Day 26 - Bangkok to Moscow

Well here we are in Moscow. The flight from Bangkok took about 8 hours. I got a little sleep but I don't think the boys did. They watched more video and played games. Michael also enjoyed walking up and down the aisles. There was a particular stewardess who would stop him for a cuddle and a kiss. I don't think he knew what to make of that but did as he was told. Again the food was good as was the service.

Passport control at Moscow airport is a disaster. Like it was in China, there is little to tell you where to go and the queues start off as a crush of people. It probably only took 45 minutes but it felt much longer. Turning the air conditioning would have helped. There was no way we could have negotiated an extension to the boy's visas. I don't think the lady we saw understands any English.

We took the airport express train to the city. This starts from the opposite side of the airport to where we picked up our bags. Sitting in the train I started looming at a map of the subway system and the man I was sitting next to asked me where I was going and told me I would need to change lines at a particular station. All of this was in Russian. After this he called his wife over who speaks very good English. We talked about planning to go to Saint Petersburg and the lady suggested we buy tickets tonight as we might not get them tomorrow. They live in Saint Petersburg and were heading to the station we needed to go to to buy the tickets. So we followed them all the way to through the metro. They even carried Michael's case some of the way. When we finally got to Leningrad station, where it was raining,  the lady took us to the ticket counter and organised it all for us. Once again, these Russians are surprisingly kind and eager to help.

After getting the tickets, we crossed the square to a cafe and had something to eat and apple juice. Then I took us the long way around the building to get back down to the subway. A couple of policemen there helped me find the right line and told me to go 5 stops. So we did and then rode the 45° escalators up to the next line. However, I wasn't sure which way to go so we stopped. A chap came over and asked if he could help. He spent  while wondering which was best but seeing that we were flagging, his led us up to the street level, carrying a couple of our bags as he did so. Up there he negotiated with a couple of taxi drivers to take us to the hotel. This took quite some time partly because of a traffic jam right next to us. In the end though, he put us in the taxi, I thanked him and he wandered off. The taxi ride was only 5 minutes. It would,d have taken me 40 minutes to weave through all that traffic.

The Adagio hotel is one of those that you wouldn't know it was there from the street but upstairs it is small but lovely. Cosy, comfortable and clean. Just what we need. So now we will go and have dinner and then a bath and bed.

Days 21 to 25

It was great to get back home and see everyone. The Finnair flight from Helsinki to London went smoothly. Heathrow was busy as always and it was almost strange to hear so many people speaking English. I was unfortunate with the seat allocation on the BA flight from London to Singapore in that it was the last row of three seats in a row as the plane narrows towards the back. It was too narrow for both me and the large chap next to me to sit properly so I had a u comfortable journey. For some reason the Fin air people were not able to check my bay through to Perth so I had to go through passport control and collect it in Singapore and then check in again. A waste of an hour. The flight WS much better and I slept through much of it.

My lovely sister Julia met me at the airport and took me to her house for the rest of the night. I slept very soundly until after 8AM. Mum and Dad had come to take me down to Eaton. I drove so as to save Dad having to do so. I thought I might slip up and drive on the right but seemed to click back into proper driving straight away.

We had lunch at the local tavern and then collected the boys from school. They were pretty excited to see the three of us. Mum and Dad set off for home not long after we got home.

I spent much of the next day searching then internet for accommodation in Saint Petersburg, train tickets from Moscow and on to Helsinki and things to do. Late the next Ros and I pulled out the boys passports. Out of curiosity I took a look at their visa stickers and was alarmed to realise that their visas ran out on the 3rd giving us just three days in Russia. I had only asked for the time I thought we would be there in the applications but that was before I decided to move this part of the trip back by a week. I could have asked for a whole month. So then it was change the bookings and think again.

Ros did a great job of washing all of the clothes I'd been inhabiting for the drive across Russia as well as almost everything the boys own. So Friday night the boys and I packed their bags and I packed mine on Saturday morning. I also spent quite a while sending some photographs to friends from the first leg and packing. Then it was hurry back to the airport.

Mum and Dad had come to see us off but that didn't work out as well as it should because the cue for checking took forever. Eventually though we got through and enjoyed a muffin and a cuppa before we set off through the gate. I don't think it has really dawned on the boys how long it will be before they see their mum again.

The Thai flight to Bangkok was good. The seats, the food and the service were all of a good standard. We all spent most of the time watching videos or playing games. Both Timothy and Michael enjoyed the colouring in game. I found it hard to watch anything with Michael constantly interrupting so I set my screen to watch the same film he was.

The airport in Bangkok looks quite new and it certainly works well. We had no delay at passport control and quickly found our way to the meeting point for the shuttle bus to the Floral Shire hotel. This is a little budget hotel but is comfortable enough.

Time to head back to the airport.

Day 20-Helsinki

Today I woke late, had breakfast, showered and packed up the tent. I drove back into town and walked around for a bit before more breakfast at a cafe so as to use the internet.

