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.