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Rushing Across Russia
Good morning from Astrakhan, on the border of Europe and Asia!
Since we last updated we decided to continue straight across to Astrakhan and spend a week here before our visa allows us to enter Kazakhstan. This was mainly as we needed a hotel to register our Russian visa within 7 days of entry and there appears to be quite a lot to do in this area.
We have driven over 900 miles in Russia, it's all been extremely flat and we have probably made a total of 10 turns. Up until Volgograd it was quite green farming land and then it suddenly changed to the 'Steppe', barren, arid, sandy but still damn flat!
We stopped off in Volgograd to see the huge 72 metre high Mother Russia statue and their Second World War memorial. When you stand at the bottom of the statue all you can see is up her skirt!
Back on route to Astrakhan we've spent two nights wild camping under the stars, it's nice to recognise the same constellations as at home. As Bry's sister Karen would say 'We're all under the same moon'. At one of the stops Bry had his own personal Fairford Airshow as we watched two Russian fighter jets, MiGs presumably, chasing each other across the sky, dog fight training.
So we are now in a Park Inn Hotel in the middle of Astrakhan. Picking out the tall 13 storey hotel was easy but once again, getting to it proved to be a challenge! We could see the reception and the car park tucked away between the bus and train stations but couldn't work out how to actually drive there! Cue hilarious conversations with bus station officials, Us: 'we want to get to the Park Inn', Them: 'no parking, you go!'. Finally a taxi driver came to our aid and showed us the route, we had to drive through two 'no entry' signs to access the car park, no wonder we were confused!
Astrakhan is an interesting mix of modern shopping malls, beautifully preserved stone buildings, dilapidated wooden private homes but with beautifully carved exteriors and immense new public buildings!
So far we are loving Russia, everyone we speak to is really friendly, the complete opposite to the stereotype we have grown up with. We've been stopped by the police a number of times but these just appear to be random checks. Twice we've been waved on a soon as they've realised we are foreigners and another time they appeared to just want to chat and check out Mario's winch!
Finding water for Mario's 250 litre tank has not been straightforward. The fuel stations don't appear to have water or at least outside taps so we've resorted to going to carwashes and getting the attendant to fill us up with the jet wash! Petrol stations here just sell fuel, it's rare to find one with any sort of shop attached and it's usually payment by cash through a hatch in the wall! This has resulted in many more stops on our journeys, one for fuel, one for drinks and one for water, whereas we've been used to doing it all in one hit.
We are now off to head for the Volga Delta to find somewhere to camp for a week before we can get into Kazakhstan. We know some of the Delta is restricted and you need a permit to get in as it is a Wildlife Reserve and a border area. However, we have not managed to find out exactly where the restrictions come into place so we might just head South and see how far we can get.
Just in case we don't have internet access again for a while, Happy Birthday Mum for the 29th - love you lots x
Until the next time ...