We're back in the USSR! (Lennon nd McCartney aprox. 1966)
Sunday 24th July.
Gordon is writing suitably verbose blog posts so I will try and be succinct. our destination today being very optimistic was Saratov. We made it to Voronezh when the rain started and took the soft option another night in a hotel. In fact the hotels we have stayed in have been no more expensive than a camp site in the UK. Driving was as for the Ukraine although the road surface was better and the countryside much more undulating with some steep inclines. It seems that Russian agriculture is similar to that in the Ukraine but there are less of the small units and by the state of some of the equipment makes me suspect[that some farms re still run as collectives. We had the restaurant to ourselves this evening and the bar maid and waitress were having hysterics over our attempts at communicating but fortunately understood the word beer and kept supplying the most expensive German imported pilsner they had. Looking on the bright side it was still cheaper than the Race Horse in Taunton.
Monday 25th July
Monday morning and we had a little Russian administration to do the hotel had someone staying who was working in a shopping mall and he led us there and pointed out the in house insurance desk. In spite of language difficulties we realised . Luckily we were able to buy some technical bits required and given more leads for Insurance. Luckily I went to a bank to change some pounds for roubles and met Olga who had good English and was allowed to take me to a branch of a her bank where they accepted GBPs but took pity on me and drove me around another 5 or 6 insurance agents with little success. In the end I had to resort to my contact in Holland to arrange cover. Our progress today has therefore been very sedentary and we only made just over 100 miles to Anna.
Tuesday 26 th July
Today started off really well and progressed rapidly in Kia terms but then deteriorated as our fuel starvation problems returned nevertheless we made it to Sorotov on the Volga. Tomorrow we will aim for the Kazakhstan border apparently some of the Rally teams are already in Mongolia but I am not
sure that Kevin the Kia is greatly impressed.
Sunday 24th July.
Gordon is writing suitably verbose blog posts so I will try and be succinct. our destination today being very optimistic was Saratov. We made it to Voronezh when the rain started and took the soft option another night in a hotel. In fact the hotels we have stayed in have been no more expensive than a camp site in the UK. Driving was as for the Ukraine although the road surface was better and the countryside much more undulating with some steep inclines. It seems that Russian agriculture is similar to that in the Ukraine but there are less of the small units and by the state of some of the equipment makes me suspect[that some farms re still run as collectives. We had the restaurant to ourselves this evening and the bar maid and waitress were having hysterics over our attempts at communicating but fortunately understood the word beer and kept supplying the most expensive German imported pilsner they had. Looking on the bright side it was still cheaper than the Race Horse in Taunton.
Monday 25th July
Monday morning and we had a little Russian administration to do the hotel had someone staying who was working in a shopping mall and he led us there and pointed out the in house insurance desk. In spite of language difficulties we realised . Luckily we were able to buy some technical bits required and given more leads for Insurance. Luckily I went to a bank to change some pounds for roubles and met Olga who had good English and was allowed to take me to a branch of a her bank where they accepted GBPs but took pity on me and drove me around another 5 or 6 insurance agents with little success. In the end I had to resort to my contact in Holland to arrange cover. Our progress today has therefore been very sedentary and we only made just over 100 miles to Anna.
Tuesday 26 th July
Today started off really well and progressed rapidly in Kia terms but then deteriorated as our fuel starvation problems returned nevertheless we made it to Sorotov on the Volga. Tomorrow we will aim for the Kazakhstan border apparently some of the Rally teams are already in Mongolia but I am not
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