Rambling Rat

Owen and i camped last night in a forest next to the trans siberian railway which is difficult to sleep with its loud horn and rail clatter, I’m not sure what is worse the train or the huge mosquitoes and biting flies i have been told to watch out for bears further east too but i am normally too tired to think about all of that and concentrate on keeping clean putting up camp and cooking and putting away its a routine that you get into and your vehicle becomes your land yacht and you are the captain if you don’t keep it in order then it won’t keep you in order.

We packed up and got on the road in good time i took the lead for a few hours and i could see owen wanted to do more speed so he went ahead after we had a tea break, i found his pace was a little too much for my vehicle and i again took the lead after lunch, On the outskirts of a small village we saw two German 650 cc GS BMW’s and we stopped to chat to them, they were making their way into Mongolia too then across to Vladivostock and then to Korea we exchanged information and emails and we began our last leg into Irkutsk city. I led the way into Irkutsk and followed a map from the lonely planet book which was to take us to a youth hostel called The Baikler after lake Baikal and we had decided to go their to meet some other travelers that had been on the trans siberian rail route. We eventually arrived at the hostel in the center of Irkutsk and we were able to park our vehicles at the back of the hostel which is in a lock of old Russian flat and is on the 3rd floor. A warm welcome greeted us Mr Sheremov who had owned the hostel for nearly ten years, he had seen the demand in the market for such a hostel for europeans and they wanted western style comfort and thats what he set about doing, he now has a very successful business and also arranges home stays around the Irkutsk area and tours. Not many people arrive by car like we have and for me i am fascinated by meeting all the backpackers and the chance to have a bath and wash my clothes and internet is complete luxury, being on the road for several weeks and you really start to appreciate the most basic of needs.

Owen and I get unpacked and i help him sort out the gear in is vehicle, go out and relax on the town before having a really good nights sleep.

Meet Owen tesch, I have just pulled up to a level crossing to let the tans sibreian train come through and it raining i’ve turned off the engine and i’m listening to some western music and i’m thinking of how far i’ve come and that i havn’t spoken english for nearly a month except to myself and singing out aloud in the car but that doesn’t count if your not interacting.

someone is knocking on my passenger window and is grinning at me,i put the window down and he asks me if i have driven from the UK and i say yes, i am amazed by this and immediately want to speak more to him, i told him my name is tim and said that he was nice to meet me and his name was Owen, i asked if he would like a mug of tea on the other side of the level crossing and he liked the idea so we both got into our vehicles and when the lady asked the traffic to move again we pulled up on the other side.

Owen is possibly more nuts than i am and he has just driven from Luxembourg in a standard renault express van he has come a different route than me coming over Latvia and Lithuania then down from Moscow, i asked him about Moscow and he told me he had spent about 3 hours their and didn’t like it so moved on. I am the same not liking city’s much too.

I was jealous of how simple his van was but I’m not sure how comfortable he has been and he has now fridge, he sleeps on a false wooden floor that he has fitted above a couple of spare wheels and a toolkit spare battery and two fuel cans, he is a true modern hippy and when i asked where he was going he said that the car is going one way to Mongolia and that when he arrives in Mongolia he wanted to exchange the car for a horse and then travel on the horse from their on, i was wondering about what a lovely idea would be to travel around the world on a horse and i wonder if this would be feasible my friend Grant Nicole in Scotland Uk has ridden from John o grotes to lands end so i think the only restriction would be vet controls. Owen he couldn’t believe he had met me in the middle of Russia and asked what i had been doing and he liked the vehicle i was using, with all of this excited chatter he then came out with “you no its my birthday too” wow really, “Yes” he got his passport out and yes it was his birthday, so i got out of my stores draw two miniature bottles of whiskey and we had a mini birthday party at the roadside in Siberia.

Seems like we are going the same way to Irkutsk so we agreed to run with each other till we arrive in Irkutsk which should be tomorrow night.

I’m half way into Russia now and have been making good progress, the only thing to slow me down is the police and the most times that i have been stopped is 16 times in one day and it starts to wear you down with the same questions, they are looking for just one thing so that they can fine you for something as they are on such low wages that they need something to top it up, it is easy to take from someone that they know will be able to pay, most of the time all was in order and they would except some playing cards with London printed on them or a miniature bottle of whiskey, the worse type of Russian police to get stopped by is a drunk police man as they are more unpredictable and can shout out “gift”.

Things are starting to change and some of the younger police are not bribing people or taking bribes off truck drivers so i think in the long term we are going to see progress in Russia.

The road system in Russia is very mixed up and road surfaces can be poor, their is not really anywhere that has been too bad to drive and you can manage any where i have gone so far in a normal car although it would take some beating and you see many cars stopped on the side of the road with flat tires or broken sump pans from rocks.

