Jurnal

Day1, 02.08.09

Route:Bucharest – Buzau – Bacau – Suceava – Mitocul Dragomirnei Village

No.km - 463

Arranging the gear

Loading the cars…

We celebrate the departure with a champagne without alcohol.

Group photo before departure

First refuelling

Day2, 03.08.2009

Route: Mitocul Dragomirnei Village– Siret Custom Point ( RO/UKR)– Chernivtsi – Hotin – Hmelinitky– Vinnitsya – Haisin – approx. Uman

No. km: 569

Igor joins the team in Cernauti.

Rearranging the luggage

We rent some bungalows for truck drivers near Uman.

Day 3, 04.08.09

Route: approx.Uman – Kirovograd – Zaporojie – Melitopol – Primorsk

No.km: 880

Ukraine transit

Ukrainian house

Dnieper

Azov Sea beach, near Primorsk

Day 4, 05.08.09

Route: Primorsk – Mariupol –Novoazovsk Custom Point (UKR/RU) – camping near Taganrog

No.km: 221

Sunrise over Sea of Azov

Some of us are still sleeping …

Industrial area -Mariupol

We are happy that „Mother Russia” finally welcomed us! We spent 4 hours at the customs point (both Ukrainian and Russian sides), filling in forms and declarations, giving bribes…

We spent the night in a campsite with bungalowsfew tens of kilometres from the border.

Day 5, 06.08.09

Route: camping near Taganrog – Rostov-on-Don– Belaya Kalitva – Kalaci-on-Don – Volgograd

No.km: 609

Slag heaps/tailings in the Donetsk Basin

Rostov-on-Don

We finally drive on some good roads ( the route Rostov-Moscow).

We spend the night in a “motel” from the periphery of Volgograd. The dogs watch our cars.

The dogs guard is doubled by video surveillance. In fact, here, this is the main criteria for choosing the accommodation and for that you pay.

The motel’s laundry is hand washed.

Day 6, 07.08.09

Route: Volgograd – Astrakhan –Krasnyy Yar Custom Point (RU/KZ)– Ganyushkino

No.km: 506

We take some photos of Volga River .

Volga at Astrakhan.

House from Volga Delta

Floating bridge over a branch of the Volga, at Krasnyi Yar

After 4 hours of Russian and Kazakh customs (we caught a shift and a computer system failure, both at the Kazakh customs) we managed to enter Kazakhstan. As the evening caught us at the border, we exchanged some money there (the exchange rate was quite fair considering the circumstances). Right across the border we found a „kiosk” were from we could buy the green card for the cars. It costs 8000 tenge (approx. $ 53) for 2 cars.

We decided to look for accommodation in the first town from the border. After wondering on some narrow sloppy streets (the main street was under construction) we found a motel. It was already dark.

We took a deluxe room (bedroom with 2 beds, living room with sofa bed and bathroom) and a 4 beds room. Unfortunately, deluxe bathroom had very limited utility (we washed our feet with river water stored in bottles and buckets) as in Ganiushkino water was cut off for 4 days. Therefore, we gave up going to a restaurant for tasting Kazakh dishes.