hoboworld.to

After our day in the hotel outside Sochi it was time to make tracks for the mountains. The Black Sea coast is expensive and we don’t have the funds to waste. After packing up we took all our gear out to the bikes. The lady at the hotel reception thought we are trying to do a runner without paying so came out to get us back there quickly. It was only when we asked for a receipt that she understood that we had paid when we checked in I guess this was not the usual though we must have looked like dodgy tourists :-P…….

Camping with a view over the Caucaus Mountains - Russia

The road from Sochi to Tuapse was a traffic nightmare despite leaving relatively early in the morning. The traffic was made worse now that it was August which is the peak season for Russians taking time off at one of the many black sea resorts. The road itself was relatively good quality considering what we had been told to expect although it didn’t stop the Russian drivers from really showing off how great they are at driving. We saw 5 accidents of which several were head on collisions. At one point a truck had lost all its engine oil all over the road.. These things never happen in nice safe places.. On a hair pin bend going down a steep hill.. could never have guessed.. As James came around the corner he lost control on the oil, managed to just hold the bike up while sliding down and almost nailing it into the car in front… such a close call, not so lucky for a car which lost control and had a head on with a car on the other side, no one appeared to be hurt which was good. I got a massive bruise on my leg above my boot from trying to hold the bike up and getting hit with the break lever as the bike slid all over the shop… a true heart starting moment. The road itself winds through mountains with dense forest with huge views over the black sea.

hoboworld russian style - Russia

Once we got to Tuapse it was a relief to know we could finally get away from the Traffic of the Coast and head inland where the prices must surely fall…The initial shock to the system was that we are now paying less than £0.50 per litre for premium unleaded (95 octane)… down from paying £1.30 in Turkey. The road away from the Coast was uneventful thankfully and the scenery was brilliant as we worked our way up to several mountain passes. The hot humid weather on the Black sea quickly gave way to heavy rain fall over the higher mountain passes. One of which we decided we would wild camp for the night. We found a beautiful spot looking out over one of the valleys about 200 meters from the road… a high quality spot where we didn’t get interrupted.

Another Straight road - Russia

The next day we tried to push on.. We finally made it out of the Caucasus mountains and down onto the rolling plains which would take us all the way to Astrakan. Unfortunately we both didn’t feel so great as the food poisoning had returned. We decided that we would wild camp again regardless and got some food for the night. We camped on what appeared to be an unused road… well it wasn’t unused it turned out it was a farmers track to one of his paddocks. In the end he let us camp there as long as we moved out bikes out of the way so he could get his tractor past… ooops.. The food poisoning was really starting to be an issue.. now it was day 5 for Heather and James was starting to feel rough too… It was time to bite the bullet and find what appeared to be the only hotel in the next big town so that we could recuperate for two nights. The Hotel was not to bad and we got blessed with a lady on reception who was trying to learn English.. It wasn’t the greatest hotel but at least it was going to be our home for the next few days…. The town itself was a soviet dump.. we don’t actually know the English name for it yet…. maybe more to come..

After two days in the Hotel trying to do as little as possible, rehydrate and start to get some energy back we moved on.. We had to get to Astrakan so that we could get the off-road tyres fitted. Our visa for Kazakhstan is valid from the 8^th of August until the 7^th of Sep.. that means we have 4 days to get there and get it all sorted.. We left the Hotel and made our way north East.. The terrain was now very flat and the roads had become very straight. This made the now very abundant police presence very obvious.. Unfortunately they still managed to get us.. Coming into a town we missed the sign.. Unfortunately that meant we got booked doing 89km/hour in a 50km zone.. oohh shit.. The police didn’t like that one bit. According to the book the guy had that means we had to loose our license and walk home making this small town the end of our trip.. not a good situation to be in.. After some negotiation I offered to pay a “fine” now on the spot and ride away this time at 50km/hour… He said that the fine should be $1000US… there was no way we could pay that.. a) we didn’t have it.. and b) we didn’t have it… after a while his refusal to take Roubles subsided and we managed to get away with both bikes, our dignity and only 6000 roubles (£120)… which was the beginning of our next saga…

Changing Tyres - Astrakan

There are no banks from where we got busted to Astrakan and petrol stations don’t accept credit cards.. This meant that we had to get to Astrakan (500km away) on about 500 roubles (£10). This was not a great situation to be in.. we had to ride very carefully to be able to make the distance… Luckily our bikes had been filled up about 100km before making it possible.. Heathers bike had an additional 9 litres of fuel added a short time before we camped for the night.. We rode until about 7pm which was the first time we saw a place to hide our tent away from the road on the flat barren landscape… The interesting change that we noted was that all the faces now had a very strong Asian appearance as we moved further east.. Our camp site was a nice spot which had a huge view out over the Caspian plains (steppe) After a relaxing night we pushed on trying to make it the last 230km into town without running out of fuel.. the last of our money was spent putting 9 litres of fuel into James bike.. That meant we should be able to make it into town.. at the first petrol station that accepted cards we managed to fill both bikes up again…. about 500meters before the Astrakan

Kremlin - Astrakan

city sign….what luck… now we had to find a bank to get some more cash out… it took us two hours of riding around in circles to find how to actually get into Astrakan main city centre.. the signs all say left when you come off the A154… its actually right and the road bends around and crosses the Volga.. yay for Russian road signs…Shortly afterwards we

Lenin Statue - Astrakan

found a cash machine and got some money..now it was time for food.. (as we hadn’t eaten breakfast because we had no spare money)…while we sat on the side of the road looking at the Lonely Planet guide a young guy came up to us saying that his dad was in a bike gang/group and he could help us find a place to eat/stay etc…. We had lunch and they joined us, then took us to a place to get the tyres changed. It took them 3 hours to do. Many of the guys would go off and then come back with their prized motorcycles which were really nice and beautifully maintained . The guy called a friend who then organised for us to stay in an Apartment overlooking the Kremlin in Astrakan right on the main road, they even organised us secure motorcycle parking just up the road… what amazing luck….. Then they took us out for dinner and drinks refusing for us to pay for anything, they gave us a mobile so we could contact them as our phone want let us call there mobiles… It was all hospitality we could only have ever dreamed of and it really made our stay in Astrakan really good. I would really recommend anyone going through Astrakan to take a few days out there and appreciate the city.

my christmas present....

We had planned on getting an early start on Saturday to get to the boarder crossing with Kazakhstan… Unfortunately we slept in and woke up late.. This was a blessing in disguise as we managed to see the finish of the Volga Rally in Astrakan. It was right outside the apartment window… what luck.. it seems that Astrakan has blessed us..

We would like to say a special thanks to all the guys in Astrakan who helped us out. It really made our trip memorable…

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 8th, 2009 at 10:38 am and is filed under accidents, Adventure Motorcycling, Astrakan, Black Sea, London to Sydney, motorcycle touring, Russia, Sochi, Wild Camping. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.