This is the man who welded a new shock absorber for Jim. He was also searing goat heads!
This is the view from our hotel balcony in Atyrau. In the distance you can see a sliver of the Ural River. It was amazing to cross both the Volga and Ural rivers in one day – so much history right under my feet!
It was REALLY HOT on that crap “road”. I mean, REALLY HOT. Even the camels needed a time out to deal with it.
The sump guard had accordioned up against the oil pan. Holy habanero batman! We pulled over later and took off the bolts that were threatening to pierce the pan, only to find that one bolt could not be removed because it was pinched in a wrinkle of the “guard” and we needed to get it up on a jack or hoist to remove it. We drive the last 250 kilometers with it hanging down dragging, probably sparking, clanging. We drove into a very sketchy looking village after midnight, looking for gas; clanging, dragging, and not remotely under the radar but callling all kinds of unwanted attention to ourselves. As if the car with it’s unique graphics does not call attention enough! There were HERDS of teenage boys in the town hanging out. Coming out of dance halls at closing time, congregating on low walls where they could sit. OMG I freaked.
A wider view of the repair shop, which was very neat and organized. It is so great having our family and firends’ faces on the car. Makes for a quick icebreaker when we start pointing out our babies and cradling our arms to ‘splain.
I do not even know where to start so much has happened. We’ve been here for 3 days. Jim sourced car parts and had rear shock absorbers MADE TO ORDER because he couldn’t find the right size. Couldn’t find the right spark plugs either, but he thinks the ones they put in will work. I hope so, since we are about to head into one of the hottest countries on earth… The nice gal at the front desk told me that she and her husband order all their Toyota RAV 4 parts from ebay in the USA. LOL!
We crossed into Kazakhstan from Astrakhan, Russia 3 days ago. The road from the border to Atyrau, the first city on our route was pretty rough, we thought then, if only we knew what was to come… Already just a few kilometers into Kazakhstan the view changed dramatically from Russia. Camels! Kazakh cemeteries, like little fantasy lands, dot the landscape. Sand as far as the eye can see and not a tree in sight. Atyrau is on the Ural river delta where it meets the Caspian see and weirdly, is surrounded by swamp lands and salt flats.
This country is amazingly diverse. It’s one thing to read a guide book and see that X% is Kazakh and Y% is Russian and Z% is Ukrainian… but then you walk the streets. Wow, every kind of person imagineable, color, hair, eye shape, height. In Ukraine it was pretty consistently fair haired mesomorphic type folk. In Russia you could see the Ectomorphic influence of Norsemen everywhere and here it’s a total mish-mosh of everyone imagineable. Nearly everyone speaks Russian, which is taught in schools but most speak Kazakh as well. The people are super helpful to us and smile a lot more than the Russians. Although Islam is the majority religion very few women (I saw one) are covered up head to foot, and a cold beer seems to be the afternoon drink of choice.
This was the first time in three weeks that Jim and I were apart :-(. He went to the auto bazaar and I went to the immigration police. It was fun to exchange stories of our encounters at the end of the day though :-). Last night, Jim was telling me something with hand motions and I had to remind him that I spoke english… we both got a good laugh out of that! I lost my Russian phrase book in Berdyansk and finally got another one yesterday so we are back on track trying to learn the alphabet and more words. Not many people speak English which forces us to at least attempt learning Russian.
If you have the opportunity to read some about the Khazak people, it’s worth it. This whole area (the Stans) suffered greatly under Russian domination with ethnic cleansing of millions via engineered famines by Stalin and destruction of their nomadic way of life through forced farming. Still, there is great pride in the Kazakh culture and traditions that have managed to survive and are being revived by this generation that has grown up without the USSR.
This is our hotel in Beyreu. About 200 kilometers south of Tyrau ont he way to Aktau. We stopped here after having an amazing dinner in the same town. It’s funny how we order food… we just point at anything and see what shows up. If we like it we learn the name of it so we can order it again. Manti, shashlik, pelemi, borscht, are all things we like! This hotel had one indoor toilet downstairs. The shower was shared and the washbasins, 2, were shared as well. I got the hairy eyeball from the male guests, didn’t see any females, but we all survived. It was spotlessly clean and even had a little restaurant inside. We didn’t have any money so only ordered tea for breakfast but I bet it was great. We met a guy who worked for an oil company and was out as the engineer drilling core samples and he spoke some english. When I asked him the room rate he told me. When I went in to the counter and got the room rate it doubled! It was still $45 for the night and perfectly fine. Like a hostel or dorm. We used earplugs that we bought in the states that were AMAZING. THey worked so well I tool one out during the night to make sure I didn’t miss anything I should have heard.
