Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Thanks for the comments guys!
Cassie: Wow everyone, I just read your comments after posting our latest blog and absolutely loved reading them. All of you lifted my spirits like you wouldn't believe. I literally had tears in my eyes.
Perhaps I should explain our process of an evening with this whole blog thing. We type it up offline then setup the sat phone to send out our blog post. We then receive the comments that you've all posted which is why we're doing a separate blog with our responses to your comments. Sending pictures via the sat phone proves troublesome which is why we're limited but we're going to give it another go. Otherwise, if it doesn't work, unfortunately you'll have to wait until we get to Yakutsk and some wi-fi.
So in no particular order, here's my responses to your comments:-
Warren
You no doubt have read our latest blog post and read that we did stop and smell the roses today and it was wonderful. We even decided this morning that we would start looking for a campsite by 5pm. And here we are! We'll try and get some pictures up before we get to Yakutsk but can't promise anything.
Jon (of the one and only, Team Jon and Amanda!)
Far out your comments really hit home for us! EVERYTHING you said was as if you were here with us today and went through everything we went through and had the conversations we had today. Amazing. Well, I suppose you did just 12 months ago! Thank you for your kind words and encouragement, and advice about the fuel. We think you've hit the nail on the head.
Paul
Matey, thanks so much. Your comments are too true and really hit a chord. Not everyone gets this sort of opportunity and it's just fantastic that we're here. We're going to take your advice and "engage with the wackiness"! Will keep you posted ;)
Nora
Hey hey, glad you're along for the ride with us! You'd absolutely love it here I reckon. How was Cairns?
Brett
Ha ha we can't all be awesome GTI-R drivers! Would love to see the GTIR take on the Kamaz trucks.
Graeme:
Yep - everything she said. We filmed 'the reading of the comments' so we might get that up at some stage. Thanks so much for lifting Cassie back up. I'm feelin great, but she had saddened until she received your comments.
Position: 12-07-03 18:36:17 +1000 +0000
http://maps.google.com/maps?&ll=57.51063,125.1847&q=57.51063,125.1847&z=16
#END
Perhaps I should explain our process of an evening with this whole blog thing. We type it up offline then setup the sat phone to send out our blog post. We then receive the comments that you've all posted which is why we're doing a separate blog with our responses to your comments. Sending pictures via the sat phone proves troublesome which is why we're limited but we're going to give it another go. Otherwise, if it doesn't work, unfortunately you'll have to wait until we get to Yakutsk and some wi-fi.
So in no particular order, here's my responses to your comments:-
Warren
You no doubt have read our latest blog post and read that we did stop and smell the roses today and it was wonderful. We even decided this morning that we would start looking for a campsite by 5pm. And here we are! We'll try and get some pictures up before we get to Yakutsk but can't promise anything.
Jon (of the one and only, Team Jon and Amanda!)
Far out your comments really hit home for us! EVERYTHING you said was as if you were here with us today and went through everything we went through and had the conversations we had today. Amazing. Well, I suppose you did just 12 months ago! Thank you for your kind words and encouragement, and advice about the fuel. We think you've hit the nail on the head.
Paul
Matey, thanks so much. Your comments are too true and really hit a chord. Not everyone gets this sort of opportunity and it's just fantastic that we're here. We're going to take your advice and "engage with the wackiness"! Will keep you posted ;)
Nora
Hey hey, glad you're along for the ride with us! You'd absolutely love it here I reckon. How was Cairns?
Brett
Ha ha we can't all be awesome GTI-R drivers! Would love to see the GTIR take on the Kamaz trucks.
Graeme:
Yep - everything she said. We filmed 'the reading of the comments' so we might get that up at some stage. Thanks so much for lifting Cassie back up. I'm feelin great, but she had saddened until she received your comments.
Position: 12-07-03 18:36:17 +1000 +0000
http://maps.google.com/maps?&ll=57.51063,125.1847&q=57.51063,125.1847&z=16
#END
Our new approach
Graeme: We had found our camp by 17:15 and are pretty much setup and cooking dinner now. We have a tactic now to start looking for a good campsite by 5, and be camped by 6. Today it's worked wonders. The sun is still quite high and I'm sitting at the back of the car at the table in the shade - nice!
Some spectacular driving again today. We only did 267KM today, the going was rough. The traffic over the last few days is pleasantly thinning out. You'd still pass a car every few minutes, but it's better than one every 30 seconds. We spent about two hours just chillin, having lunch, washing clothes and hair by a river today. Really smelling the roses! Also got some beautiful video to put us in the picture. The dust was also crazy today (which reminds me, I should check the air filter), the bonnet was grey with thick dust.
This country is a land of contrasts: Today's contrast is that as a people, Russian's are so proud and humble, yet the countryside is littered with rubbish. Have not quite figured that one out yet.
I've felt the engine hesitation once or twice again today, but it's so minor I almost don't care. I spent 20 minutes this afternoon at camp removing the fuel pre-filter. This car has two and I replaced one of them before we left, not knowing there was a second one. It had a kilometer and date written on the side of the bowl of 97,500KM and some date in 2006. If that's the last time it was changed, some 150,000KM ago, then that might be part of the problem. I've got plenty of video of its contents, but effectively had maybe one teaspoon of rust/silt/dirt and half a teaspoon of some unknown orange liquid. Without blowing out the filter, I can only assume it was filled with the similar silt. What was also weird, in the bottom of the bowl, there was almost a hard resin that may have been done at the factory. It peeled off easy enough, but I have no idea why it was in there to begin with.
