2019-10-08 Day 376 Tue

About 5am some fisherman came and pumped up their little inflatables and headed off onto the lake. When they returned empty handed they had a chat to john, As we were leaving one of the guys tried to give John a pocket knife. Such generous people.

Chatted to Chris and helped him with his spreed sheet. Nice to be able to help.  

Left for the town of Belgorod and printing. A couple of places listed on google maps but could not find them. A lady selling sewing paraphernalia in a small shop in big building printed the two visas for me. Off for the border just 30 km.

Getting out of Russia was fast and only a cursory glance inside. Entering Ukraine was a little slow. Initially we were put in the truck queue with the words cargo. I argued saying "not cargo" but Dom (house) didn’t work. We sat in queue going nowhere. John went back to ask the gate guy again. It was a different guy so got to change lanes. A bit quicker here but we held everyone up as it took a while to process the vehicle. Another cursory check inside and in the lockers and we were through. 
 

At the outskirts of Kharkiv I managed to find an ATM and get 1000UAH out (AU$50) when I got back to the vehicle John was chatting to a couple of guys who spoke English. One helped us put money on the phone. Bought some broccoli and drawled over the other fresh veggies - but don't have time to eat them.

Found a camp by a lake in the middle of town. Wonderful twisted trees. Had a wander around and plenty of camp sites, a motor cross track, and lots of guys fishing. 

117km  Camp site  118m alt.

2019-10-07 Day 375 Mon.

A few cars stopped by to say hello and find our who we were. Nice to have some people drop by.

Finally got our single entry Ukraine visa around 12:30 via email so thought we’d better drive on. It is valid from the 8^th so we have timed it nicely.

Not a lot of different things to photograph so took some place names. The long ones.

 Sign entering the town

and 

Sign exiting the town 

50km/hr within the signs.

And yes I can read the signs...

 Just south of Stary Oskol we saw the sign of a huge open cut mine, and heaps of the overburden.

 The side of a big open cut mine.

One of the overburden piles from the mine

 

A neat sculpture.

It started to rain again. We turned off the highway towards a lake. There was a small town but nowhere really nice to stop. We drove a very muddy track to a dam wall or causeway. This also was very muddy, not very wide, slippery, and a drop off on the either side. Not far, just a couple of meters but we’d be well and truly there till something large came along.

John got us across safely, but still nowhere to camp. One spot had a dog tied up so we turned left and the road out was closed with a gate. I was just saying to john I’d go and ask at the building ahead but a guy came out of his own accord and opened the gate for us. I was not at all keen on going back across the causeway.

On the map I noticed a small lake to the north and off a yellow road. So we headed for that. In the dark it looked OK. The yellow road was busier than we thought It might be. The little park was fenced off so parked near the fence. Many cars came in to park during the night and play loud music, but apart from that we were not bothered.

276km  Camp site  155m alt.

2019-10-06 Day 374 Sun

The back panel was wet this morning and so was the mattress. Removing the mattress then the panels allowed us to discovered water dripping from a screw. 

Put the panel in front of the heater and the mattress standing on the bed. I turned the panel over and water ran out - got about 1 cupful out so it will take a bit of drying. 
 

We left the heater on and the back windows ajar to help with the drying process, while driving.  Rained again but not hard just enough to have the wipers on slow.

We cross railway lines every day.

Came across another accident this one involving two trucks and a car. 

The car in the middle of the road was missing its engine,

 the truck with it's tank hanging down the bank was also missing it's  front right wheel 

 and the truck on the right we think just ran off the road (down a steep embankment) to miss them. It looked like his only issue was his trailer was on the side.

An old Aeroflot  plane, now at a restaurant.

Some colorful high density living.

238km Camp site  103m alt.

2019-10-05 Day 373 Sat

 We left late as we are now in no hurry as the majority of the distance has been made and we cannot cross the border before the 8 Oct. If of course we get the single entry visa. The multi entry one is still only valid from the 8th as well. Traveled through a lot of cropping land. Some still being harvested some being ploughed, some being seeded and some about 6 inches high. 

We pass many churches.

The red road was very busy and not a divided road so we were often held up behind other trucks. 

