We were on the road at 7.40 am. We left the friendly people of Kalinishna and headed into the Russian Far East. Very rapidly the scenery changed. We moved from the steppe of Mongolia with no trees, to more and more trees. Occasionally there would be Russian villages – they look pretty derelict but there are people living in some of the houses. We could also see the remains of the old collective farms which have now fallen into disrepair after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
We got going in the morning on a typical Russian roadApartments with garages in RychccjepckHomes in IvolginskRuins of an old collectiveHomes in SaratovkaChildren in Saratovka
The road took us right into Ulan-Ude before heading back, almost on itself, towards Vladivostok. The distances are truly tremendous. It is over 5,000 kilometres from Ulaan Baatar to Vladivostok. When you consider that the road distance between Sydney and Perth is around 3,960 km, you can see how vast the distances are. Russia is an enormous country, there is no doubt about that.
Russian Orthodox Church in Ulan UdeCut out policeman and car as we entered Ulan UdeTree lined street coming into Ulan UdeIn the city of Ulan UdePeople waiting at the trolley bus station
Rather than doing the simple bypass around the outskirts of Ulan-Ude, we decided to go into the town to see if we could buy a set of jeweller’s screwdrivers (to see if we could get the rear mounted reversing camera to work again!) and a map. We didn’t really have a decent map of the road to Vladivostok.
We drove the huge Earthroamer around the central streets of Ulan-Ude. This city is a major terminus for the Trans-Siberian and Trans-Mongolian Railways. The railway track runs right through the centre of the city.
Using the Lonely Planet, Pip managed to find a book store which sold maps. Eventually we found the book store, almost in a side street, and manoeuvred the big Earthroamer into a parking place. At one stage, when trying to get out of the city and back on track, we ended up on a dead end street. It was quite difficult to manoeuvre the Earthroamer around.
The journey to the east basically follows the Trans-Siberian Railway, and it is busy. There seems to be a train about every 10 minutes. It is an electrified double track with passenger trains – we may have even seen the Trans-Mongolian train, and we certainly saw lots of freight trains. There was everything being carted from oil, to huge containers, to motor vehicles.
Rather than following the river, the road cuts across a mountain. Dick thought the road to Vladivostok would be pretty flat, but on our first day we were climbing and descending up to 2,000 feet at a time.
At every town, we would see major graveyards near the road. Normally they had a blue fence. There must have been something special on today. We are not sure what it was, perhaps Mothers’ Day in Russia? Every graveyard had lots of cars parked around, with people visiting and placingartificial flowers on the gravestones. Considering that Tuesday is a normal working day, it must have been something special.
Graveyard
We were travelling in the homeland of the Buryats people. There are about 400,000 of these Mongol people in the Russian Far East. Pip took some great photographs of the Buryats tending their flocks.
Buryat horseman
It is interesting that in Mongolia, there are mainly Buddhist temples on the hills, however once you move into Russia, there are Russian Orthodox churches in each town. This is due to the influence of the old Russian Empire. Some of the churches are even being refurbished after the communist times.
We stopped for lunch beside the beautiful Selenga River, which drains from a watershed on the Mongolian border right to the Arctic Ocean to the north through Lake Biakal.
Selenga River
The road was reasonably good by Russian standards. We were able to average just on 60 kilometres per. The road is surfaced but it has inbuilt corrugations. We would just start to build up a bit of speed when we had to slam on the brakes due to huge potholes ahead.
Some road maintenance taking place502kms from Chita
The Earthroamer was virtually the only vehicle travelling in this direction. In the opposite direction we were passed by literally hundreds of small Japanese right-hand-drive cars. These cars (normally second-hand) are imported from Japan to Vladivostok and driven to Moscow – imagine that! The distance is approximately 9,000 kilometres. We could identify these cars by the white sticker on the windscreen and the protective plastic on the front of the vehicle to prevent damage.
Home in TarbagatayHorse and cartGaggle of Japanese carsA convoy of Japanese trucksA rather top heavy load
The fact that these vehicles were travelling in the opposite direction and had left Vladivostok probably four days before, meant there was a good chance we would get through on the new road. We could see from the mud on the vehicles that much of the road ahead is dirt and gravel, and obviously quite wet as the snow melts.
Driving down to the village of KhokhototA village 401kms from Chita
We stopped for afternoon tea beside the Trans-Siberian Railway and watched about six trains go through in 30 minutes. We had our Australian mobile phones with us, and sure enough, messages were coming in. You can get mobile phone coverage just about everywhere in the world now.
We have now parked beside a beautiful little lagoon, not too far from the Trans-Siberian Railway – so we can hear the trains. We are just past the town of Bana at 2,724 feet. The heater is working and we are cosily watching How to marry a millionaire on the DVD. Everything is working!
We noticed graves like this one, beside the highway every now and then – a sad reminder of the people who have died on the roadsWe stopped here for the night
Today 521 kms. 28,413 kms since Anchorage, Alaska.