I've taken the filthy filter out and I'll see if I can get one in Yakutsk. It's a lot easier to say 'One of these' and show them it, as opposed to quoting all manner of models and makes.
Cassie cooked some stunningly good tomato and onion mix to have with our lovely bread. It's quite tough bread in Russia, but it is good and very filling! It smells so good. The main course was followed by a desert of honey and peanut butter bread... mmm
Cassie's continuing to try reason with insects who fly into our car. It's fruitless I tell her, but she doesn't listen. LIVE UPDATE: She's just killed them all with spray. Note to self, negotiation with Cassie is futile.
OH! we saw snow today... seriously. A huge block of it at maybe 600M altitude, hidden in a valley that must get very little sunlight.
Some of these flys are cool. They hover and survey - like drones. I'm not sure why but the insects feel slower here.
Over the past five days of driving on several occasions we've overtaken a 100 series landcruiser towing a boat. It's distinctive because they are going sooo slow. It's getting to be quite a joke between us now, with much horn honking and waving. It would be terrific to stop them at some stage, we may even meet them waiting for the barge to Yakutsk.
We'll be in our 'house' by 8PM tonight - I think we'll be having tea and 'Doc Martin'. We love our house.
Cassie: As Graeme has just said, it would be great to be able to meet the guys towing the boat to wherever they're going. It's becoming quite the occasion for all of us when we do catch up to, and eventually pass, eachother. I hope we catch up to them again tomorrow.
The roads are still shaking and bumping the bejesus out of us and the car. The screws that fix the cabinet to the car were starting to come loose so Graeme tightened them up. All good now. We will have to backtrack on these roads for part of the way to get down to Chita and on to Mongolia. We're not sure of the route down to Mongolia from here but we have a couple of weeks to think it through I suppose. The problem is there doesn't seem to be a road to Chita in our atlas but we know there is one because other people have driven the road. No Google maps up here!
I'm feeling the magnitude of this trip and have been unable to feel real joy from it so far. I'm just a bundle of nerves. I was truly enjoying Vladivostok before we started driving. There's such huge distances to cover and there are limitations on the amount of time we can spend in each country on our journey, as well as being limited by entry and exit dates. I tried my best with the visas and the paperwork and I couldn't have stretched the times any further. There's also a time limit on the temporary car insurance for Russia which is weighing on my mind. This is one massive country and will take us quite a while to get across it. Really, it's just the paperwork and beaurocracy that's really stopping me from enjoying this trip. At least once a day if we go through a town we get stopped by police to check our documents and it's becoming tiresome. It makes me feel like big brother is always watching and that I may be doing something wrong. It's a comfort to me that Graeme is st
arting to relax into a groove and is enjoying this trip. Yes you heard me everyone, Graeme is relaxing! He's convinced that I'll start to feel the same way. I'm sure he's right, each day is just hard yacka at the moment.
I miss all of you back home, as I knew I would. If I could pop back for just a little while, catch up with you all and then pop back over here I would.
I have a question for our beautiful niece, Charli. In the movie Madagascar, which character is Maurice and what colour eyes does he have? The reason I ask is that for some silly reason we've given the police the nickname "Maurice" and have been doing the silly sounding voice along with it. Probably because it rhymes with police.
Anyway, we must get this post out to you all now and start thinking about getting tucked in for the night.
Position: 12-07-03 20:38:28 +1000 +0000
http://maps.google.com/maps?&ll=57.51065,125.1847&q=57.51065,125.1847&z=16
Some spectacular driving again today. We only did 267KM today, the going was rough. The traffic over the last few days is pleasantly thinning out. You'd still pass a car every few minutes, but it's better than one every 30 seconds. We spent about two hours just chillin, having lunch, washing clothes and hair by a river today. Really smelling the roses! Also got some beautiful video to put us in the picture. The dust was also crazy today (which reminds me, I should check the air filter), the bonnet was grey with thick dust.
This country is a land of contrasts: Today's contrast is that as a people, Russian's are so proud and humble, yet the countryside is littered with rubbish. Have not quite figured that one out yet.
I've felt the engine hesitation once or twice again today, but it's so minor I almost don't care. I spent 20 minutes this afternoon at camp removing the fuel pre-filter. This car has two and I replaced one of them before we left, not knowing there was a second one. It had a kilometer and date written on the side of the bowl of 97,500KM and some date in 2006. If that's the last time it was changed, some 150,000KM ago, then that might be part of the problem. I've got plenty of video of its contents, but effectively had maybe one teaspoon of rust/silt/dirt and half a teaspoon of some unknown orange liquid. Without blowing out the filter, I can only assume it was filled with the similar silt. What was also weird, in the bottom of the bowl, there was almost a hard resin that may have been done at the factory. It peeled off easy enough, but I have no idea why it was in there to begin with.
I've taken the filthy filter out and I'll see if I can get one in Yakutsk. It's a lot easier to say 'One of these' and show them it, as opposed to quoting all manner of models and makes.
Cassie cooked some stunningly good tomato and onion mix to have with our lovely bread. It's quite tough bread in Russia, but it is good and very filling! It smells so good. The main course was followed by a desert of honey and peanut butter bread... mmm
Cassie's continuing to try reason with insects who fly into our car. It's fruitless I tell her, but she doesn't listen. LIVE UPDATE: She's just killed them all with spray. Note to self, negotiation with Cassie is futile.