The view from our hotel in Beyreu. This truck was out drilling samples. We parked behind it and needed to get up with those two guys so we could move our car in the morning.
This is a Kazakh necropolis, or cemetery. They have minitature versions of traditional buildings. They are AMAZING. Today on the way to Turkmenistan I hope to get out of the car and get some close up pictures. I am really sorry we didn’t stop and pull over on the way in.
This is the view from our hotel balcony in Atyrau. In the distance you can see a sliver of the Ural River. It was amazing to cross both the Volga and Ural rivers in one day – so much history right under my feet!
In Beyreu we found a mechanic to help with the chekc engine light that was on. It started out with changing the fuel filter but devolved into cleaning a spark plug. This shop was in the backyard of someone’s house. That someone being the father-in-law of a man who pulled over to help when he saw Jim trying to craowl under the car next to the side of the road.
A wider view of the repair shop, which was very neat and organized. It is so great having our family and firends’ faces on the car. Makes for a quick icebreaker when we start pointing out our babies and cradling our arms to ‘splain.
Picked up this handsome hitchhiker on the “road”
It was REALLY HOT on that crap “road”. I mean, REALLY HOT. Even the camels needed a time out to deal with it.
What our car looked like after the bad road and getting stuck in a rut and being pulled out by 7 Kazakh guys who jumped out of a van. We were on a dirt road that paralleled the actual “road” and was a million times smoother than the road it’s self. We got stuck on a high berm between the ruts when the alleged sump guard, POS design, got caught on the berm and held us fast. We tried to rock the car off, no luck. Tried forward and back driving, no luck, tires spinning and didn’t want to get stuck deeper. Should have taken a picture of it but the sun was getting lower, we still had god-knows-how-much-of-that-dreaded road to go, check engine light on… Oy vez!
I cannot even begin to descrobe the nature of this silt and how it covered EVERYTHING. Every bag that was open even a crack had it inside. It exploded into the car like a bomb went off. We were hot. We were thristy. We were sick and tired of the freaking road and then we were covered in this stuff and just started to laugh our heads off. I mean, it had gotten worse! OMG, too funny. Then we got stuck, even worse!! One of those Kazakh guys rubbed the dirt off the picture of me on the hood, pointed at the hood and then pointed at me with a gesture like “is this you?” I gestured yes and he shook his head, motioned toward my incredibly disheveld state and in Russia I made out the words woman, American, but he was shaking his head like what a crazy woman to be so dirty like this. Truly funny!
Our hotel for the night after the road from hell. Pulled over at about 1:00 a.m. and after some restlessness actually fell asleep while covered head to toe in silt. Since it was overcast in the morning we slept until about 6:30 and then traffic on the highway started to pick up and we awoke.
The sump guard had accordioned up against the oil pan. Holy habanero batman! We pulled ovver later and took off the bolts that were threatening to pierce the pan, only to find that one bolt could not be removed because it was pinched in a wrinkly of the “guard” and we needed to get it up high to remove it. We drive the last 250 kilometers with it hangin down dragging, probably sparking, clanging. We drove into a very sketchy looking village after midnight looking for gas; clanging, dragging, and not remotely under the radar but callling all kinds of unwanted attention to ourselves. As if the car with it’s unique graphics does not call attention enough! There were HERDS of teenage boys in the town hanging out. Coming out of dance halls at closing time, congregating on low walls where they could sit. OMG I was completely freaked out.
Heaven= Aktau and the Caspian Sea with it’s velvet breezes and the Renaissance Marriot. HEAVEN.
This is the man who welded a new shock absorber for Jim. He was also searing goat heads!
This is a Kazakh necropolis, or cemetery. They have minitature versions of traditional buildings. They are AMAZING. Today on the way to Turkmenistan I hope to get out of the car and get some close up pictures. I am really sorry we didn’t stop and pull over on the way in.This is the view from our hotel balcony in Atyrau. On the left you can see a sliver of the Ural River. It was amazing to cross both the Volga and Ural rivers in one day – so much history right under my feet!This is our hotel in Beyreu. About 200 kilometers south of Tyrau on the way to Aktau. We stopped here after having an amazing dinner in the same town. It’s funny how we order food… we just point at anything and see what shows up. If we like it we learn the name of it so we can order it again. Manti, shashlik, pelemi, borscht, are all things we like! This hotel had one indoor toilet downstairs. The shower was shared and the washbasins, 2, were shared as well. I got the hairy eyeball from the male guests, didn’t see any females, but we all survived. It was spotlessly clean and even had a little restaurant inside. We didn’t have any money so only ordered tea for breakfast but I bet it was great. We met a guy who worked for an oil company and was out as the engineer drilling core samples and he spoke some english. When I asked him the room rate he told me. When I went in to the counter and got the room rate it doubled! It was still $45 for the night and perfectly fine. Like a hostel or dorm. We used earplugs that we bought in the states that were AMAZING. They worked so well I took one out during the night to make sure I didn’t miss anything I should have heard.