Timo had given me directions as to where to meet Jyrki but I didn't really understand them and drove too far into Helsinki. So I drove back to where I thought was the correct petrol station. However, I didn't get it right but not long after I emailed Timo to let him know where I was (the petrol station had WiFi) Kimmo and Eveliina Savin arrived. There was something about the way they looked at the car that told me the were looking for me. However, at the time I was talking to Ros and the Boys on Skype. They kindly took me to where I should have gone but finding that the cafe there was closed, took me on to a nearby petrol station with an open cafe. After a short chat they had to leave as they were in route home to see their son before he returned to army service.

A short while later Jyrki arrived and we took the car to his workshop. Jyrki services machines that clean, polish, smooth the ice at skating rinks.

Jyrki kindly offered to let me to stay at his house. It is out in the countryside and is fantastically quite. Jyrki's wife Eeva and teenage daughters Oona and Elina, who gave up her bed for me, all welcomed me as did the two family dogs.

Jyrki then showed me his shed. To an Imp enthusiast this was like walking into Alladin's cave. Jyrki has his race Imp outside with his immaculate green Stiletto sitting under the car hoist with another Imp above. A fourth Imp sits in another corner. All around these are various engines most of exotic capacity and state of tune. The many shelves and cabinets are filled with competition and standard parts that would make any Australian Imp owner weak at the knees.

I think I have fallen into the best possible hands in the whole world. Not only does Jyrki and his many friends have the capacity to do the repairs but they are willing to do all of it without any input from me while I go home.

Day 18 - into Finland

I've made it. I've driven from one side of Russia to the other.

I set off early. Not particularly because I wanted to but someone else in the motel got up and their noise woke me. Once awake I knew I wouldn't get back to sleep. So I hit the road. It was fairly quiet but with a lot of trucks, particularly car carriers, heading both ways. I was stopped by the police almost immediately but he could barely be bothered to read the documents.

The road was much better than that I had come up the night before. Good surface, few towns and few traffic lights. I made good time and by about noon I was on the outskirts of St Petersburg. The ring road around the city is everything the one around Moscow isn't. Its well designed and well engineered. There was the typical jam at the exit ramp. One lane with two lanes of cars going up. These then force their way into the stream of traffic.

When I had changed plans and decided to go to Helsinki instead of Moscow, I realised that I would need my car registration document. Unfortunately, this is most likely in the scanner. Fortunately though, I had emailed the scan to Yuri and he was kind enough to forward it back to me. I pulled off the main road to search for an ATM and someone who could print out the form. I tried 5 ATM's but none could give me any money. I did have success with printing the form though.

I continued on to the Russian border check point. There must have been five people who had to see my passport and for some reason they didn't seem too happy about the documents for the car. It probably took about half an hour for them to stamp my car document, my passport and inspect the car. I stopped at the duty free shop but they didn't have an ATM and i only had 250 Roubles left.  Sorry Timo, no duty free scotch for you.  Then it was drive about 1km down the road to the Finnish border point. Here they deal with batches of about 6 cars at once. First you cue behind traffic lights, then when they go green you drive forward to the inspection point. You get out and go inside the passport control building. They also wanted my car registration. I'm so glad I remembered that I would need it. They were not happy that it was only a copy but it has all the details on it and I think the fact that the Russians had let me drive from Vladivostok to Finland with it persuaded them. I was expecting to need a temporary import permit and insurance but there was no offer of either so I drove on.

The change from Russia was instant. The buildings were tidier and in good repair. The fields were small and the roads well marked. All the signs are in English or at least use the English alphabet. Finland looks absolutely beautiful. I can see why people come to holiday here. There isn't even a sense that the drivers want to kill you.

Day 19 - Povoo to Helsinki

Last night I telephoned Timo, the Imp Club contact in Finland. He has arranged for me to take the car to Yyrki Salovuori's house. He is the President of the Finnish Imp Club and has a suitable garage. However, he is not in town at the moment (its the summer solstice weekend) but will be back this evening. So I looked up the nearest campsite and found Porvoo. This is lovely little town that looks oriented towards tourism. There is a small river running through the middle of town with boats moored on either side.

Day 17 - Novochibksarsk to Mironezhe

Today should have been a big day. I'd been looking forward to getting to Moscow for such a long time. Foolishly I had images of photographing the Imp in front of the Kremlin or at least next to one of the "welcome to Moscow" structures that their was bound to be. Practically every town I've been through has had something. But not Moscow or at least not the way I entered the city. Instead, I had to make do with a picture passing then town entry sign. It was quite an anticlimax.

I had hoped to get far enough up the road from Moscow to St Petersburg to make reach Helsinki tomorrow realistic. However, I had expected the highway into Moscow to be much more like a motorway than a little road joining up all of the towns and cities along the way. With all of the traffic lights, pedestrian crossings and roadworks it made for a slow and frustrating day. On the bright side the car is running really well although the brakes need bleeding.