OH! we saw snow today... seriously. A huge block of it at maybe 600M altitude, hidden in a valley that must get very little sunlight.
Some of these flys are cool. They hover and survey - like drones. I'm not sure why but the insects feel slower here.
Over the past five days of driving on several occasions we've overtaken a 100 series landcruiser towing a boat. It's distinctive because they are going sooo slow. It's getting to be quite a joke between us now, with much horn honking and waving. It would be terrific to stop them at some stage, we may even meet them waiting for the barge to Yakutsk.
We'll be in our 'house' by 8PM tonight - I think we'll be having tea and 'Doc Martin'. We love our house.
Cassie: As Graeme has just said, it would be great to be able to meet the guys towing the boat to wherever they're going. It's becoming quite the occasion for all of us when we do catch up to, and eventually pass, eachother. I hope we catch up to them again tomorrow.
The roads are still shaking and bumping the bejesus out of us and the car. The screws that fix the cabinet to the car were starting to come loose so Graeme tightened them up. All good now. We will have to backtrack on these roads for part of the way to get down to Chita and on to Mongolia. We're not sure of the route down to Mongolia from here but we have a couple of weeks to think it through I suppose. The problem is there doesn't seem to be a road to Chita in our atlas but we know there is one because other people have driven the road. No Google maps up here!
I'm feeling the magnitude of this trip and have been unable to feel real joy from it so far. I'm just a bundle of nerves. I was truly enjoying Vladivostok before we started driving. There's such huge distances to cover and there are limitations on the amount of time we can spend in each country on our journey, as well as being limited by entry and exit dates. I tried my best with the visas and the paperwork and I couldn't have stretched the times any further. There's also a time limit on the temporary car insurance for Russia which is weighing on my mind. This is one massive country and will take us quite a while to get across it. Really, it's just the paperwork and beaurocracy that's really stopping me from enjoying this trip. At least once a day if we go through a town we get stopped by police to check our documents and it's becoming tiresome. It makes me feel like big brother is always watching and that I may be doing something wrong. It's a comfort to me that Graeme is st
arting to relax into a groove and is enjoying this trip. Yes you heard me everyone, Graeme is relaxing! He's convinced that I'll start to feel the same way. I'm sure he's right, each day is just hard yacka at the moment.
I miss all of you back home, as I knew I would. If I could pop back for just a little while, catch up with you all and then pop back over here I would.
I have a question for our beautiful niece, Charli. In the movie Madagascar, which character is Maurice and what colour eyes does he have? The reason I ask is that for some silly reason we've given the police the nickname "Maurice" and have been doing the silly sounding voice along with it. Probably because it rhymes with police.
Anyway, we must get this post out to you all now and start thinking about getting tucked in for the night.
Position: 12-07-03 20:38:28 +1000 +0000
http://maps.google.com/maps?&ll=57.51065,125.1847&q=57.51065,125.1847&z=16
Monday, July 2, 2012
Further responses to comments
We typically reply to comments the next day to save on time and call costs ;-)
But because we have so many well wishers, I should reply now! That and I'm all dressed up like an idiot sending emails on the bonnet, covered in mosquito mesh, Cassie's jumper (Yes, you read correctly) and boiling the jug, so it was a good use of time.
Nora - Great to hear, we were worried you wouldn't be joining us on our trip.
Mum/Dad - Yep, didn't have any fuel conditioner, but it's all good now. It's hard enough getting diesel letalone conditioner ;-)
Mum/Warren - Yep, not proving anything to anyone. But good point. I've been not rehashing Jon/Amanda's trip because they would already know it all - forgetting they are the only ones who have :) I will try to include more detail.
Warren - thank you for the fluffy philosophy - you nailed it
Position: 12-07-02 22:04:57 +1100 +0000
http://maps.google.com/maps?&ll=55.62774,124.862&q=55.62774,124.862&z=16
But because we have so many well wishers, I should reply now! That and I'm all dressed up like an idiot sending emails on the bonnet, covered in mosquito mesh, Cassie's jumper (Yes, you read correctly) and boiling the jug, so it was a good use of time.
Nora - Great to hear, we were worried you wouldn't be joining us on our trip.
Mum/Dad - Yep, didn't have any fuel conditioner, but it's all good now. It's hard enough getting diesel letalone conditioner ;-)
Mum/Warren - Yep, not proving anything to anyone. But good point. I've been not rehashing Jon/Amanda's trip because they would already know it all - forgetting they are the only ones who have :) I will try to include more detail.
Warren - thank you for the fluffy philosophy - you nailed it
Position: 12-07-02 22:04:57 +1100 +0000
http://maps.google.com/maps?&ll=55.62774,124.862&q=55.62774,124.862&z=16
Brilliant
Graeme:
The scenery today on our way from Oshomon to Tynda has been breathtaking. Millions of pines dotted along high ridgelines, huge rivers, deep valleys. They are like a really thin tree, usually majority white and only foliage in the 2/3rd. I apologise in advance for my lack of descriptive writing here... but we have finally got out the still camera for some shots which we will share once we get to Yakutsk.
Today the car has been going great, no more missing since we drained the tank of whatever was in it. When we changed over to the sub tank which had a few litres of the fuel from that troubled spot it maybe missed twice, that's it. I guess we'll never know what caused it, but something to do with the fuel or the overfilling.
Cassie has driven the majority of the kilometers and I've driven the majority of time. The M56 today varied from the most stunning 5KM three lane highway into a horrible 100+KM goat-track.