The view from our hotel in Beyreu. This truck was out drilling samples. We parked behind it and needed to get up with those two guys so we could move our car in the morning.In Beyreu we found a mechanic to help with the check engine light that was on. It started out with changing the fuel filter but devolved into cleaning a spark plug. This shop was in the backyard of someone’s house. That someone being the father-in-law of a man who pulled over to help when he saw Jim trying to crawl under the car next to the side of the road.
Jim is out getting the car dealt with. In Aktau. By himself. I am at the hotel wondering if I should get in a cab. By myself. In Aktau. Need to deal with the immigration police and register ourselves. A necessity if we are here for more than 5 days even though we have a 60 day visa. It’s a hassle. The Immigracionetz Politizia are not open every day and not open 9-5 so it’s a total crapshoot. At least they are in this city. I am catching up with transferring and sorting photos. Takes a long time. We have 2 cameras and 2 video cameras and 2 iphone cameras and we use whichever one is handy so it’s a lot of devices to keep charged and synced and sorted.
Here are some pictures from the market in Berdyansk, Ukraine. We woke up and went looking for coffee and found this market and had such a great time walking the stalls.
This cute lady in the Berdyansk market had yummy pears. She looks harmless but tried like heck to get us to buy five times more pears than we could have ever eaten.
Loved the blue of this scale against the red. The fish market wasn’t stinky at all and the piles of shimmery silver fish were beautiful. The colors of nature are so beautiful and I wonder if the first humans who melted silver and made jewelry were thinking of fish. There were little cats everywhere trying to get scraps and it was packed with men and women doing their day’s shopping.
We passed by trillions if not zillions of sunflowers and pulled over to take a closer look. Look at this size of this one!This is not a stellar pic but a wonderful reminder of how the market smelled of sunshine and sea air and wonderfully ripe flavorful fruit. It made our mouths water and tummies rumble as we looked for breakfast. Bought a basket and filled it with fruit and ate it all for the next couple of days. Delish!
This stall was like a styled department store compared to the cacophony of the rest of the market. It’s palette of white, ivory, beige and cream with yellow and red touches stood out.
We saw so many fields of sunflowers! Starting int he Czech Republic all the way through Russia. They are the most cheerful sight, so bright and blazingly yellow in the sunlight. We stopped the car so I could get an eye level shot of this field. From our point of view it went all the way as far as we could see. The camera lens picked up some distant buildings on the horizon which we could not see. This was close to the border with Russia in Ukraine. When we got back in the car we saw that our odometer had hit 100,000 miles when we stopped. Totally cool and serendipitous, as if we were meant to stop there.
Imagine you are driving on a two lane road, one lane in each direction; like that pretty road from the 101 freeway to Ojai. If there is a really slow car in front of you, you can pass it. It’s that kind of road. A little winding so there will be sections that you cannot pass but for the most part you get the drift. Can you see it? The leafy oaks shading both sides of the road, a little bumpy, sun shining through the canopy here and there, little houses near the road, fields. You get the picture.
Now close your eyes and imagine that the steering wheel is on the right hand side of the vehicle. Now imagine it’s one of those really narrow sections but instead of 45 mph everyone is hauling along at 65. Imagine that every other car is a semi 18 wheeler truck with a former weightlifter representing Bulgaria behind the wheel with teentsy little Skodas and Ladas in between and pimped Audi 7’s. See the bouncing semi tires as tall as your window with diesel exhaust belching out the side through your open window because you have no AC. Now imagine the drivers in Rome: see them with a cigarette hanging out of the corner of their mouth, techno blaring, nonchalantly steering with one hand while they careen around every curve possible and gesticulate with the other: likely at you. Now imagine that on both sides of the road there is a ditch about 8 feet deep. Uh huh.
Welcome to our world.
