRoute came in handy to show us the local road around, which turned into grass and then mud, with a big locked gate blocking the entrance at the other end. Small steep gap between that and the tree.. got round it eventually, with a ‘Bravo’ from the guy who was picking fruit nearby.

 

Now in Warsaw, haven’t been into the centre of town yet. Need to catch up on a few things, like an oil change and find the Russian and Mongolian embassies to get a bit of admin sorted out.

Czech Republic

20 July – 24 July

 

Our first stop in Czech was a great spot for lunch. A lake about 30km South of Cesky Krumlov, suggested to us by a random Austrian man who had sought us out in a supermarket after seeing the Aussie car in the carpark. The lake was a big local tourist area, also looked like it would be popular for the ski season. Lots of people out cycling, rollerblading...

 

We headed to Cesky Krumlov for the afternoon, on what was finally a nice sunny afternoon. A beautiful old town, lovely old buildings, cobbled streets, people rafting along the river through the town. We ended up camping a little way down the river just out of town. Was nice and quiet and watched as the rafters continued on down past us.

 

Then to Prague, which I have to say was a little bit of a let down, just didn’t get the ‘wow’ factor that I was expecting. I think with a group it would be more fun, checking out the bars and clubs... and maybe it was the weather (very hot, humid, and stormy)... or the groups of English lads after out for the bucks weekend... It is a very pretty city, but as I think I’ve mentioned earlier, I’ve become a bit of a travel ‘snob’, after 2 months through Europe you get to the point where a castle is just another castle, a beautiful old bridge is just another bridge. Which is terrible I know. Really enjoyed our cycle though. For anyone who’s been to Prague, you know the hill the castle is on? Our campsite was 3km further up so the cycle back from the centre of town took quite a lot out of us. Collapsed next to the car when we got there.

 

We had a little Czech cash left so picked a random town, Karlovy Very (Karlsbad) West of Prague. It’s a town with natural springs, where the water is meant to have great healing properties. I tried it, tasted horrible, but now I must be healed from whatever it was that I had. The springs got hotter and hotter the further up the river you went, to the point where it was too hot to touch the pipe. A great worthwhile stop, even the random campsite we found where we felt like we were in someone’s backyard. Felt a bit sorry for the group on a canoeing trek whose dinner got washed out. Yep. Raining here too!

Osterreich (Austria)

Jul 18 – Jul 20

 

Again, a short but sweet stay.

 

Stayed in a campsite across the river from Wien, in Neue Donau. Had heard bad things about the Wien campsites, very narrow plots. This was true, but they are quite long, and the ground was not very full so there was plenty of space. Even the Contiki group that turned up on the second night didn’t spoil it. They were very quiet, must be near the end of their tour.

 

Rode the bikes in again. Vienna is built for bikes so it was a really nice ride in. Had to cross over 2 bridges, one of which had a crazy spiral bike ramp to go up 3 stories onto the bridge. Then through a nice green park... and onto the wide streets of Vienna. Should of eaten at the Aussie bar we stopped at for a beer. We ended up at the Rosenburg Cafe opposite the Sacher cafe (which we ended up at later for some torte and coffee). Not cheap and not good quality food either. Ah well... live and learn.  The souvenir shops have lots of “we’re not Australia” trinkets. Like “Austria. No Kangaroos” street sign shirts, glasses etc. Austrian Kangaroo, ie. Cows, stuff...  you get my drift.

 

Weather wasn’t great, so didn’t ended up spending much time in Austria... moved on to Czech Republic