The traffic in Moscow is something else. I spent over two hours driving about 20km around the ring road. The ring road is six lanes in each direction. But that's not enough for the Muscovites, they also use the emergency stopping lanes on either side. After two hours in first gear I got to the exit onto the M10. Again, I was hoping for a motorway. It is the main road between Russia's two biggest cities. Instead it was like a long thin car park.

Eventually, the traffic dispersed and we got some speed on. I drove on to Tver Where I stopped at the BP for fuel and food. A very pleasant young Russian couple baled me up to ask questions about the my trip. They are planning a drive down to Serbia in July. I continued up the road and stopped at the first hotel I could see. It was after midnight and I'd been going since about 4:30.

Day 16 - East of Kazan to near Novocheboksarsk

Today was a bit odd because in order to keep the car cool I had driven through much of the night. So I stopped at a motel to sleep around 9AM. I slept well at first but as the day got warmer I found it impossible to drift off. I rested and waited for a Sky per call home. In had messed up the timing on the last two days so I was very keen to talk. However, in the end in couldn't hear them so I telephoned instead.

There has been a strong north easterly wind blowing all day. This would have kept it cool enough to drive today without driving at night.

One weird thing that happened last night was that my odometer stopped working. The weird thing is that my speedo now works much better. It used to wave around indicating anything between 10 and 80 miles/h. Now it sits quite steadily, not on the correct number but you can't have everything.

After crossing the Volga the road climbs up out of the valley. The traffic was heavy but soon came to a near standstill where we had to merge and cross to the other side of the road to pass roadworks. On long stretches of road they have removed the top layer with a sort of grinding machine. This leaves a surface with many grooves. Driving the Imp along then makes it wobble around in a most disconcerting way.

The first road sign in both English and Russian was one to Perm yesterday. Now most of the signs have both languages. Initially I found it a bit confusing. I translated the Russian name and then tried to translate the English name, assuming it was another Russian town. Now the main signs on the highway are to Moscow. I've been looking forward to this for quite a while.

The car has been running well. I don't know why i was panicking about overheating. I'he been praying for rain and here it is so hopefully it will be cool all the way to Helsinki. I change plug number 3 every time I get fuel and fill up with oils every time I stop. Everything else seems stable.

Day 15 - Yekaterinburg to Perm

James Allen, the ITV commentator for the F1 Grand Prix suggests that Formula 1 is all about heat management. Well I think my F1 training is coming along well.

The pace I stayed in last night was pretty awful but I was very tired and so it made little difference. I got up early and took the thermostat out, hoping that it was the cause of my overheating. However, a few miles down the road I knew it wasn't the solution.

Today I start to cross the Ural mountains. It started off as gentle undulations but steadily grew. Not that any of the climbs have been that big or steep but they are too much for the Imp at the moment. I am probably making jumps of about 2km before having to stop to cool down. I'm heading to a radiator shop in Perm. There I hope to flush out the radiator and the block. I do 't think this will solve anything but I have to eliminate all the possibilities.

The car is still misfiring. I put brand new plugs in this morning and all except number 3 look good. The plug in number 3 cylinder has a brownish white deposit on it. I'm not sure if this could be an HT lead or a valve. I'll investigate further when I get to the radiator shop.

The radiator shop turned out to be just an autoservice shop. The put the car on their hoist and we could see straight away that the screen that stops bugs getting into the radiator was blocked with the fluff from the dandelions. So they took it off, cleaned it and blew and then pressure washed the radiator. I asked them to take a look at the spark plugs and they diagnosed a blowing head gasket. I've never had a slowly blowing head gasket, it has always been sudden overheating and coolant in the oil. Well as far as I can see there is neither coolant in the oil born oil in the coolant. They may be right however, as the cleaning has only reduced the running temperature by a couple of degrees. I'm not sure how far I can nurse it. Its 1400km to Moscow and 2200km to HHelsinki.

After leaving Perm, I drove about 50km before stopping for a sleep in the back seat. The back seat is short but long enough for me to lay down with my legs bent up. I got an hours sleep before driving on. I have alternated between driving and sleeping through the night.  The car runs at around 80°while averaging around 70km/h.  So if I can drive only when it's cool, I should be able to make it to saint Petersburg. The first problem with this though, is that night are short. The sun sets around 10PM and twilight lasts until midnight. There is light in the sky again by 3AM with sunrise around 5AM. The second problem is getting sleep in the daytime so as to be fully awake at night. But at least it keeps me going.

Day 14 - Krutinka to Yekaterinburg

What would be an Imp trip without concerns about overheating?

The road from Kochenevo to Tjumyenb is mostly awful. On the plus side it is very flat much as it has been for the past two days. The countryside has mostly been swampy grassland with patches of crop and patches of forest. Today there has been much more cropping with the first broadleaved crops I have seen so far (peas I think).