How are you going to pass eh? You are on the right side of the car and can’t see around the trucks in front. No passing on the right, there’s a ditch. In front of you is a truck loaded with manure that stinks to high heaven in the 100 degree heat and its crawling along at 20 mph shifting through the 17 gears it takes to get up to 40 mph. You need a wing man sitting in the left front seat to be your eyes on the left side of the car. Never knew that driving was a team sport did you? Never knew that driving a right hand drive car on left hand drive roads requires a Pilot and RIO. Neither did we!
Hit the magic number while pulled over taking a pic
We arrive at a hotel we stumbled across, as per usual, in the dark. Which by the way makes the mornings more fun.
So we throw down our bags and head downstairs, via the stairs, not trusting the elevator, six floors. And I HAVE HAD IT with navigating. No more for the day. Period. And Jim I am sure had passed enough cars on two lane roads for one day (more on that later).
We go to dinner in taxi. We have cocktail. Okay we have vodka shots then cocktails. We are eating dinner and with my extraordinary 24/7 planning radar I think, “we are going to have to take a cab back to our hotel”.
For those of you who have known Jim and I for a while or have had the inimitable good fortune of being raised by us; you will love this next part…
We had no clue about the name of our hotel. It probably had one vowel and the rest were consonants, maybe no vowels?
Drama ensued. Phone calls by restaurant managers to cab driver whose cell was off for the night (or by choice). Get in cab, google earth on iphone (long story why that works when my phone is off with no service here), big tip and there we are at OK Odessa.
Yesterday we got pulled over by a traffic cop who was standing in the center median of a highway. He carries a black and white latitudally striped baton about 20 inches long. If you are chosen, he points the baton at you while you obliviously drive 90 kph in a 50 kph speed trap. Next to the baton man is the radar man, holding a device made in the USA, Jim was told, while undergoing interrogation in the station while I waited in the car. It cost us 250 UAH on the spot. Every sent we had. The next ATM was a 2 hour drive. Thats how we round up here in Berdyansk Ukraine. Little seaside city. Spent the morning at the market, so fun! The stalls and vendors and smells and colors are like a magnet.
Our hotel is our second in The Ukraine. There is nothing in the room that can be removed. No lamps, pictures, rugs, etc. You sign an agreement to follow the “rules” and get into an elevator that barely fits us and 2 duffle bags. We haven’t been in an elevator yet that stops flush with the floor. They creak and wobble and bounce and its always a little surprising when the doors open and you have actually arrived intact. Odessa was amazing but a whirlwind. We arrived in dark, of course, and had our first hotel experience. We thought the Bentley in the parking lot meant it was 5 star. Not. It likely belongs to the mafioso that owns the place!
Cisenau Moldova was beautiful and much more European than the parts of Romania we saw. Our hotel was gorgeous when we saw it the following morning, another 11 pm arrival.
Today its off to mother Russia…
The view from our hotel this morning. It pretty much sums up the former glory and current decay. I can see this plaza green and filled with flowers and trees and people in its heydey.View of Berdyansk from hotel 10th floor roomPolice station! I had to be surreptitious…View from our hotel in Odessa, the night before there was a tidy little fire burning in the empty lot below.This morning’s breakfast. Every single hotel we have stayed in includes breakfast in the price. Last night’s hotel was $37.50 and had hot running water from 8-2 and 7-midnight plus this plain but delish breakfast. Were we to hang out we could also get a compimentary ride to the beach. Which sounds amazing but not this trip…
If it’s Sunday we must be in… Oh. It’s Monday. Soooo confused that way. Monday must be Moldova! I feel as if there is so much catching up to do. I’ve just organized the pictures to date. Got up at 5:00 a.m. because my throat is still so sore and started organizing pictures. On the way to the Czech Out Party (yup, that’s party with a capital P on purpose), we came across this field of sunflowers. Little did we know that thousands if not millions of hectares of Eastern Europe are devoted to growing sunflowers. They are so beautiful and so militant with all their little faces exactly lined up obediantly following the sun and one another I presume.
Field near Klatovy, Czech republic at dusk
Fire dancers, a band, a techno lounge, a biergarten, creepy ruins, rain, klieg lights, there was nothing missing from that party. Including a stellar cast of characters…
Those Brits love to wear their underwear at parties…
I can’t get that picture to turn upright without re-uploading and that took five minutes and we need to get moving.
After Czech out we drove to Ceske Krumlov, the most adorable town with a castle on a river.. I have lots of pictures but the wifi here is so slow… We need to get a move on. We were supposed to be in Astrakhan today and have 30 hours fo driving to get there…
We miss our family sooooooooo much. Great seeing the pics and we love the comments on the blog and the spotwalla posts. We are not able to respond because our wifi time has been so limited but LOVE getting messages.