I've spotted a pattern. We love out days... until we have to fuel up. We continuously struggle when we use one particular chain of fuel retailer. We've been avoiding them at all costs (especially because of the suspcted dud fuel yesterday) but lately they seem to be the only ones up here.
Cassie is walking around with the still camera outside looking a total doofus with her mosquito net on her head. Photos will come soon.
I've been finding Russian towns a little underwhelming. Maybe I have the wrong attitude, but no one seems to have any pride in their towns. I'm enjoying the country side much more. We do love grocery shopping however. It's like christmas, you never know what you'll get. It seems to be our modis operandi (hope that's spelt correctly) to zip through towns. We always roll like that - I don't know why. Maybe because driving is what we know, so we stick to that?
Maybe we don't want to be disappointed? Maybe we're city folk.
We're still not finishing early enough of an evening. We've had dinner on the road, but it's 9:30 now as I write my piece, it's too late because I find myself remembering the taxing things of the day as opposed to the lovely things.
In reply to comments:
Warren - yep, not able to relax, and also yes to lower tyre pressures. Today was a joke. The problem is, you don't know when the dirt ends, so you think, ah only another KM of dirt... it's not worth airing down. Well, after 100KM of filth, aired down, for about only 20KM, 10KM of which was tar.
Chris - Thank Chris - yeah it was exciting.
Dad - yep, plenty. Hundreds a day.
Cassie:
Well hello after another day of driving. Funny that, considering this is a driving adventure! We are definitely finishing our days too late but it takes time to find a camp spot off the road and with some kind of privacy and quiet. We still did some good kms today despite the goat track roads we went down. I did the morning shift again and Graeme did the afternoon shift. The drive this morning started out as the last couple of days have, on wonderful roads where we can drive at a decent rate. Then after stopping for fuel we had to turn off the highway to get to the M56 to start heading up to Yakustk. Well, straight from lovely roads to a pot holed dirt road with rubbish on the sides of the roads. Then the dirt road became so beautiful. There were fields of the most beautiful wild flowers - purple, yellow, pink, blue, orange. Then just when you think it couldn't get more beautiful a fast flowing river would appear. The most beautiful colours - red/orange road, green grass and
trees and the colours of the flowers.
Anyway, then the road turned to rubbish again by the end of it. Terrible pot holes that were bone jarring. I was exhausted after my 4.5hr drive and had to pass the reigns to Graeme. He drove up the hill and found a little place to stop for lunch. There was no menu so I couldn't even point to something. The lady was very lovely and just suggested these pastry things and a cup of coffee. The pastry things were cool. The dough was kind of chewy and the filling seemed to be cabbage and maybe onion or something. Either way it was actually really nice. The coffee was the strongest and sweetest cup of coffee I've ever had in my life! Woah.
From there Graeme started his driving shift and the poor thing had to drive the worst roads to date. But he's already described that in his part of this blog so you get the gist. It was definitely bone jarring. My back was starting to ache and the back of the car where we "live" was a mess! Stuff everywhere from the shaking and bumping around.
Hopefully it's tar roads all the way to Yakutsk. Wishful thinking?
The scenery today on our way from Oshomon to Tynda has been breathtaking. Millions of pines dotted along high ridgelines, huge rivers, deep valleys. They are like a really thin tree, usually majority white and only foliage in the 2/3rd. I apologise in advance for my lack of descriptive writing here... but we have finally got out the still camera for some shots which we will share once we get to Yakutsk.
Today the car has been going great, no more missing since we drained the tank of whatever was in it. When we changed over to the sub tank which had a few litres of the fuel from that troubled spot it maybe missed twice, that's it. I guess we'll never know what caused it, but something to do with the fuel or the overfilling.
Cassie has driven the majority of the kilometers and I've driven the majority of time. The M56 today varied from the most stunning 5KM three lane highway into a horrible 100+KM goat-track.
I've spotted a pattern. We love out days... until we have to fuel up. We continuously struggle when we use one particular chain of fuel retailer. We've been avoiding them at all costs (especially because of the suspcted dud fuel yesterday) but lately they seem to be the only ones up here.
Cassie is walking around with the still camera outside looking a total doofus with her mosquito net on her head. Photos will come soon.
I've been finding Russian towns a little underwhelming. Maybe I have the wrong attitude, but no one seems to have any pride in their towns. I'm enjoying the country side much more. We do love grocery shopping however. It's like christmas, you never know what you'll get. It seems to be our modis operandi (hope that's spelt correctly) to zip through towns. We always roll like that - I don't know why. Maybe because driving is what we know, so we stick to that?
Maybe we don't want to be disappointed? Maybe we're city folk.
We're still not finishing early enough of an evening. We've had dinner on the road, but it's 9:30 now as I write my piece, it's too late because I find myself remembering the taxing things of the day as opposed to the lovely things.
In reply to comments:
Warren - yep, not able to relax, and also yes to lower tyre pressures. Today was a joke. The problem is, you don't know when the dirt ends, so you think, ah only another KM of dirt... it's not worth airing down. Well, after 100KM of filth, aired down, for about only 20KM, 10KM of which was tar.
Chris - Thank Chris - yeah it was exciting.
Dad - yep, plenty. Hundreds a day.