The only way I seem to be able to keep the Imp running under 95°C is to drive between 50 and 55km/h. This of course means I am a moving road block. Still, no one seems to get annoyed about it they just overtake at the first opportunity.

To try and keep things cooler I even tried pretensing to be an Arbath and propping the engine cover up with an offcut of pine I border from a construction site. But it didn't make any improvement. It did keep spooking me seeing something white so close

I'm now sitting at a tyre fixing station (there is one near most petrol stations) with chaps I can't speak with about to enlarge my carburetor main jet. Its a bit nerve wracking but I think they understand how important it is not to enlarge the hole too much. I can't see me making it over the Urals as things stand. Tomorrow I will no doubt be complaining that it running much too rich.

As I've been pushing on and haven't seen much I'd like to photograph, I don't have any to add except the one below. I took this yesterday when I stopped at what I though was a workshop to ask if the sold spark plugs. They just laughed so I guess they didn't but the do have the fanciest looking outdoor toilet for miles around.

Day 13 - Kochenevo to Krutinka

Today was not as good a day but somehow the miles rolled by.

I got a good start and for the first couple of hours things went very smoothly. As it warmed up so did the engine and I slowed down to try to keep it below 90° when the fan comes on but that didn't work very well.

Most if the road from Novosibirsk to Omsk is concrete. It is either huge slabs or is poured in sections. The gaps between the slabs are never perfect so there is a constant thump, thump, thump at about 2 - 3 per second. But at least big holes are rare.

My bigger problem today was the return of the miss fire.  I tried swapping back to the electronic distributor but that didn't work so I returned to the Lucas unit as least then I could see what was happening. It started again so I set off and nursed her along. The problem seems to be temperature related and I was thinking it could be a coil or the fuel pump failing when it gets hot. Quite soon miles later the same thing happened. This time I thought to change the spark plugs. They were all covered by a  white deposit but number 3 plug was completely closed by it. The new plugs solved the problem for now. The problem is most likely caused by running too lean - I think I'm averaging around 55 miles pert gallon. The problem has probably always been there and would explain the lack of power. There may be some interaction with different fuels as it seems to have been an issue on some tank fulls but not most. I suspect it just needs a main jet with a bigger hole in it. I'm sorely tempted to try to widen this one a bit. However, given the possibility of messing it up altogether, I think I should leave well alone.

I kept on for about 160km beyond Omsk to a motel that was advertised along the way. Its much nicer than the ones I usually stay in but is also nearly double the price. To add to the cost, I have completely stuffed up ordering dinner. I asked for fish,chips and salad. I thought the girl was suggesting salmon in potato instead of the rather bony looking trout like fish. What turned up was the salad but some sort of mince thing under potato. So I took it back and asked to buy the fish in the poster Behring the till. When I had paid and sat down there was the bony looking trout thing. So I set about consuming it when a few minutes later the fish from the poster arrives as well. Three meals in one night, its lucky that food here is cheap.

I'm aiming to be approaching Ekatyeringburg tomorrow. The day after that I think I reach the Urals and perhaps my biggest challenge yet.

Day 12 - Krasnoyarsk to Kochenevo

Today was a good day. I clocked up over 800km without having to really push all that hard.

I set off from Vladim's house around 6:30. The family's hospitality continued firstly with breakfast, then gifts of food for the road and lastly Vitality lead me out to the highway.

Mostly the roads were good and I averaged around 70km/h until it warmed up. The car seems to be oversensitive to ambient temperature. Most of the time it runs between 68° and 82°C but today it was impossible to keep below 90°when the fan comes on. This lasted about 40km until the outside temperature dropped a few degrees. Then the car returned to the lows 80's.

I am using TomTom navigation on my Google tablet computer. Mostly it gives the best route. Sometimes I choose to trust it and others I don't. In the morning I didn't and found myself on the old road but as this looped back to the new road, I kept going. It took me to  rail crossing. These are nearly all manned with a little hut where presumably someone pushes a button to activate the gates. The gate are a normal boom but also plates in the road that lift up to prevent you driving into the boom. Anyway, as I approached the lights came on and the boom came down so I stopped, turned off and got ready for a long wait, after all I couldn't even see the train yet. Moments later however, the truck behind me gave a polite hoot. The boom was up and lights off. I figure the man in the hut wanted a better look at the car.

I bypassed Novosibirsk and headed West on an excellent road for about 40km until I found a motel. It is situated next to a river and seems to be frequented by anglers It was a little more expensive at $30 but it was a better room with hot water and two beds to choose from. The mosquitoes certainly liked it.

Day 11 - Krasnoyarsk

After spending the night at the beautiful multistorey home of Vladim's family on the North Eastern outskirts of Krasnoyarsk, Vladim and his girlfriend Olesya offered to show me some of the local sights.

First we visited a ski lift. In summer the lifts take you up the mountainside to the edge of a national park. From here to view is brilliant. The ski lift is quiet and you run along neat treetop level. Very peaceful.

