2013.07.29 — Monday — We awoke to learn the layout of our campsite. Actually wasn’t quite as hidden from the road as we guessed in the dark of the night. We camped across the road from an expansive sunflower field, but we’ve become completely acclimated to these. Ukraine is packed with such fields. A very happy, laughing gentleman came skipping up the dirt road as we were gathering ourselves. It was clear we didn’t speak Ukrainian, but it didn’t stop him from doing a lot of talking. He knew were on a big trip and pointed to over to Russia — we were close to the border, so our next move was obvious. He proceeded to draw a map of Europe in the dirt with his finger and we proceeded to draw our route. His placement of the UK was interesting. It looked like we started in Scandinavia. After he skipped off we packed up our tent and made for the Russian border. We hit the line at 8:15 local time (9:15 across in Russia). The border was pretty painless. They did the minimal amount of searching our car. We did have to fill out lots of forms which was annoying. Proceeded on the road to Astrakahn for some vehicle modification in advance of the Stans. We drove for a while on a road which was literally being built. And there were no directions as to how cars were expected to handle the situation. Oncoming traffic had it worse as they were weaving in and out of stream rollers through a fresh, tarry road. One dude just steered his van down the embankment into a field and started driving parallel the road.

On the whole we followed decent roads to Volgograd. That ended abruptly as we neared the city. And this is a theme.: Entering/exiting cities/countries feature absolutely insane roads. Matt had the pleasure of driving in Volgograd, which was hands down the worst city we have driven in. First the approach. The road basically just ended. What laid ahead for many kilometers was the surface of a well-cratered planet. Cars started driving down off the surface to find better, parallel ones. So what was a two-lane highway became lawless, multi-lane road over and through natural and manmade obstacles. Per usual, it was 100% unclear how to get through/around the city. The roads were horrible throughout, there were no signs or lane boundaries. And so many inefficient stop lights. A major bridge was closed in town, so we were barely moving for a very long time. Side streets were overgrown with weeds. It is not clear to us how we managed to escape the city. We made many arbitrary decisions at forks and “T”s. We found ourselves in a small lane following some tracks which were leaving town in approximately the right direction (our ailing compass remains crucial to our navigation). We were pulled over, but the Russian cops were great. Very excited to learn Matt was from California and started singing “Hotel California”. They wished us  luck and sent us on our way. We stayed the course for way to long before we finally saw a sign for Astrakhan. Straight ahead. Was that really the way out of town? Amazing.

The layout of villages now was interesting, and it would continue into Kazakhstan. Towns are situated such that the highway passes through. Homes are arranged approximately in a grid. But every little house is like a city block. One can drive anywhere in town that is not a house. No yards. It’s all structure and dirty/muddy roads. You can exit into one of these towns by dropping off a steep embankment between any two homes. Conditions, especially in Russia ‘tween Volgograd and Astrakhan appeared very depressed. Though an impressive, little, well-polished church towered above most towns.

Jon Hay and Matt on the road to Astrakhan.

The road to Astrakhan was generally fine. We arrived in the dark and contacted our guide-mechanic, Sam. He actually met us in the center of town, at the ever-popular McDonalds, so that we could follow him to some lodging for the night. He said he knew of a very cheap place to stay, and we took him at his word.

He took us very far out of the city center and into one of the more terrifying parts of a city I have ever been to. We went down dark ally ways, rusted gates, and weaved through abandoned warehouse. We were pretty certain that were about to be robbed, and had no idea how we might escape this llabyrinth. We crossed our fingers and continued to follow. Hard to describe the place at which we eventually arrived. There was a lot of yelling between Sam, the woman who ran operations at the….lodging establishment, and also some third gentleman next door. who decided to join the conversation. Maybe this is just how russians speak. Sam told us to park under the only street light (we were no longer on what might be called a street). He added not go near any of the many dogs patrolling the area. They are very aggressive and dangerous. We were led into a building and up some stairs into a room. There were no windows. Painting of a naked lady sat to the side on a mantle next to an unplugged TV. The room was illuminated by a neon green rope light. Were we in a brothel? There was one bed and no sink. No toilet seat. Obviously no internet. We laid down and tried to sleep, clutching our passports and credit cards.