Kurgan -Omsk - Novosibirsk

 

Near Kurgan, our CS hosts showed us a horse farm : there Elios had is first ride ever on a poney. After one whole day of driving, we arrived to Omsk, where we spent a night in the datcha (small country house) of Evgeniy, a VW bus lover who drives a... T4. Next day, he guided Filip to a market and a welder : now we are ready to attack Mogolia, equipped with 70L, torsion arm welded one more time in order to keep the gearbox free, and we still have time left. Omsk is bigger and more interesting than Kurgan, the second morning we walked around with a young engineer eager to improve her English and her French. From Omsk to Novosibirsk, the road is new at the beginning. The weather is now very hot and there are aggressive mosquitoes everywhere. We were overtaken by 2 off roaders driven by 4 Poles going to Mongolia : they  gave us the Mongolian roadmap we had been desperately looking for ! 250 km after Omsk, we made a stop in Karachi lakes, one is salty, people float and cover themselves with mud, then go rince in the sweet lake in front. Now, in Novosibirsk, we went to visit old dear Ikea, with its free WiFi and nice playground for children. Here is the last big city before Ulan-Bator, or even until Beijing. We have 8 days left to get slowly to tha Mongolian border.

From Nizhniy Novgorod To Kurgan

Last week with the good wi-fi connexion , Filip had contacted the club of VW bus fans in Russia (here they have mostly T4 and T5). Since morning we got the number of one of them, so that all day long the guys unloaded our bus from heavy pieces (spare engine, gearbox, cylinder, etc.) and helped Flip work on the suspensions, in a nice friendly atmosphere. On evening, one of them  director of the autobus compagny of the city, invited us to psend the night in his house on the road to Kazan. Filip waned to please him and accepted to spend evening drinking vodka: next day it was terribly hard to stand up and go! However we made it to Kazan late in the night, the city was illuminated like Las Vegas. Then we crossed Tatarstan, the landscape is now made of hilly fields instead of flat land and forests and lots of small petrol driling sites are along the road. We also met a family of free horses. One night we slept in a forest and almost get stuck in the mud to go back to the road after rainy night! On saturday we arrived in Tuymazy, in a very nice small family. Valeriy and Irina hosted us with tchai, bortsch, beer, blinis and bania (sauna), their 4 year old son plays alone and Elios also, so relax! We also help them prepare a trip to France in a couple of weeks. On monday we passed Ural mountains, and now we are in Asia! Here Kurgan, waiting to discover the city with the next Couchsurfer.

Rybinsk-Nizhnij Novgorod

At last some photos for you: https://picasaweb.google.com/filipfromPL/LvRuPskovJaroslav

In Rybinsk, we finally stayed overnight, invited by this group of friends with 2 babies, we went for a walk along the Volga drinking beer for hours...
Next day, sunday, we got to Yaroslavl. We didn't meet the Couchsurfer we counted on, but a  nice couple who invited us to park the bus in the courtyard of their office and chat about stereotypes east-west drinking beer again till late. Yaroslavl is magnificent city with penty of cerkiev near the water and big parks, but it is also very touristic. On monday,  Filip looked for a welder to reinforce again the rear of the bus, because the torsion arm had bent again. Meanwhile, we found a park with Elios for his nap, and fortunately it didn't rain. The same evening we got a 4 star Couchsurfing at Slava's in Kostroma. Yesterday morning we found a super cafe, tiny and popular, where to drink tea in plastic cup for 7 roubles (less than 20 euro cents) and where an old man offered Elios a bill of 100 roubles! Then we drove quite a lot, to arrive in the evening at Nizhnij Novgorod, where we're now using free Wi-Fi connexion of a big shopping centre.
The bus will not support the road much longer with such load, we need to unload the spare engine and gearbox, and we are thinking of entering Mongolia through the good road of Ulan-Ude instead of the hard path of the Altai.