Next we stopped at a lookout beside the river, the site is named after an author Viktor Astafiev who was born in the nearby village. The lookout is a favourite site for wedding parties to take photographs.  I think there were at least four couples there at the same time. To bring good luck, couples attach padlocks to the railings around the lookout. These are sometimes specially made ones in the shape of a heart and engraved.

From the lookout we drove about 20km South of the city up to a hydroelectric power generator a the base of a large dam at Divnogorsk. Beside the dam is are two elevator for ships to be lifted up from the river below the dam so that they can continue South along the river to Abahan. The elevators run on rails.

Next we visited the village of the strange rocks. This is a pleasant village beside the river. On the opposite side there are tall rock outcrops. One was once the home of a hermit monk and so is now know as Monk Rock.

Returning to Krasnoyarsk we stopped at a cafe that specialised in Georgian food. The food was vety good but the servings were so large we ended up bringing at least half home.

Today was the cities 350th anniversary celebration. We drove into the centre of the city and walked around the festivities. Much of it was over by this time but it we good to see the enthusiasm the locals have for their city and its celebration.

We then got a telephone call saying that the Imp was ready to be collected. We drove to the North East of the city to the factory. The technician there suggested that I should leave the car overnight so that the adhesive could cure better. Apparently it takes up to three days to cure fully. The outside does not look out of place without the thick rubber seal, but the inside does seem a bit odd. Regardless, for the first time in many years it won't leak when it rains.

Vladim has very graciously allowed me to stay in his home for another night. Tonight is banya (sauna) night in the household. This was my first time in a banya. Then experience is much more pleasant than my description will suggest. The banya is in the lowest level of the house. It is a room about 2.5m x 1.5m with an electrically heated box of rocks in one corner.  I was directed to lay face down on the bench while Vitality, Vladim's father used fans made from for tree branchlets to waft the hot steam over my back. The steam is almost unbearably hot. Then Vitality used the fans in a beating / brushing manner on my back. As the steam cools he adds more water from the kettle and resumes beating across the legs buttocks and back. It is actually more relaxing than it sounds. When this is done I stepped out into the adjoining shower area and Vitality dumped a whole bucket full of cold water over my head. This was quite a shock. After that, a lie down to relax. It might be hard to say the experience is enjoyable, but I'm certainly glad to have had it.

Tomorrow its back to the road. 4100km to Moscow.

Day 10 - Krasnoyarsk

After a 6:15 start I drove the remaining 300km to Krasnoyarsk stopping for petrol and pancakes and tea. I arrived at the outskirts of town around 11:30.

Yuri Melnikov, the champion shipping agent in Vladivostok, used his extensive contacts to put me in touch with Mikhail Bochkarev a mechanic with a passion for travelling. He and his colleagues at Korjeja Motors new of a small factory that makes windscreens. For $300 they will cut and shape a new laminated windscreen. That's about the same price as it would be at home but a big proportion of a car worth $2000 and getting less by other day. Still, it means I'll be on the road again tomorrow evening.

While I've had time and no car, I've been walking around some of the town getting lost. Its good to see something of Russia other than what you see from the car.

Day 8 - Irkutsk - Zima

The workshop where the imp was opened at 10AM so I had to wait before getting cracking. I pulled the radiator out because with my modified air scoop you can't get the sump off. Then I cleaned out the carburetor. The only problem there was a blocked idle jet. The hole I. These is tiny but I cleaned it out with a toothbrush and air line. One of the mechanics and I removed the sump and he cleaned the joins and applied new sealant while I check various nuts and bolts for tightness. Then we put the sump back on and tried it. However, no sparks. It turned out that the carbon rod that contacts the rotor arm and the post for the high tension lead from the coil had worn down and WAC not making contact. It took the main mechanic a couple of hours to find a replacement carbon rod and file it down to fit.

The car is running better for all that work. I set off towards Krasnoyarsk about 2:30PM. I stopped to have some food and Skype Ros and the boys at 8PM and then continued on to about 10km past Zima - about 780 km to Krasnoyarsk. I'm camped a few hundred metres off the highway. I hope it doesn't rain.

Day 9 - Zima to NizLoyma

Things were going fairly well this morning. After quite a long run I filled up with petrol and continued on my way. Several miles down the road I stopped to photograph my odometer as it clicked over to 70,000 miles. About a mile after that the car started missing and jerking when under any load. So I thought the repair to the distributor cap didn't last very long. But on inspection it wasn't that. So I pushed on for a bit and when it reoccurred I swapped to my spare distributor. This made no difference which was kind of comforting as the 123Tune distributor was fairly expensive. I suspect that it we the fuel. I didn't grab the fuel hose an attendant did. Who knows what he grabbed. If not that then it might be a coil which should be easy to test.

Anyway, that turned out to be least of my problems. After lunch, a truck threw a rock into my windscreen and smashed it. It took most of an hour to get "all" of the glass out (you never get it all out). I always new this was a possibility and figured I'd just buy some acrylic or polycarbonate  to replace it. But that looks to be much easier said than done. Meanwhile, the car is neither watertight or secure.

