Rushing Through Russia

We were all feeling slightly anxious as we drove into the border controls on the Russian side. German Colin summed it up well saying it felt like you’ve been preparing for an exam and you just wanted to get it over and done with.

It was around 4pm when we pulled up and thankfully we didn’t have to queue. We were directed to a booth to have our passports stamped before getting Lolly checked by customs. The ladies in the booths all looked very glamorous and the customs guys very butch.

Colin took Lolly to be x-rayed while I tried to complete the customs forms.

Colin said the customs guys were incredibly friendly - they did sniff out our prescription medicines and asked why we had so much. Colin explained it’s our age and we needed 9 months supply. I was slightly concerned how obsessed the sniffer dog was with Lolly, but German Colin spotted the handler was putting things in our waste water pipe and rewarding it when it found them - phew!

I’d read that the customs forms are notoriously tricky to complete and if you make any mistakes you must start all over again. Let’s just say it took Colin and I four attempts. When we went to submit them for the final time the ladies in the booth had disappeared for a half hour break. We stood with a French and Swiss couple trying to remain good humoured about it, but we were conscious Colin and Theresa were done and waiting for us. When the customs lady had finally presented them with their documents she announced 'welcome to Russia' - the rest of the people waiting, including us, cheered.

The light was fading as we finally got our entry papers. We needed one more stop to buy our vehicle insurance. Once acquired, we all decided that we should pull up somewhere nearby for the night and plan for an early start the following morning.

We pulled up on some wasteland at the side of the road and had a much needed drink before hitting our beds.

When we woke in the morning German Colin pointed out to us that we were parked under a missile launch site up on the hill. We were surprised we'd not been moved on!

If our original timings had gone to plan we would have been about a third of the way up on the distance we wanted to cover today - around 650km to the Russian city of Astrakhan.

The first part of the journey we had sweeping views of the snow topped mountians. We also passed yellow fields of oil seed rape which made us think of the UK at this time of year. We commented on how immaculate everything was in the countryside and in the towns we passed through - not a spot of litter to be seen, manicured road sides and even the central reservation on the dual carriageways was clear of grit and litter.

We knew we would have to negotiate several checkpoints along the route where our documents would need to be shown and we could have further vehicle checks, but it was the dodgy police stops that we were dreading. We've read many an account of foreign vehicles being pulled over for alleged traffic infringements and being given the option to hand over a 'gift' or face a fine. We had some dollars and a bottle of Georgian chacha ready just in case.

We must have gone through seven military checkpoints, where we had terrific interactions with the military - they were friendly, curious about our travels and where we were from. One even insisted he took his boots off to look inside Lolly. We had no police stops at all. We wondered if travelling with another vehicle made us less likely to get targeted - we'll never know.

We were prepared for our GPS navigation apps not to work in Russia, so we had downloaded offline maps and the Russian e-sim Colin had purchased had a few periods of working, but more often was not working. Colin's dashcam showed us doing 535 km/hr at one point!

The scenery got flatter and windier as we got further north - there was even tumbleweed blowing across the road. The towns also had a much different feel to those further south - much less pristine.

We really wanted to make Astrakhan for the night where we knew of a hotel that has parking for motorhomes outside. The light was fading fast and all our GPS devices stopped working as we reached the outskirts of the city. We read the GPS signals are blocked in case of potential drone attacks. Theresa did an epic job at guiding us into the centre where the hotel was. The walkie talkies were a godsend. When we reached the hotel, which is on the banks of the Volga River, we found the entrance road was closed and there was a Big Trucks event on. A local with good English stopped Colin and Theresa and explained where we could go, and we were mightily relieved to find a space. There were a number of other expedition vehicles already parked up.

It had been a heck of a long day and the first port of call was getting a cold beer which definitely hit the spot.

Astrakhan looked like a nice city and we'd have probably enjoyed half a day having a look around, but we all agreed we'd have another early start to reach the Kazakhstan border. When we woke, Colin and I had different times on our phones, and as there was no sign of Colin and Theresa we weren't sure who's was correct.

Once out of the city the landscape was very watery. We had to cross a pontoon bridge which was an experience.

Exiting Russia went smoothly. We had a little wait while they cleared our paperwork and checked the EMEI numbers on our phones. Again the officials were very friendly.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/a868c8_f39ab4e92d5b4d8bb487f522e8ff7613/144p/mp4/file.mp4

We want to give huge thanks to Colin and Theresa for being with us through this leg of the journey, with their terrific navigation skills and having to drive slower than they could have done to keep us with them.

Next stop is the huge country of Kazakhstan - the 12th country of our trip and first of the five Central Asian Stans we hope to visit.