Their is not really any motorways in Russia except around Moscow and St. Petersburg the rest of the country is covered by single carriage way and a hard shoulder which some Russians use to overtake cars and trucks. The road surfaces are mixed and change from average to poor asphalt then you go onto gravel or mud or dust roads depending on the whether. I will keep plodding along and see what lies ahead.

I’m now 160 km’s east of Novosibirsk the above photo is of a happy boy from Armenia who is selling vegetables and fruit, i had a chat to him and gave him a Dumfries and Galloway Council T shirt for which he was over the moon with. I was hoping to stay in Novosibirsk to wait for car parts two front springs, but they have now been sent ahead of me too Irkutsk so that is where I’m heading to now.

I didn’t feel like doing a blog yesterday, was in a strange mood, i think that the last couple of days started to get me down a little all the police stops and the same scenery for the last 1500 miles, i felt lonely for the first time i think it is because i haven’t had much contact with the right people so i will stop at a cafe later and chat to some folk. Scenery is changing now as i make my way into the Ural mountains and lots of forest areas and oil fields as you make your way from Ufa to the urals, stopped at the top of the first climb and did an oil and filter change which I’m doing every 5000 miles the next 5000 should be near to Vladivostock and i’ll remove the wheels and check the brake pads too. The vehicle is running well i had some trouble over poor quality diesel or it was the wrong grade of diesel it was being filled to trucks on the forecourt so i filled my tanks up at 35 pence per liter. driving down the road i noticed the power was down and engine ran quieter so i pulled up next to a gas station then it cut out i parked over a sandy place and had to drain my main fuel tank and get some more diesel from the petrol station then refill the vehicle tank and bleed the fuel through and we were up and running, i still have another 120 liters of the other stuff in my rear tank and i’ve mixed 10% of petrel to it to help and i’ll add 20 liters a time to the next so many other tank fill ups till its all gone. Pulled up for the night in the Ural mountains its allot cooler and I’m happier for that i’ve had allot of rain at times and yesterday the rain was very heavy monsoon type rain so had to stop as you cant see the holes in the road as well,

Crazy parking area two old tran siberian train coaches one for eating the other for sleeping 4 bunks to a room but i slept in my roof tent which creates allot of interest and i couldn’t get to bed as i have now made about 7 friends some wanting a beer another giving me holy cards for good luck, i gave whiskey a T shirt to one guys young girl and a notebook to another then went into the train carriage for supper I didn’t get any computer work done either then off to bed, very noisy night as a gun shot went off after an argument but i think it could have been fired in the air or a blank firing pistol i just stayed away, also trucks trying to get out in the morning some more shouting and diesel smoke so i think i’ll have a quite night somewhere, maybe stay in a motel for a change.

I’m parked in a nature reserve in between Saratov and Samara right on the banks of the Volga about 55 km’s north of this photo which is a small river side town that i tried to register my Visa in the only guest house which looked like the old town hall and was a little like a homeless house maybe thats a little harsh, they didn’t have any rooms available and wouldn’t stamp my visa to revalidate it so i have to go on and now I’m breaking the law which doesn’t feel good.

So here i am parked in a lovely reserve site thinking about the day, well its been a mixed bag today, the “Word” for the day is Police Police Police because i am getting pulled up every day yes more than ukraine, yesterday for no reason and was let go Today i was stopped 3 times the first was cost me £20 to get out of needed haggling as he took my license and would not give it back without money, i have to say just seen a huge ship going by on the Volga was a bit of a shock. then i picked up a hitchhiker called Romano who turns out to be a soldier from the Caucasus which is a bit worrying and we got stopped for nothing and that cost a packet of UK playing cards, i dropped Romano off in Saratov and then headed north towards Samara and got stopped again, this time £5.40.

Countryside looks a little better now as last region of the Central upland was all dull I’m now in the Volga area heading east, i’ve spoken to Trekoverland and they are going to send me out the heavy duty springs to Novosibirsk where i hope to be in about 5 to 7 days time, then i may have a few days off and relax. I’m finding it all hard work what with the language and some folk are nice to me and some are very formal it is difficult to get a Russian to smile, I have about 30 T shirts in the vehicle given to me by Dumfries and galloway county council and i gave one of these T shirts to a boy in a rural village while i was having a cup of tea and saw him sat on a bench chickens and goats walking about and his mum dressing berries so i walked over and gave him the T shirt and i felt brilliant when they both smiled and said “Spa si ba” Russian for thank you, so that sort of thing is great but big russian city’s are horrendous they are so full of smoke and chaos that i don’t go in them unless i have too.

Also there is a huge divide between rich and poor which makes me feel uneasy their are big expensive cars on the road but i don’t see fancy houses their are really old trucks and then fancy american trucks I guess russia is changing fast but how will that effect the people, i think that the way the Police act has to change because it is effecting the pleasure of driving and would put off any tourist.