I haven't driven without a windscreen since Ros and I broke on on a navigation rally many years ago. I found it easy enough to keep the speed up but it very noisy and that makes it hard to work out what the engine is doing. I drove with the passenger window about 2/3rds down and the driver side window 2/3rds up. What insect blew in blew straight back out again. Well not all because I've still got bugs on the window but this time its the rear window on the inside. I was surprised how much of the air was still going over the car. There were lots of floating seeds like dandelions and these would lift over the roof about halfway down the bonnet.

Tomorrow I think I will head straight to Krasnoyarsk and try to find some plastic. It seems that most shops don't open until after 9:00. I should be 100km closer by then.

Its got to get better.
I've stopped in a town that I think is called NizLoyma its about 320km to Krasnoyarsk. I'm in a motel costing about $17 and while its a small room, there was a shower with plenty of hot water. The first hot shower since Shimanovsk. The car is locked in a compound at the back. I've tried to cover the hole with my tent fly in case it rains.

Day 7 - Lake Baikal to Irkutsk

Today has Ben a bit disappointing. I had really been looking forward to seeing Lake Baikal and spending some relaxing time there. It wasn't to be. It took about an hour before I reached the lake. I hadn't just set off after chatting to a couple of policemen about the car (at least they looked like policemen) and there it was on the left.

Lake Baikal is the largest fresh water lake in the world and it certainly is big. The mountains on the other side frame it well. I couldn't see a logical place to get down to the water so kept going. The main railway line, the one the Trans Siberian Express runs along is between the road and the lake. There are mountains surrounding the lake and several of them still had snow on the top. very picturesque. Views of the lake were few as there was mostly a stretch of treed blocking the view.

I stopped for breakfast/morning tea and googled details about the lake. It seemed the best place was to the far South West of the lake. So I kept going but when I got there I couldn't even find a way down to the water over the railway. Eventually I found a track on got to touch the lakes water. I was tempted to paddle but it was cold and the rocks looked slippery.

The road around the lake is as bad as any I've encountered so far.

Dinar, who had done so much to help me in Khabarovsk, had told me that he had a friend in Irkutsk who could help me if I needed it. So I decided I should call him and see if his friend could get me to a workshop where I could fix my oil leak and try and clean out my carburetor jets. Well after many calls and messages, I met Dimar's friend and he got me to a workshop. By then it was after 6PM so would have to wait until tomorrow. The mechanics are thinking it might be a crankshaft front seal (the pulley end) and there is oil around there. However, I'm not too keen on them trying to change it in case they can't get a new seal that will fit.  I'm wondering if I should have just kept on driving and just kept pouring oil into it. I am hoping that a clean of the carb will give me a bit more power to climb hills. Looking at those snow covered peaks had me a bit worried.

Hopefully it will all get fixed in the morning and I'll be on my way towards Novosibirsk (~1900km).

Day 6 - Chita to Lake Biakal (nearly)

If you have ever wonder which side of the road you drive on in Russia, the answer is whichever side has the smaller potholes.

It's 5:30 or so and I'm writing this sitting in a roadside cafe drinking sweet black tea and eating pancakes. The pancakes came with condensed milk. I'm getting to hate condensed milk.

Today has been slow. No real problems but the road has been poor and awful in places. If its as bad as this for the rest of the way, I don't think I'll have an Imp by Moscow.

Near lake Baikal 23:16

The second part of the day was better. Perhaps more downhill and the bumps didn't seem to be damaging the car. After Chita I decided to miss Ulan Use and head straight down to Lake Baikal. Ulan Use is sprawled along the banks of a wide shallow (I think) river. It seemed to go for miles. On the outskirts I stopped at a large supermarket. It was much more like one at home than most that I've seen. I was even able to buy a picnic set of 4 bowls,beakers and spoons. Now I can have the cereal that I bought in Vlad.

I stopped up to an hour short of the lake which was a bit disappointing but the sun was low and it was hard to see the bumps. The lake will still be there in the morning. There should be about 11 days driving to go by my reconning. So I think k I will take the day off tomorrow and enjoy the worlds largest fresh water lake.

The road seems to have been winding down wide river valleys or the mountain passes between them all day. There is a mix of farming and forestry. The locals have a much more Mongolian look about them than even in Chita. Mongolia is only about  180km to the south.

I'm hoping to bypass Ulan Ued and get down lake Baikal tonight.

Day 5 - Spega to Chita

Today was a short day of driving with less than 500lm to do. The forested hills gave way to flatter farmland. These were first areas I'd recognise as farms with a farmhouse and sheds and all. The previous cropping on the plane were vast tracts with no sign of habitation. There were little villages where everyone's quarter acre back yard was ploughed for some crop' presumably potatoes.

