Despite my intricately detailed map of how to get out of Moscow, we got lost because of the flyovers and underpasses and I mistook motorway M3 for motorway M5. The motorways have been built like the spokes of a wheel: M1 runs west to Minsk, M2 south-west to Kiev, M3 south to Belgorod, M4 SSE to Rostov and M5 south-east to Volgograd and Astrakhan. Seeing the name “Tula” on a sign, I mistakenly continued down motorway M3 until I realised that I should be on M5. So, after reaching Tula, we drove due east through Novomoskovsk towards Penza along a road which intersects with M5. Reaching the M5 at Mikhailov, we saw a large service station and spent the night there.
