The teams have raised a combined $22,589.60 so far for the PMH Foundation, and CoolEarth.

Friday 26 July 2013

Russia Blog 3

Quick update before we head to the Kazakhstan border. After saying we'd never drive at night we had little option yesterday, we got half way through the Ural mountains we hit the traffic and had a choice of sleeping in the car, or carrying on. The owner of a truck stop offerred us space in the truck park for $100 a car, to sleep in, he was drinking Vodka and didnt seem very friendly, so we took to the road again. The trucks were really bad, overtaking us on the down hill bits, very frightening for us all.

The Ural's are beautiful, rolling hills with vaste forests of pine and what looked like silver bearch. Birds of prey, wild dogs about all the wildlife we saw. And we cannot forget the cows strolling along the road side, yes this was the main road......

We thought we'd see much more sign of the great Russian Military, but we actually saw very little, a few old tanks (WWII vintage) outside the bigger towns, and second hand gear being used on the farms. Most vehicles are imported now, there are a few Lada's around, but they look outdated and tired. Lots of Land Rovers and BMW's.

We witnessed two or three semi trucks on fire or had been on fire, brakes or engines overheating.

We arrive on the border after a hair raising 600 odd mile (1000kms) drive, over 14 hours. Both of us over the car. We still haven't falling out, and the car keeps going, albeit a little dirty now from the diesel fumes..




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