About 150km out I realised how spoiled I'd been with the e quality of the roads for the last few hundred km. Normality returned with the surface becoming rougher the road becoming narrower and there no being passing lanes up every hill.

I arrived in Chita a little after 3PM and found it a bit of a shock. It was busy and fairly crowded. I had hoped to get the wire for the inverter and perhaps find a workshop to take a look at the carburetor and reseal the sump. At least I found some wire. I also found a telephone shop and got a lad who spoke passable English to show me how to add credit to my account.  He suggested I eat at Subway as they had WiFi but in the end it wasn't working. By the time I had found a hotel on the Internet and then found it on the ground, it was around 7PM. The hotel turned out not to have hot water and their WiFi was on the blink. I wish I had kept on driving.

Day 3 - Londoko to Shimanovsk

Day 3 didn't start the best as I woke earlier than I would like. It was misty and damp. I packed up the tent and set off - in the wrong direction. I had forgotten that I'd turned off the highway to get to the village the night before.

The road was quite variable with long stretches of beautiful smooth new tarmac. There was also at least one really long stretch of road waiting to be sealed. This was not rough like the first day but had wave like holes that made the car bounce badly. I must have driven 20km in second gear but it felt like 50. After that though the road improved a lot and I got some miles done.

During the longest section of roadworks I was hearing a clonking doing coming from the back which concerned me a bit.  Further down the road I drove the Imp up onto one of the ramps that they have at many of the parking bays. It was bit scary on my own. I couldn't find anything wrong, in fact it mostly looked good except for the oil leaks.

At the start of the day I was passing through low rolling hills covered in forest. In the middle of the day it was very flat land almost devoid of trees much of it cropped. At the end of the day it was hills and forest again.

I stopped at a roadside motel near Shimanovsk. It was about $20 for a single room and another $10 for a mean and a beer. I was celebrating my birthday.

Day 4 - Shimanovsk - Sbega

I woke at 5AM to a sunny clear morning and so packed up and, once the owner had unlocked his gate (he had kindly told me to park in the back yard with the guard dogs) set off.

The road was as good as most Australian country roads for quite a while. I saw a deer beside the road early on but it ran away from the road thankfully. One thing I have noticed here is the absence of road kill. Perhaps the tigers eat the carcasses? I did see a deer scampering away from the roadside early this morning.

Over the past hundred or so km there have been warning signs and 50km/h speed limit signs to warn of dips in the road. Mostly these have been very small and not worth slowing for. However, the dips got much bigger today. One set of three were quite close together and had the Imp bouncing so much as to get airborne. Its the combination of dips and bumps that overwhelms things.

The hills have steadily become small mountains. The road planners seem to have decided that no hill should be steeper than 6% and they fill and cut huge amounts of earth to achieve this. Despite the slight grade, I'm in third gear climbing most hills. Still at least its still able to climb them.

The Imp continues to attract lots of attention both on the road and when stopped. I doubt that there is a more photographed car in this part of Russia.

I was hoping to get past the 600km to Chita mark today and have managed to do it but not by much.  Its been a long 15 hour day with stops  for breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea probably totaling 2 hours or less.

Day 2 - Khabarovsk to Londoko

I woke up around 6:30 but had trouble getting moving. After breakfast I asked the receptionist for directions to where I could buy car parts and camping stuff. The camping shop was 50m behind the hotel but it was closed so I headed off to the parts shop. This was much more like what I expected. I found a fuel can, a tow rope, gasket stuff but not the two things I needed yet, a flasher unit and wire to power the inverter to charge my tablet.

There directions first led me to an army base 6km away and then to several shops as I narrowed down to A group Khv who sell parts and repair and service cars. After a couple of puzzled looks I met Dimar who took my old flasher out to the workshop where their best mechanic determend that I needed a Toyota 3 pin flasher. Dimar then dropped everything to drive me around the local area searching for a flasher. It probably took more than an hour before he found a shop where a man said he had the same thing as well as the Toyota unit. Then it was back to the workshop where the mechanic tried to figure out the correct wire connections. In the end I've get working indicators but no warning light on the dash. No problem. Thanks very much guys. Russians are very friendly and eager to help.

On the way out of town I stopped in at a flea market where there were plenty of air mattresses but no. Suitable wire. It seems so many shops sell car electrical accessories but no wire to fit them with.   By now it was after 2PM.

I was stopped by the police on the outskirts of town. They checked the documents again but I'm not sure they know what they are looking for. After about 10 minutes they seemed to give up rather dissatisfied and I drove on.

I stopped at a workshop after about 30 minutes to ask if they had wire. They didn't but the mechanic cut his extension lead in half and gave me that. All he wanted in exchange was Australian currency as a souvenir. Unfortunately, I don't have any small denomination notes left.

