Day 184-186, 26-28th November, Novgorod, St Petersburg
On the 26th, we drove over 300 miles to Novgorod and, after getting lost because it was dark and I failed to notice that we had crossed the river, finally … Read more
Month: November 2018
Day 182-183, November 24-25 Moscow
After leaving the splendid Slavyanka Hotel, we went to look at the Tambov cathedral and watched part of a service. There have been a couple of niggling problems with the … Read more
Day 180-181, November 22-23, Saratov, Tambov
The road from Volgograd to Saratov passes through rolling steppe land. From the top of the hills you can see for dozens of miles and the light was bright (rather … Read more
Day 177-179, 19-21st November, Volgograd (Stalingrad)
We spent much of the 19th relaxing next to the large Islamic graveyard at Kotyayevka and decided to set off for the border about 4 pm in the hope that … Read more
Day 176, 18th November, Kotyayevka
We reached the Russian border two days early, and had to hang around because our Russian visa specified that we had to enter on 20th November. More precisely, we arrived … Read more
Day 174-175, 16-17th November, Dossor, Orul
Mile after mile of nothing. The road was utterly appalling and passed a number of small oilfields which seemed to be closed. There were plenty of new tracks in the … Read more
Day 172-173, November 15, Nogaity
The temperature was -16 when we woke up at Aktobe. The van took ages to heat up and we sat and shivered. It was a bit of a struggle getting … Read more
Day 170-171, November 13-14, Aralkum-Aktobe
Climbing out of the cosy warm bed, I switched on the dashboard of the van to look at the outside temperature. I thought it was a bit cold to be … Read more
Day 169, November 12th Baygequm
It was a fine sleet falling as we went to sleep, I optimistically assumed that we wouldn’t get snowed in, although a jovial Russian came up to me and told … Read more
Days 166-168, November 9-11,Bishkek-Taras
In the evening of the 9th Gapur knocked on our door and said “Good news. The light has arrived”. In the morning of the 10th, his two friends came round … Read more