Russia: The land where no one is shy.
To briefly sum up the last few days: we got the ferry tickets, although after about an hour of waiting in the office whilst several turkmen came in and out shouting at each other they did ask us not to divulge the final price (we assummed this was what a finger to the lips was for) so my lips are sealed on that matter. The next few days we just spent chilling out on the beach until Ferry day - Saturday. We packed up, said our goodbyes to the lovely Turkish family that we befriended and made our way to the port.
Upon arrival we spotted a slightly newer version of our faithful Nissan Micra with its boot full of stuff jauntily propped open. With the boot open we couldn't see the number plate but it reaked of rally so we expectantly pulled up alongside it. Lo and behold, out popped the happy faces of JP and Dave of team, Dupont Racing, also glad not to be the last team left in Turkey. We discovered that they where planning on doing pretty much the same route as us and with that our third convoy was born.
Our ferry, due to leave at 17:00 according to our tickets, did not start boarding until 18:00 and we watched the sun set (as beautiful as it was) before actually departing at about eightish. it was quite a nauseating 12 hours that started well with Beer, Pimms, slideshows and stories of our journeys so far, but progressed quickly into the desire for travel sickness tablet induced slumber to shorten the length of the rocking jouney. We slept on the top deck finding it cooler and less crowded than inside, and I was lucky enough to be offered a mattress which almost made the night plesant. This was until I woke to the feeling of something dripping onto my feet and sat up to see we were in the middle of a thunderstorm and it was pissing down with rain as far as the eye could see in all directions. The deck did have a roof but this didn't stretch to the complete breadth of the boat leaving an ever increasing stream of water sloshing up and down the sides of the boat. None of us could be bothered to move so we all shuffled closer to the centre and tried to get back to sleep. The second time I woke up properly was to the smell of cigarette smoke and when i saw that most of the other passengers had joined us on the top deck and were wondering why there were four brits sleeping on the only tables I decided not to go back to sleep.
By the time the boat stopped it was about 12 noon (bearing in mind that had we left on time we shoud have arrived at 5am) but it had anchored itself about an hour away from the harbour with no explanation as to why. I believe this to be something we will have to get used to. About three hours later we continued to the port and were allowed off the ferry. Then we had to fill to several forms wait a bit, fill out the same form again, wait a bit more, then we were allowed to wait a bit more next to our cars.
To pass the time we played several games, fashioned a small set of dominoes out of paper, perfected the fine art of sunflower seed consumption and had a few rounds of the turkish game that was kindly donated to us on our departure from Trabzon. Eventually we were the only people left and at just gone 10pm we were allowed to leave. We had the honour of being offered one of Dupont Racing's walkie talkies making us a convoy to be reckoned with, and with that Black Raven and Great Tit hit the streets.
We drove round Sochi for a bit looking for a cheap hotel, deciding to get up early the next morning and eat up some of Russias finest miles, but finding that no such place existed in the lively seaside town we had to settle for a room costing £55 that had neither been redecorated nor cleaned since the 70's.
The next morning after a slightly better sleep than on the ferry we had the best intentions of reaching Volgograd by nightfall where we should have been able to meet up with part of our original convoy, Fear and Alex's in Mongolia! However the Russian roads were against us and we were stuck in horrendous traffic between about 10am and 5pm. Aware that we were already a few days behind schedule and had only done about 200km all day we toyed with the idea of a bit of night driving. By about seven we all decided that it would be a bit if a wasted day if we didn't cover more ground and with that we drove into the night. Our first few hours were severely thwarted by driving into a thunderstorm and encountering torrential rain too heavy for the wipers to clear forcing us to pull over. Eventually it subsided and we manage to join a bit of road resembling a dual carrdge way.
Halfway through our Pepsi-Cola fuelled motor to Volgograd we received a text from the Alex's strongly advising us to steer clear of it after they had just been fined three times and were now taking refuge in a petrol station on the outskirts ready to head to the Kasakhstan border in the morning. With this news and the time fast approaching 4am we decided to pull into the next petrol station, get some kip then head straight onto Astrakhan on the border to Kaz the next day, which is now today.
We upped and left at about 8 this morning and are now steaming along towards the border. The roads are not too bad but for the most part they are only single carridgeway so we can't travel as quickly as we might have liked. I've just been informed by Great Tit that we are 515 km away and as it is not yet midday it is looking likely that we can reach the border today. Whether we will get through it today is another question.
Morale: Average. Peaked at joining another convoy but dipped in the long delays and lack of sleep
Car: Beginning to rattle a little. The smell comes and goes but for now is vacant at least. The battery has also managed to run flat somehow three times but so far it has only needed a push start.
Current Thought: I hope we can make it to Kazakhstan without being pulled over by the police.
Country Count: 13 (below +Russia)
Miles: Around 4470
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