I drove on until the sun got low and was in my eyes around 8PM. I stopped in a village called Londoko And asked if I could put up a tent. Once again the language problem made it difficult but in the end I think he was happy fort me to camp in a empty patch where cows were grazing.  I checked nuts and bolts on the car and tried to check the gearbox oil but couldn't get the filler plug to loosen. Dinner of tuna and crackers in the car because of the mosquitoes and then asleep soon after.

Day 1- Vladivostok to Khabarovsk

After a poor nights sleep I set off just after 6AM.  The car started first time and drove off a little sluggishly into the drizzle. I misinterpreted a direction on the tom tom and drove about 6km down what so far is the best road in Russia before I could turn around.

It got quite busy after about 20km but was all dual carriageway and fairly easy to get along. After probably 50km came the first stretch of road works. These are where a gravel track has been formed alongside the road. The tracks seem to go on for 20km at a time but it we probably more like 5. It is mostly second gear weaving around trying to get as smooth and flat a path as possible. All the while the four wheel drives are finding an extra lane in the middle and zooming by. Much of the road is just bumpy bitumen like we would have in country WA but then there are sections where the substructure has collapsed and left 8" deep depressions surrounded by a 3" rim of bitumen. These can often be avoided by weaving around the road to find a smoother path but sometimes its too late or there isn't space and the car crashes into the dip. Most crashes didn't sound damaging but you never know.

The car got quite a bit of interest with many drivers giving me thumbs up which cheered me on. I found the drivers very tolerant of me slow speed. I did my best to get out of the way when I could.

The shaking in the roadworks loosened off some of the nuts holding the dashboard in place. The radiator has developed a slight leak. Only about 500ml over the day but it means that after the coolant expands and is pushed to the expansion tank is it not sucked back to the radiator when it cools back down. I'll keep an eye on this but do nothing yet as I've learnt that its easier to ruin a radiator than fix it.

My indicators stopped working quite early on. I think it is the flasher unit. I don't think I've ever killed one of those before. I hope to buy a new one this morning but shopping here is completely different. You don't see a Auto One or Bunnings. The only shops that stand out are the banks and mobile telephone shops. Hopefully the lady at reception can help me.

Perhaps my biggest problem yesterday was not having the inverter wired up to charge the tablet computer. This meant no navigation no translation software and no internet when I got into Khabarovsk just after 9PM (still daylight) which caused problems finding a hotel.

It was a very long and tiring day.  Nearly 800km is much too far.

The car arrives

After Yuri and Svetlana spent much of the day getting the bill of lading from Fresco and then submitting the customs documents, the car was ready to be collected around 5PM. I wasn't allowed into the dock area so Yuri had to drive it out. Unfortunately it wouldn't start so needed a battery jumper.

Everything was as I had left it in Fremantle except that the spare rotorflexes and oil filter were non where I'd left them. I then followed Yuri's van very closely back to the hostel where I stayed the night.

Earlier in the day I had met two Brits, Dave and Mike. I met them again by chance at the cafe I ate last night along with Bruce another Brit.  Dave has a Mini Van hopefully being released today and is driving through Siberia and into Kazakhstan.  Mike and Bruce will be heading into Mongolia on motorcycles when they get out of customs. We also chatted to Lewis, a Kiwi, who has a big motorcycle and is taking the same route as Dave. I expect to see them all again over the next few days as they pass me.

I would sincerely recommend Link Ltd to anyone shipping a car or bike either into or out of Vladivostok. Both Yuri and Svetlana speak English very well and are very patient. They understand the process and the options intimately and their fee is tiny in the scheme of things. Thank you both for all the extra stuff. It really make a world of difference.

Arriving in Vladivostok

After three flights and long delays at airports, I finally arrived at Vladivostok airport on time at 3:15PM yesterday. I took the train from the terminal to the city where I was met by Svetlana from Links Ltd. Svetlana told me that the car had arrived and was fine. FESCO had already closed so we would collect the car and do the customs clearance, insurance etc today.

I walked the the hotel Zhemchzhina and was very glad to find that the receptionist spoke very good English. The room is on the top floor. Its small but clean and comfortable.  I took a walk around the city centre in a cold northerly wind. I'm trying to remember to walk on the right side of the pavement hoping it will help me remember to drive on that side. I must admit I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all at the moment. If I can get out of the city unscathed I'm sure it will be alright. Driving here looks to be very fast. Nearly all the cars are  right hand drive fairly new Japanese or Korean.

I met Svetlana around 9AM in the hotel lobby. She had arranged for the lady selling the insurance to be there so we sorted that all out. Then we set off to get the bill of lading from FESCO but went to the wrong office (the have several). The Yuri met us and took me to another office and got what we needed. From there it was to customs to lodge the paperwork. It would take a coup,e of hours so we had lunch and the Yuri helped me get a sim card for my tablet computer. Then he helped me check into a hostel where three Brits and a Kiwi who were all doing similar trips (and who all used Link Ltd to do their arrangements) were staying.

I waited there until around 5PM when I met Svetlana again and we had a coffee while we waited to meet Yuri and then go and collect the Imp.