Cassie:
Well hello after another day of driving. Funny that, considering this is a driving adventure! We are definitely finishing our days too late but it takes time to find a camp spot off the road and with some kind of privacy and quiet. We still did some good kms today despite the goat track roads we went down. I did the morning shift again and Graeme did the afternoon shift. The drive this morning started out as the last couple of days have, on wonderful roads where we can drive at a decent rate. Then after stopping for fuel we had to turn off the highway to get to the M56 to start heading up to Yakustk. Well, straight from lovely roads to a pot holed dirt road with rubbish on the sides of the roads. Then the dirt road became so beautiful. There were fields of the most beautiful wild flowers - purple, yellow, pink, blue, orange. Then just when you think it couldn't get more beautiful a fast flowing river would appear. The most beautiful colours - red/orange road, green grass and
trees and the colours of the flowers.
Anyway, then the road turned to rubbish again by the end of it. Terrible pot holes that were bone jarring. I was exhausted after my 4.5hr drive and had to pass the reigns to Graeme. He drove up the hill and found a little place to stop for lunch. There was no menu so I couldn't even point to something. The lady was very lovely and just suggested these pastry things and a cup of coffee. The pastry things were cool. The dough was kind of chewy and the filling seemed to be cabbage and maybe onion or something. Either way it was actually really nice. The coffee was the strongest and sweetest cup of coffee I've ever had in my life! Woah.
From there Graeme started his driving shift and the poor thing had to drive the worst roads to date. But he's already described that in his part of this blog so you get the gist. It was definitely bone jarring. My back was starting to ache and the back of the car where we "live" was a mess! Stuff everywhere from the shaking and bumping around.
Hopefully it's tar roads all the way to Yakutsk. Wishful thinking?
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Tired
Graeme: We've setup camp in a disused gravel pit which
To summarise today, we're tired.
Driving has been absolutely mayhem. We've done 430-450 kilometers on what has varied from brand new multi-laned hotmix highways, to tracks that there is no way you would drive your everyday car on.
The road is frequented by hired drivers taking brand new cars north. Why it's more viable to put 3000KM on brand new cars on the worst roads, I don't know. That combined with the fact it's had a thorough hiding would make me think twice about buying one.
By the time you read this, you'll have a more accurate idea of our location that we do, but we suspect we're about 50KM south of the 'Kabarovskiy' region border. According to the GPS 2716KM to go... till Yakutsk. Just a side note, I'm not in the mood to spell Russian names in English, I'm just roughing it from here on.
In true fashion, I am down in the dumps on our first night. What's good about it, is it's a travel trend I've spotted over many years so I'm not too worried. As I was doing a video diary, it occurred to me that it sounded a lot like the one I made last trip... reoccurring thoughts consist of:
-What a huge waste of money for something I'm not enjoying.
-How much more satisfying it is watching others do these adventures the actually doing them ourselves... you don't see the hard times on tv.
-We've just calculated roughly 7.5 days at 400 KM/Day to Yakutsk... that's immense and depressing all at once.
-It concerns me that we're not going to relax and enjoy this trip. We could come back from this trip more exhausted than when we began.
-Cassie feels a bit down that she's not able to contribute as much to the driving. She's naturally not as confident driving my car as her own. Mine is heavy, high centred, slow and vauge. She's driven a bit today, but the traffic now too crazy for her. She'll be used to it in no time.
Not wanting to alarm anyone at home, but the driving is really risky. We'd only be doing 80kph, yet the more than ten times we've needed to drive on the shoulder to avoid oncoming traffic. It's awkward enough driving on good roads in Australia, but here with reckless traffic, it's very hard work. We just continue to go at our slow pace.
What's also funny about this traffic, and no doubt one of it's faults, is the different speeds of vehicles. One car/bike/truck will happily do 50-60kph whilst a steam of traffic builds behind it and explodes in a fit over simultaneous overtaking OFTEN three cars wide. And that's on the tar. If it's dirt and everyone is crawling along, the traffic widens further.
On a side note, the traffic in Vladivostok is brilliant. It looks like chaos, but everyone is very capable and it flows perfectly. This traffic however, is a different ball game!
With the length of daylight hours, we suspect it might be better starting later in the day, with the view to stopping about now (8PM) so that there is some shade and the heat of the day is behind us. The sun makes it too hot to stop in the middle of the day for lunch. Others before us buy lunch and breakfast... this could be why.
The point of this blog is to document the downs as well. We're going to soon have a shower, climb into bed to watch some recorded TV and have a cuppa - which will no doubt make me feel good again.
Cassie: We tried to navigate ourselves out of Vladivostok this morning, but it didn't take long before we were lost. Thankfully we had got up and ready early so were on the road by 7am before the peak hour traffic started. In the end we relented, pulled over and turned on the navigation system and we were outta there in no time. Getting lost meant we saw another part of Vladivostok that we didn't get to. We were sad to leave Vladivostok in a way. We had been there since Sunday afternoon and had begun to know our way around, where to go for good food and coffee, even where to do grocery shopping. We were also comfortable with the chaotic traffic in the end.
We're not sure if this disused quarry thing we're staying at tonight is the same one where Jon and Amanda stayed on their first night out of Vladivostok. It would be amazing if it is because we literally chanced upon this place! We were getting exhausted and decided we had better start looking for a place to stop soon before we get too tired. We saw this obscure dirt track off the "highway" and it quickly opened up into this place. It's certainly not the nicest place on earth and we'll hopefully find better camps from here on, but it's a good start considering we're not yet remote enough to be choosy about our camp spots.
On the menu tonight is some marinated chicken and cooked tomatoes. Not sure what the marinade is on the chicken because it's in Russian but it looks and smells good. Graeme's being chef tonight while I type this up. Then later maybe a cup of tea and chocolate.
