2013.07.30 — Tuesday  – There were no windows in our room, so it was impossible to gauge the hour in the usual way. We were happy when 8AM rolled around. Made a very weak effort to shower in the sink/tub. There was no hot water. We found our car in one piece.  Sam appeared at 9AM as scheduled and we followed him around Astrakhan for a while to find used, rally-appropriate tires. Sam was very committed to saving us money, and went to great lengths to try to find things second hand. We probably visited twelve used tire shops before deciding to just buy four new tires. But before we finished tire shopping, Sam took us to a restaurant where we could have cheap, “real Russian food”. I think it delivered on both fronts. Borsch, bread, chicken, and meatballs.

We swapped out tires, and then set out to find new rims for the two best old tires so we could use them as spares. Once again, we drove around forever looking for a deal, but no candidates fit our Almera. So we bought them new again. We now had four new tires on old rims and two old tires on new rims. On average every wheel was about the same age.

Following Sam in Astrakhan was a chore,  but we didn’t stand a chance without him. He’d pull off and wait for us whenever we fell too far behind. We did have to make guesses as to his route a couple times, but we guessed correctly.

We headed off to Sam’s shop where he added a couple screws to our bumper to hold it in place. He then gathered up whatever scrap metal was laying around his shop and started cutting it up. We were hoping to get skid plates to cover our engine, fuel line, and fuel tank, but he simply did not have enough material. We covered our entire fuel line and half of the fuel tank. Better than nothing. We’ll see how it works when we hit the mountains.

Our new friend Sam Longbase with our old friend Jon Hay.

Rush hour set in, so Sam advised that we not leave the city until traffic died down. So we went to a grocery store and bought tons of food, mostly ramen; we’d be camping almost exclusively from here on out. Sam escorted and served as our translator. With our car all packed full of food, he escorted us out of the city and put us on the road to the Kazakh border. He bid us farewell on the roadside and honked as he turned away. We tried to honk back, but realized that our horn no longer worked. Trying to honk goodbye to the one guy who could fix it.

So we got a lot done in Astrakhan. Sam Longbase gave us an entire day. He found the broken down ambulance of a rally team las year, and helped get them back on the road. He now tries to help any team that goes through Astrakhan. We’d have been lost without him.

Headed on to the Kazakh border. It was night, but the border was not far. We drove through the Volga delta which featured a rickety floating bridge and way too many frogs. The bridge placed us on the delta’s largest island. The ethnicity change was stark. This was unexpected. The vast majority of people now were clearly of east asian descent. We waited with the frogs for a while on the russian side of the border. People in line (mostly Kazakhs, it seemed) were very social, chatting with one another outside of their cars. The russians searched our car as well as anyone thus far, so we had to spend a little time putting things back together. Once our car was cleared, an english-speaking border agent asked us if we were with the rally and wanted to hear bout our route, etc. He was extremely excited and friendly. Our attempts to convince him to join us fell short. Having a russian-speaking teammate (Greg), would have been extremely helpful.

Many miles separated the Russian and Kazakh borders. So much land doesn’t seem to belong to any country. This is where a rally team was famously trapped for five days on a previous rally. They left Russia five days before the start of their Kazakh visa, and the Kazakhs would not let them pass. To re-enter Russia would mean burning the second of their two entries, which would have forced them to stay in Russia until Mongolia. So they set up their own country and tried to inspect passports.

The Kazakh border, when we finally got there, was the easiest yet. It was late and the agent inspecting cars had little interest in ours. We were soon released onto the worst roads yet. The roads were a disaster. We didn’t last long in the dark and pulled off to camp on the sand. Exhausted, we were straight to bed.