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.

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.

how far can you drive a Hillman Imp?

Does the idea of driving a small 48 year old car across Russia and on to the UK seem crazy?

Well of course it does.  But don't tell the men in white coats because that is what I'm hoping to do this June.