We arrived in Bratislava just after 9 pm as it was getting dark, which has pretty much been our MO. We have not arrived anywhere in daylight.
This place definitely has that ex-soviet feel to it. Nobody smiles but one on one everyone we have talked to is warm and friendly. Here people are much more curious about the car and the trip. Here being eastern Europe as compared to Europe proper.
The War looms huge over Eastern Europe. There are reminders everywhere of the atrocities suffered by the Jews and so many others. It is sobering and appreciated.
This is a picture of the presidential palace across the street from our hotel. We will take off shortly either deeper into Slovakia or straight into Hungary. We are a little behind schedule and I don’t want to get to Astrakhan too many days later than planned just in case we need the time when we get to rougher roads.
I have been thinking about this trip. The scale of it and time commitment it has been for the last three months and the next month… Aside from wanting to test my limits; limits of comfort and freedom and patience and just about everything actually, I hope my children and grandchildren know that the adventures are not over. Not every place has been explored BY YOU. And that’s what matters, what you do, and thanks and appreciation to those who went before you to pave the way. Literally.
Stopped for gas and there’s wifi here, woo hoo! We are a little behind schedule and not sure how much time we will spend in Budapest. There has been a surprising lack of down time considering we are on vacation. We are always on the move or partying. (Sorry mom xo 🙂
Last night in the adorable village of Ceske Klumov we wound up in a czech pub with songbooks and a piano player. It was late and we were tired but we sat and had a beer and sang czech songs by reading along and guessing at the pronounciation. What a riot. There were some songs in english too, mostly Beatles. I’ve heard Adele playing everywhere, How cool that her gift transcends cultures, languages, everything.
The hard part so far is not stopping to see everything we want to. And not being able to share the moment with our kids 🙁
Kevin Batcho was in my class every grade from K through 4th. Then he moved and I moved and we were completely out of touch. Until facebook. Right now I am sitting at his dining room table in Brussels typing this post. So fantastic! His wife Birgitta and three kids are so fun, welcoming us with Champagne just after midnight when they thought we were coming tomorrow. (All my fault, BTW). Want to get some pictures uploaded before we head off into Germany on our way to the Czech republic and Klenova Castle for the Czech-out Party. We are pretty sleep deprived at this point after a night of camping at Goodwood in pouring rain with music cranking until dawn. Even last night, Kevin says we said good night at 4:00 a.m. today. In England I was waking up at 4:40 a.m. every morning. My brain is completely confused but maybe that’s the perfect stat of mind for this system reset!
I miss my babies terribly, it’s going to be hard to go this long without squeezing them. Especially August who will probably grow 2 inches while I am gone. Sigh. Must not dwell on that.
Our livery is coming along. We put it together in Windsor and then added more after we got sponsorship stickers at Goodwood. If we are getting more stickers at Czechout there might not be room. BIG THANKS to our sponsors who donated and hence landed their lovely faces on our car. Here are some pics of packing, a day trip to St. Albans, Goodwood Party and Kevin and Birgitta in Brussels:
Windsor rampart
Our livery coming together!
Coppers at Goodwood
Dover castle
The white cliffs of Dover. SO EXCITING to finally see them in person, a life-long desire!
Fagain manor
Morning light for launch day!
Party tent at Goodwood pre-launch camping
The pitch at Goodwood
Jim emerging from a long night’s sleep… not!
Getting ready at pre-festival camping
Kevin and Birgitta
Kevin’s lovely house
The best livery of the rally~!
Our little panda girl loaded to the max!
lobster people at the Festival of Slow at Goodwood
auto stuff
camping stuff
St. Albans has the longest nave in Europe…
The cemetery at St. Albans
OUr technology bag weighs about 40 pounds
Note the icemaker! And the resistance bands… need to start exercising
“gifts” for border guards and kids along the way
health and first aid
Journals, art supplies, the makings of our livery
Guides and maps
Roman mosaics in St. Albans
The most handsome man in England!
St. ALbans facade. Lit a candle for dad here, thought he would get a kick out of that 🙂
Wow. It seems so much has happened in the last few days with no time to sit and write. We are on the ferry from Dover to Calais, way cool and i dont want to spend the whole trip writing, much as i want to put things on “paper”. We have to map our way to brussels for tonight and find some smaller bills while on board.
Amazing Goodwood party and parade. The other teams are so fun and everyone is just psyched to be a part of this. RAIN RAIN RAIN TORRENTIAL RAIN ALL WEEK. Even while camping last night, but we were warm and snug in our dry tent.