Today has been quite hot and tiring so it's lovely to be sitting here in the shade with a slight breeze, smelling our food cooking, sipping cold water and unwinding. It was impossible to find water to fill up our water tanks today. No fuel station has a tap or anywhere that allows you to do this simple task. In the end, out of desperation we pulled into a fuel station, I grabbed one of the 20L water containers out of the car along with a little drinking bottle of water. I then asked the station attendant if we could fill up our water containers with drinkable water by miming drinking from the water bottle and tapping the 20L container. He didn't say a word or smile, he just nodded and indicated I should follow him. He took me to the car wash office and asked the guy in there if he would fill up the 20L container for us. I then indicated we had two of them and the car wash guy was too happy to do this for us. He came out with the bottles brimming with beautiful clear water. Ma
gic! We're not taking any chances though, we're still running the water through the filter.
It's amazing how closely our experience is mirroring that of people who have traveled this route before us. It's to the point where we feel like we're copying their words and photos but we're seriously not meaning to. We're just telling it how it is.
It's starting to cool down now and that's seemingly one awesome thing about the Russian summer we've experienced so far. Once the morning fog clears the summer days have been sunny and beautiful. The wonderful thing so far is that the evenings seem to cool down nicely. Well, that was the case in Vladivostok, and hopefully that continues to be the case.
Position: 12-06-29 18:39:30 +1100 +0000
http://maps.google.com/maps?&llF.01736,133.8516&qF.01736,133.8516&z=16
To summarise today, we're tired.
Driving has been absolutely mayhem. We've done 430-450 kilometers on what has varied from brand new multi-laned hotmix highways, to tracks that there is no way you would drive your everyday car on.
The road is frequented by hired drivers taking brand new cars north. Why it's more viable to put 3000KM on brand new cars on the worst roads, I don't know. That combined with the fact it's had a thorough hiding would make me think twice about buying one.
By the time you read this, you'll have a more accurate idea of our location that we do, but we suspect we're about 50KM south of the 'Kabarovskiy' region border. According to the GPS 2716KM to go... till Yakutsk. Just a side note, I'm not in the mood to spell Russian names in English, I'm just roughing it from here on.
In true fashion, I am down in the dumps on our first night. What's good about it, is it's a travel trend I've spotted over many years so I'm not too worried. As I was doing a video diary, it occurred to me that it sounded a lot like the one I made last trip... reoccurring thoughts consist of:
-What a huge waste of money for something I'm not enjoying.
-How much more satisfying it is watching others do these adventures the actually doing them ourselves... you don't see the hard times on tv.
-We've just calculated roughly 7.5 days at 400 KM/Day to Yakutsk... that's immense and depressing all at once.
-It concerns me that we're not going to relax and enjoy this trip. We could come back from this trip more exhausted than when we began.
-Cassie feels a bit down that she's not able to contribute as much to the driving. She's naturally not as confident driving my car as her own. Mine is heavy, high centred, slow and vauge. She's driven a bit today, but the traffic now too crazy for her. She'll be used to it in no time.
Not wanting to alarm anyone at home, but the driving is really risky. We'd only be doing 80kph, yet the more than ten times we've needed to drive on the shoulder to avoid oncoming traffic. It's awkward enough driving on good roads in Australia, but here with reckless traffic, it's very hard work. We just continue to go at our slow pace.
What's also funny about this traffic, and no doubt one of it's faults, is the different speeds of vehicles. One car/bike/truck will happily do 50-60kph whilst a steam of traffic builds behind it and explodes in a fit over simultaneous overtaking OFTEN three cars wide. And that's on the tar. If it's dirt and everyone is crawling along, the traffic widens further.
On a side note, the traffic in Vladivostok is brilliant. It looks like chaos, but everyone is very capable and it flows perfectly. This traffic however, is a different ball game!
With the length of daylight hours, we suspect it might be better starting later in the day, with the view to stopping about now (8PM) so that there is some shade and the heat of the day is behind us. The sun makes it too hot to stop in the middle of the day for lunch. Others before us buy lunch and breakfast... this could be why.
The point of this blog is to document the downs as well. We're going to soon have a shower, climb into bed to watch some recorded TV and have a cuppa - which will no doubt make me feel good again.
Cassie: We tried to navigate ourselves out of Vladivostok this morning, but it didn't take long before we were lost. Thankfully we had got up and ready early so were on the road by 7am before the peak hour traffic started. In the end we relented, pulled over and turned on the navigation system and we were outta there in no time. Getting lost meant we saw another part of Vladivostok that we didn't get to. We were sad to leave Vladivostok in a way. We had been there since Sunday afternoon and had begun to know our way around, where to go for good food and coffee, even where to do grocery shopping. We were also comfortable with the chaotic traffic in the end.
We're not sure if this disused quarry thing we're staying at tonight is the same one where Jon and Amanda stayed on their first night out of Vladivostok. It would be amazing if it is because we literally chanced upon this place! We were getting exhausted and decided we had better start looking for a place to stop soon before we get too tired. We saw this obscure dirt track off the "highway" and it quickly opened up into this place. It's certainly not the nicest place on earth and we'll hopefully find better camps from here on, but it's a good start considering we're not yet remote enough to be choosy about our camp spots.
On the menu tonight is some marinated chicken and cooked tomatoes. Not sure what the marinade is on the chicken because it's in Russian but it looks and smells good. Graeme's being chef tonight while I type this up. Then later maybe a cup of tea and chocolate.
