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Russia, act 1

Ukraine was good to us, until we got to the border where I had my first encounter with the phrase ‘present?’! $20 later and we were through to the Russian side fearing things would only get worse. Apart from the hours it took (including changing the clocks it took 5 hours) things went pretty smoothly, and we were eventually on our way to Volgograd. We had planned to stay there but needless to say we didn’t make it, not being helped by being pulled over at a police check point on the motorway where I got change for a bribe! So we stayed in a small room in a small motel, with three beds, a tiny window and no fan, and needless to say it was an increadibly hot night.

When we did get to Volgograd, we made our way towards a large statue park overlooking the river Volga:

where we are sure we were beinge watched!

After seeing 8 mongol ralliers, and even talking to a few, we made our way to Astrakhan where we arrived with enough daylight to find a hotel. A few dodgey directions later and we had our soviet style rooms and beds for the night. The hotel was a romantic setting next to the river with a cafe on a boat playing jazz and onlooking four russian battleships, lovely!

One ’speeding’ fine later and a mongolia rally t-shirt lighter,

we headed towards the border to Kazakhstan. At least we weren’t the only ones!

And we got our first taste of propper off-roading:

Now onwards to kazakhstan!