Rained off and on during the day.

We finally got off the red road onto a quieter orange. A much more relaxed drive. We were still able to sit on 80km/hr so, although a little longer a much better drive for us.

 John found a church ruin on the map and we headed there for the night. 



Very muddy and slippery getting to the campsite.

Even the farmers tractor had had trouble staying on the track.

Neat old church!! 

It Rained again during the night

137km Camp site  152m alt.

2019-10-04 Day 372 Fri

A couple and a small kid walked past down the hill towards the water. On the way back up the guy came and stood where we could see him but not close enough to be too close. He was obviously interested so john went out to talk. His wife spoke reasonable english and we enjoyed talking to them. Anna was a travel agent.

Anna then offered to show us around her town.

We arranged to meet at the local supermarket in 30 minutes.

Anna and her little son met us and we followed her into Kasimov. She stopped at places and showed us the old buildings. In the center of the old town were some great buildings slowly being restored. He husband met us and we ventured up the minaret of an old mosque to look down onto the town.

 

Next with her husband returned home on his bike we took a quick look at the main street and then had a coffee.

We came out of the coffee shop into a heavy downpour. 

 

We followed her most of the way back to her village then continued south. It had been a great morning. We don’t see much of the towns. Anna had been very generous with her day off She works 4 days a week.

Only made 84km To Shilovo where we found a nice spot on the rive Oka for a quiet camp. With the occasional fisherman nearby.

121km Camp site  101m alt.

2019-10-03 Day 371 Thu

A slow morning. After David’s first coaching session for the day we went out and had a coffee. A beautiful sunny day but with a chill in the air. 
 

We left Niszy and David with the thoughts of catching up in Moscow in 6 months or so

 

The rivers are just so huge and plentiful.

 Trams are still used.

 

New crops growing strong just before winter sets in.

 The new green crops with the autumns colored trees - oh and the sunshine made for a great afternoons drive.

The Birch forests are a sight to see

Although it was nearly midday when we left we made good time. The roads have been kind to us.

We drove around Kasimov on the ring road and Made our way out to the river near Makeenki nearly 300km today. 

We found a lovely spot by the river on the edge of the birch forest. 
 

There was a couple and one of their mums having a BBQ amongst the trees. I was going to go up and see them but they came down with a plate of food for us. Then they made to leave but we engaged them in conversation. They had a look at the vehicle and our maps.

287km  Camp site  94m alt.

2019-10-02 Day 370 Wed

I walked out of camp and up the hill, I then came back down as we had had discussions from the car which road we’d drive. I didn’t want to be left behind.

Took some photos of John leaving camp.

Wanting to get to Nizhny Novgorod for lunch with David and spend sometime with him we had left early. 
 

Wonderful to see all the fancy window surrounds again. Makes the houses look cheerful.

 

Bought some apples and pears from the side of the road. Many different variety of apples, but not many have a good crunch!

We drove out to an island that sits in the middle of the river that runs through Nizhy, and found a suitable place to camp for the night. With that chore done we drove further into the heart of town to the Gorky squash courts. A very narrow road with traffic blocking it. Amazingly they all just sit and wait for someone to move. A 4x4 finally took to the foot path which gave us room to get off the street. When all the traffic moved on we followed in the 4x4 footpath tracks then continued. Around the corner along a bit then parked on the street near the sports centre. 

John washed some of the mud off of the maps again. Really is time for EC to have a wash.

Met David and he showed us around the sports facility. A big concrete building but setup for indoor soccer, Judo, and boxing-ring. Gorky squash is 5 years old inside this monolithic building, two of the 5 courts only built last year. David has only been coaching there for a month.He seems to have settled in well.

 

 We had a walk around the area while David had a coaching season. The park with the  armored vehicles was a hit with the kids.

John had a quick lunch then John had a hit of squash with David. First in over 2 years… Fitness not there either but he did get a couple of points (joke).

We asked permission to stay in the carpark overnight which was granted. Make it easier.

Went out to dinner with David and his another young coach Andre Who is rather just much too fit and strong.

A reasonably quiet night for the middle of the city.

175km Camp site  161m alt.