Today has been quite hot and tiring so it's lovely to be sitting here in the shade with a slight breeze, smelling our food cooking, sipping cold water and unwinding. It was impossible to find water to fill up our water tanks today. No fuel station has a tap or anywhere that allows you to do this simple task. In the end, out of desperation we pulled into a fuel station, I grabbed one of the 20L water containers out of the car along with a little drinking bottle of water. I then asked the station attendant if we could fill up our water containers with drinkable water by miming drinking from the water bottle and tapping the 20L container. He didn't say a word or smile, he just nodded and indicated I should follow him. He took me to the car wash office and asked the guy in there if he would fill up the 20L container for us. I then indicated we had two of them and the car wash guy was too happy to do this for us. He came out with the bottles brimming with beautiful clear water. Ma
gic! We're not taking any chances though, we're still running the water through the filter.
It's amazing how closely our experience is mirroring that of people who have traveled this route before us. It's to the point where we feel like we're copying their words and photos but we're seriously not meaning to. We're just telling it how it is.
It's starting to cool down now and that's seemingly one awesome thing about the Russian summer we've experienced so far. Once the morning fog clears the summer days have been sunny and beautiful. The wonderful thing so far is that the evenings seem to cool down nicely. Well, that was the case in Vladivostok, and hopefully that continues to be the case.
Position: 12-06-29 18:39:30 +1100 +0000
http://maps.google.com/maps?&llF.01736,133.8516&qF.01736,133.8516&z=16
Driving driving driving
Cassie: So here I am with the laptop on my lap, typing away while Graeme's driving on a beautiful bit of road. I've done my driving shift this morning and had an awesome run. Got us another 300km under our belts and had so much fun driving on the awesome roads mixed with road works that were more closely resembling 4WD tracks! Made for a very interesting drive. The population is thinning out which means the roads are super quiet. And for the first time, we're seeing beautiful, long overtaking lanes. You may seem surprised by my surprise, but we thought Russia didn't know the meaning of overtaking lanes on highways because we hadn't seen one up until this morning. We're eating up the miles today while we can on such great roads. So far we've done about 500km and we're hoping to do at least 600km or so to break through the halfway point to Yakutsk. Because the days are so long it's really easy to do that on good roads. We have been stopping well before we reach our tired limit
and the constant breaks have put us in good stead all day.
At the end of my driving shift we pulled into a cafe and had a go at ordering from a Russian menu. We were totally out of place and the girl behind the counter was of no help, she just kept laughing - not very helpful really. This roadhouse style place was full of bikies and we stood out like a sore thumb which was hilarious. Even more hilarious, we just pointed to random stuff on the menu and ended up with half a piece of stale bread, some chicken noodle soup and some coleslaw thing. Totally not enough food for the two of us.
The amount of daylight hours is immense. It literally isn't getting dark until maybe 10.30pm/11pm'ish and the sun seems to come up at maybe 6.30am/7am'ish.
Our camp last night was down a quiet dirt track off the highway. It was raining and there were loads of mozzies, but our car provided us with a cosy sanctuary. The rain was softly pattering on the car all night and it sounded awesome. It was still raining when we woke up and for the first hour or so of driving but other than that it's been dry and overcast which makes for good driving weather. Glare and sun are not a road traveler's best friend.
The countryside has been stunning. Amazingly green and lush like we could never imagine seeing in Australia. We haven't seen one barren bit of land that hasn't been deliberately manmade that way.
We just stopped for fuel now and I got yelled at by the "lady" behind the counter. You always have to guess the amount of fuel you need and then prepay. Well, for the first time we overestimated and I asked for a refund of the fuel we didn't end up using and she literally yelled at me! Mind you, she was yelling at the biker ahead of me in the line and then as she's having a go at me, the biker comes back and starts having more words to her about his predicament. Graeme and I are now laughing that I should've said a few choice words to her in english but with a massive sarcastic smile on my face. Hmmm, me thinks next time. Always think of these funny things in hindsight. Needless to say, I didn't get our refund.
Anyway, we're off again on our mile eating journey. OMG we just passed two little Kia utility trucks connected with an A-frame you'd see connecting a trailer. Difficult to explain. We're struggling to think how that could be more efficient than having two trucks, a bigger truck or doing two trips. Haha only in Russia.
Graeme:
Wow, what a fantastic day. Seriously stunning. Excellent roads. We stopped to help a motorcycle who had run out of 'benzine' (pertrol). We gave him a lift to the service station, then back to his bike... but we were unable to start it. He was a bit... perplexed by the bike, almost like it was borrowed (or stolen ;-) so after pulling the clutch in, nuteral, stop switch off it would at least turn over. But that was all, it would only turn over. After two or three minutes of trying different things, two bikers coming the other way. Pete and John from tough-miles.com were also doing an epic adventure. What are the chances, two brittish bikers.... how could that have ended up better. What possible combination could have been better?
In the end, it was either a side stand switch, or just that it was really flooded, but it roared into life! success.
Since our last fill of fuel (which was atrociously over filled, because of the 'no refund if you pay with card') we've been experiencing a misfire kind of condition where by it's as if for maybe a tenth of a second the fuel drops out. I'm clutching at straws and would welcome your comments with ideas. I'll list what I've done.
-Checked fuel hoses to check for air getting in - seem ok - one was a bit easy to remove, but worst case I'll clamp it if the problem continues
-We filled 3/4 of the main tank at this fuel stop, and about 1/10th of the sub tank, so changing tanks may not rule out the problem.