26-30 July, St Peterburg-Rybinsk

Good road from Pskov to St Peterburg, bordered with poor villages of wooden houses. On arrival Filip was extremely учсшеувЖцу found a bus like ours on the petrol station!

One whole day in St Peterburg, parked in the touristic centre, in front of Mikhailskij palace. Nice tour on the bike. We also met again our friends Toques from Biarritz.
Then road again, good halt for sleeping in a quiet forest, just near a very big gaz pipeline, probably coming from Siberia. The weather is good all the time. Last night we should have met a Couchsurfer in Cherepovets, but she didn't answer sms, so one more night in the city, we prefer nature!

Today, nice people: looking for water we found workers from Kirghizie on a petrol station, they shared their lunch with us. Then in the nexy t town, rybinsk, as we were looking for an internet cafe, a nice guy took us to his house: that's where I am now!

First week : Poland-Lithuania-Latvia-Russia

First day, first surprise : after leaving Fred in Brzeszcze who helped us with the stickers for the sponsors, we meet our friends from France travelling with four kids, they had just arrived in Auschwitz. Some hours of driving and we go sleeping in a forest, then drive again to Spioch’s house, a family farm North-East of Varsaw (Ostrow Mazowiecka). 

Third day, we wanted to have a look at the nature of Mazury and see the village of Jedwabne where Jews were burnt in a barn during the war. Bad luck for us too, we jumped on some holes and the rear beam got completely deformed, it has turned into the frame, we cannot change the gear and have to weld in emergency. Filip finds with no delay a garage that can take us, Augusta and Elios have to stay outside, it’s so hot, and then comes the rain and a violent storm. We find refuge in the small shop nearby, and at 9, Elios begins to be sleepy and the works on the bus are finished (see technical part).

Next day, we join our friends Andrzej, Kasia, Zosia and Lila in Mazury, then leave together, in 2 VW buses, towards Lithuania, it rains again, Filip repairs the sweepers in two seconds, I twist my ankle violently but it gets better quickly. We get to the coast, a third VW bus joins us, that of Marcin, Ewa and Marianna, and we rest one day in a farm-camping in Pape national parc in Latvia.

On sunday, the weather gets better but we need to drive all day, we take a hitch-hicker who tells us a little about the country, stop in Riga, nice city with a chill out atmosphere, and then drive by night to get to the border early morning.

No problem at this border, paper work and waiting take us take us 2.5 hr, we find cheaper fuel before running out of fuel, not as cheap as it was 6 years ago though, now it’s about 0,60 euro/liter. So, we are in Russia ! Now we’ve got thirty days to cross it.

Pskov is a big town, very old (more than a thousand years), it’s the craddle of Russian chritianism. Its gigantic icons and different churches, along a nice river, are worth seing. A couple of Couchsurfers, Alex and Alesya, take us for a little walk and visit. Today, we have to hit the road again, direction St Petersbourg.
Photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/filipfromPL/PlLvLtEst?authkey=Gv1sRgCPev06_spPaBdQ

The great departure

Here we go, finally, away from Bielsko Biala. After loading the bus yesterday, we drove some 60km with no breakdown! That's good news, when you know that Filip spent his week working on the whole engine, repairing the brakes, adjusting electrics, making the whole basis of the vehicle higher, giving him bigger new tyres
So we've got a small week left to get to the russian border slowly, through Warsaw, Masurian lakes region Lithuania, Latvia and maybe Estonia.
Next news and pictures as soon as possible!

8-10 July: Garbojama: VW meeting in Cracow

That's was meant to be our departure point. But we're still not ready: on the road there and back (2x100 km), not less than 4 breakdowns (fuel, GPL switch, lights not working in the middle of the night and fuel filter), so that there is a lot left to do! The meeting gave us already a feeling of being East: 7 buses came from Russia, and a few cars from the Baltic countries. And almost all Filip's friends were there to say good bye.
Now Elios is getting baptised today, and as soon as we can, we'll hit the road, Jack!