2018-11-23 Day 73 Fri

A cold morning....

 



We bought a couple of 9 litre bottles of water and bought diesel to finish off our Moldivian Liu. 

I find it strange that farmers are replowing their land with snow on it. Not sure the purpose or whether they seeds it now?








I assume washing dries in the cold?

 

We crossed out of Moldova OK, but the Romanians sent us back to get some paperwork from the Mondolvians because we were over 3.5tonnes. The Mondolvians had no additional paperwork for trucks and suggested that we join the bus queue in Romania - Oh, and could that have our web site so they could follow us?  

 

We returned to Romania and went down the truck lane, got our passports stamped etc, and then after a wait rolled into the Romanian customs area. Roughly translated ...., "What the hell are you doing here, this is for trucks!". John, replied "well your mates over there sent us here!". There were some disparaging looks and grunts directed at "those idiots...". John struck up a conversation with costoms chap we were dealing with and, no problem, he had a couple of mates who moved to Australia to study. Fifteen minutes of yarns later and all good - have a great trip...

So we drove another 60km south along the boarder and found a nice quiet little spot overlooking the river, border and with excellent internet access from Moldova. Great, except as we rounded the last corner to our camp with a view, there are a couple of boarder control chaps watching for smugglers with thermo binoculars.

So now there is a lot of angst about whether we can stay this close to the border. They wanted us to go back and stay in the last village. A border control chap with English over the phone told John that it was dangerous here because of wild animals like pigs. John, mentioned that we have crocodiles, laughs all round and he calls his boss and finally we are allowed to stay (with the boarder guard phone number at the ready in case there is a problem).

A quiet night (no pigs, crocodiles or cigarette smugglers)

191km

Camp site

2018-11-22 Day 72 Thu

Drove back through the village to the info center and asked if the monastery was open. It was, so we drove to the path, parked layered up a bit and walked. It was a fairly short walk but it felt very cold especially in the wind. The monastery was smaller than we thought. We then entered the caves/chapel under the bell tower. The monks certainly had it tough in these rock cells but it was certainly warmer than outside. Their narrow, airy balcony on the cliff-face boasted a dusting of snow and views uninterrupted by balustrade.

After this we decided to drive east and south back to the winery to complete the circuit. Well we made it to the border of the country (Transnistria ) that is not recognized as a country except by other ex-Soviet non-countries.

As we approached the Frontier there were Moldovan military with guns, blockades and tanks facing off the Transnistrian counterparts on the other side of the river, similarly equipped. The Transnistrian border personnel were first puzzled by our arrival and then the smiles broke out as they came to understand our origin and travels. However, our request was escalated a couple of levels to a very important person (4 stars) who threw our passports and paperwork down onto his desk with considerable disdain. After much posturing and consideration of our paper-work he authorized another official (3 stars) to enter our details and receive our €20 road tax.

It took us about one hour to get into the country a 10min drive then back out only 30 min to exit. Now our time was tight but we made it back to the winery Milestii Mici. Our water hoses had finally defrosted but did not have time to fill bottles… 

EC would have fitted into the cellars, but never mind… An impressive cellar….. We only saw 5km of it but interesting. The lime stone had been mined cut into blocks for building; so left the tunnel a bit like Odessa. The winery is now state owned; but the tonnage and bottles of wine produced just did not add up. 2000 tonnes of grapes crushed by Milestii Mici, the biggest in Moldova;  but 120,000 tonnes for the whole country. We then got taken into the detestation and tasting of 3 wines. We sat at a table with two Polish guys; truck drivers who had obviously noticed EC. Our guide then left us. I paid off the taxi and we drove out with the Poles. Stopped in to buy a bottle or 2 but had no idea of which merlot it was we liked at the tasting. No pressure or even encouragement to buy the wines.

We camped on their old entrance. No water lines still frozen

96km

Camp site

2018-11-21 Day 71 Wed

A nice hot shower and then I did a bit of hand washing. I need to do small lots as there will be no hanging out to dry!!

We headed north to the capital Chisinau. As we drove north there was more snow on the ground and then in the air.

We visited Milestii Mici which has the largest cellar in the world; 200km of them!  At the cellar we booked in for a tour tomorrow at 3pm. The attendent offered to hire a taxi for us to do the tour in, as although EC is within the height 2.7m she is too long…. Oh well.

John directed us to a small shopping center that had a restaurant and we had a great meal of soup then a Moldova special with pork then a coffee with cheese crepes….Yum One of the better bought meals. We shared each plate.

 
The waitress had some English but understood better than her ability to speak. Next door in the supermarket we bought some eggs and 2 rather thick pork chops for dinner. The lunch cost A$10 and the pork chops A$3.50.

One of the towns we drove through had all their wells  as tea pots. They looked great!

Next north to a monastery and a camp. As there was so much snow on the ground we did not venture on any of the tracks and ended up below the monastery just between the dirt white road and the creek, on the tracks of a horse and cart.







Forecast for -5℃ tonight and a little snow. As John was taking his camp photo several cars stopped and chatted to him. People seem friendly.

213km 

Camp site

2018-11-20 Day 70 Tue

Mum and Ben's birthday.

Today we’ll cross into Moldova. We arrived at the border of Ukraine and waited in line. They were allowing about 5 cars at a time through the gates, After 2 lots we got through and parked where indicated. The customs guy jumped up onto the step and peered past me into the back asking if we were a commercial vehicle? He came in and looked in a few draws asking for medicine I showed him the Neurophen which was fine. He began asking for Australian coins and I know I have some but could not find them but found a kiwi 50c. He was very happy. Passports took a little while to process with all the passport control personal having their input. We got our stamp and were away.

Next to the Moldova border. Here they were also friendly. The lady had a few problems with the vehicle details but the customs guy had reasonable English and helped her. We paid our road tax of €5 and the customs guy looked in from the doorway into the house and walked off. We were all done by 13:30 - 1 hour to exit Ukraine and half to enter Moldovia.

 
Headed North on the red road, It was pretty bad in places but soon came mostly good. At one stage the “speedway” looked dry enough … no it wasn’t, so in 4x4 we climbed the bank back onto the road.

 



Stopped in Taracia and bought a SIM, so we had internet. The young lady who served us had some English. We finally found the post office in a derelict building and managed to post our vote for the Victorian election. Who knows when they’ll arrive. 

 All the rubbish bins had US-aid on them.

Had a little trouble finding a camp as all the little tracks were dirt and very slippery. Finally we found one and hid behind an abandoned building. Still could be seen from some of the red road but we were 1 km away.

Was forecast to snow but there was none.

 89km

 Camp site