-I'm not sure if my imagination, but the exhaust smells a little like kerosene
-I did wonder if overfilling the tank stops it venting, or possibly backs up the fuel return line? It's now got half a tank in it, so that shouldn't be it.
-I've checked for water in the water trap, none whatsoever. It did gurgle a little bit as air went back into it.
-I've checked the dash light for the diesel water trap and it works. It also has a buzzer which was a pleasant surprise! If only the same buzzer worked for oil/alternator?
What I have done, which _MAY_ have made a difference, is I opened the tank cap and it sucked some air in. Not a heap, but some.
I've done maybe a 10KM round trip and it _SEEMS_ to be better, but I'm trying very hard to not get excited.
Oh well, better luck tomorrow. We're going to watch another episode of 'Black Books' - it's horrifically funny british humour. Thanks for the tip Brett.
Also good news, is we've passed the half way point from Vladivostok to Yakutsk!... just ;-)
#END
Position: 12-07-01 17:30:48 +1100 +0000
http://maps.google.com/maps?&ll=51.46277,128.3803&q=51.46277,128.3803&z=16
#END
and the constant breaks have put us in good stead all day.
At the end of my driving shift we pulled into a cafe and had a go at ordering from a Russian menu. We were totally out of place and the girl behind the counter was of no help, she just kept laughing - not very helpful really. This roadhouse style place was full of bikies and we stood out like a sore thumb which was hilarious. Even more hilarious, we just pointed to random stuff on the menu and ended up with half a piece of stale bread, some chicken noodle soup and some coleslaw thing. Totally not enough food for the two of us.
The amount of daylight hours is immense. It literally isn't getting dark until maybe 10.30pm/11pm'ish and the sun seems to come up at maybe 6.30am/7am'ish.
Our camp last night was down a quiet dirt track off the highway. It was raining and there were loads of mozzies, but our car provided us with a cosy sanctuary. The rain was softly pattering on the car all night and it sounded awesome. It was still raining when we woke up and for the first hour or so of driving but other than that it's been dry and overcast which makes for good driving weather. Glare and sun are not a road traveler's best friend.
The countryside has been stunning. Amazingly green and lush like we could never imagine seeing in Australia. We haven't seen one barren bit of land that hasn't been deliberately manmade that way.
We just stopped for fuel now and I got yelled at by the "lady" behind the counter. You always have to guess the amount of fuel you need and then prepay. Well, for the first time we overestimated and I asked for a refund of the fuel we didn't end up using and she literally yelled at me! Mind you, she was yelling at the biker ahead of me in the line and then as she's having a go at me, the biker comes back and starts having more words to her about his predicament. Graeme and I are now laughing that I should've said a few choice words to her in english but with a massive sarcastic smile on my face. Hmmm, me thinks next time. Always think of these funny things in hindsight. Needless to say, I didn't get our refund.
Anyway, we're off again on our mile eating journey. OMG we just passed two little Kia utility trucks connected with an A-frame you'd see connecting a trailer. Difficult to explain. We're struggling to think how that could be more efficient than having two trucks, a bigger truck or doing two trips. Haha only in Russia.
Graeme:
Wow, what a fantastic day. Seriously stunning. Excellent roads. We stopped to help a motorcycle who had run out of 'benzine' (pertrol). We gave him a lift to the service station, then back to his bike... but we were unable to start it. He was a bit... perplexed by the bike, almost like it was borrowed (or stolen ;-) so after pulling the clutch in, nuteral, stop switch off it would at least turn over. But that was all, it would only turn over. After two or three minutes of trying different things, two bikers coming the other way. Pete and John from tough-miles.com were also doing an epic adventure. What are the chances, two brittish bikers.... how could that have ended up better. What possible combination could have been better?
In the end, it was either a side stand switch, or just that it was really flooded, but it roared into life! success.
Since our last fill of fuel (which was atrociously over filled, because of the 'no refund if you pay with card') we've been experiencing a misfire kind of condition where by it's as if for maybe a tenth of a second the fuel drops out. I'm clutching at straws and would welcome your comments with ideas. I'll list what I've done.
-Checked fuel hoses to check for air getting in - seem ok - one was a bit easy to remove, but worst case I'll clamp it if the problem continues
-We filled 3/4 of the main tank at this fuel stop, and about 1/10th of the sub tank, so changing tanks may not rule out the problem.
-I'm not sure if my imagination, but the exhaust smells a little like kerosene
-I did wonder if overfilling the tank stops it venting, or possibly backs up the fuel return line? It's now got half a tank in it, so that shouldn't be it.
-I've checked for water in the water trap, none whatsoever. It did gurgle a little bit as air went back into it.
-I've checked the dash light for the diesel water trap and it works. It also has a buzzer which was a pleasant surprise! If only the same buzzer worked for oil/alternator?
What I have done, which _MAY_ have made a difference, is I opened the tank cap and it sucked some air in. Not a heap, but some.
I've done maybe a 10KM round trip and it _SEEMS_ to be better, but I'm trying very hard to not get excited.
Oh well, better luck tomorrow. We're going to watch another episode of 'Black Books' - it's horrifically funny british humour. Thanks for the tip Brett.
Also good news, is we've passed the half way point from Vladivostok to Yakutsk!... just ;-)
#END
Position: 12-07-01 17:30:48 +1100 +0000
http://maps.google.com/maps?&ll=51.46277,128.3803&q=51.46277,128.3803&z=16
#END
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