10 May (Atirau Kazakhstan 51 deg 54' E (3700 miles and 4 time zones so far): Eastern Ukraine and Russia

From Dnipropetrovsk the fields seem to get bigger and bigger with fewer and fewer villages,  we think Stalin had something to do with the depopulation of this area.  Camp stops are beginning to become a bit of blur in the memory  3 weeks into the trip, but the last but one in Ukraine was spent in the car park of a very nice motel (Ismailovski Dvor www.motel-ukr.com.ua), where we had a  warm welcome from three friendly women, and the last was a truck stop close to the Russian border.   One village in the east of Ukraine was selling strawberries - they were delicious (Carol reckons Mike was fleeced by the lady selling them).  Eastern Ukraine is a big coal mining area - or to be precise, it was.  Everywhere you see huge slag heaps and large mining equipment and railways going everywhere but most of the pits seem to be closed and delapidated.  Another characteristic of the area is lilac bushes, all in flower as we came through, adorning every garden and a lot of the rough ground too.  The   fragrance wafted into the car on occasions.   The national pastime (for men & women) seems to be angling and most lakes and rivers has a retinue of these patient hunters.  The banks were particularly busy during the public holidays of 1 and 2 May.  We got to the Russian border early on the morning of 3rd May.  It took us 2 hours 20 mins to exit Ukraine and enter Russia which by all accounts is quite quick.  We had expected a difficult time but we did not get it, in fact we found all the officials on the Russian side especially helpful.  Getting the Tab in was not a problem as had been suggested by some, but we were glad we entered the Tab serial numbers on the vehicle V5 form, which seems to work.  (See ‘Home page’ for some extra comments on border procedures vehicle insurance etc).

Russia was not instantly different to Ukraine, it was of course the same county only 20 odd years ago but the countryside changes subtly every day.  At first there were huge wheatfields, with growing wheat (it was still being planted in Ukraine)  but this gave way to grassland and true tree-less steppe as we sent south from Volgograd to Astrakhan at the mouth of the Volga river to the Caspian Sea.   This bit of country is basically like Arabian sand dunes with grass so we felt quite at home.  The Volga is huge, at least a kilometer across, and at this time of year is in flood with many low pastures inundated.and all kinds of debris floating down river, including whole trees.   Astrakhan is the last town in Russia before Kazakhstan, where we had another truck stop.  Another Land Rover zoomed by us on 5th as we were having lunch - tooting, the first we had seen since Slovakia.  Plenty of big flash Range Rovers though, we imagine the vehicle of choice of the well-to-do local gangster!  After the mini heat-wave in central Ukraine the weather got cool again for a few days but by the time we got to Astrakhan it was hot once more  and may stay that way until the Altai mountains at the end of June.  On the 4th Carol had a moment (well two in fact) of madness when we got lost (we feel there is rather a dearth of signposts) and decided to ask a policeman the way. Having heard from various sources how the Russian police will take any opportunity to stop & fine you/solicit a bribe, she also then threw caution completely to the wind and crossed the road to park on the wrong side of the road - an offence in Russia. We were duly given a long lecture in Russian which we vaguely understood meant we had broken the law and our Green card was taken away for inspection. We were then left to sweat (also literally in the hot sun), Carol feeling somewhat sick,  for 10 minutes or so awaiting out fate. The policeman then returned smiling, asked to see our road map and sent us off in the right direction! Phew! In the Ukraine the police are marked ДАI and in Russia ДПС. In our experience they mainly occur just before towns & villages and there are signs several km in advance so you know to slow down. Occasionally they were to be found just over the brow of a hill or round a corner with no warning but cars coming in the opposite direction had usually been flashing us. We only had a couple of weeks’ experience but we passed a lot of police and were only stopped a few times and each time the police were very polite and friendly, perhaps asked us for some ID and where we were going then confirmed we were in the right direction and wished us luck. We imagine that avoiding the big cities is an advantage?
  We saw our first dragonfly on our second day in Russian but didn’t manage to get a great pic. We also saw masses of Clouded Yellows near the Volga but didn’t get any pics at all! The steppes and the Volga lowlands are the domain of the Calandra Lark and the Isabelline Wheatear.  The latter is a common winter visitor to Arabia and so it was nice to see them in their typical breeding habitat.  Other nice birds have been White-tailed Eagle, Red-footed Falcon and Montagu’s Harrier, Red-crested Pochhard, Ferruginous Duck, Golden-eye, Red-necked Grebe - to mention a few.

Our truck stop just north of Astrakhan had a very good shower and the added attraction of five  puppies playing round the van endlessly. We ended up staying there for 3 nights and doing a couple of day trips out with the luxury of leaving the TAB behind & just taking PYJ. The first night Carol left her crocs outside and was very upset in the morning to find they had disappeared. Initially assuming the worst of our fellow ‘campers’ we then remembered that a certain puppy we used to know (see Charities page - Hearing Dogs) had a penchant for shoes and sure enough Mike then found one Croc in the puppy den and another a bit further away - along with four other shoes!

We will provide details of our first days in Kazakhstan in a future post.

See the way-points file posted to the file sharing site which gives precision to camp sites etc.

Thanks for the comments we are getting on the blog and in emails and texts.  Sorry we are not able to reply to them all individually but our time on the internet is limited.  But keep them coming it is a great encouragement us.

Mike buys the first Ukrainian strawberries  of the season and pays the price

A Ukraine power station - or something like that

Large pipes snake across the countryside , gas?

Derelict coal mine lift, Ukraine

Lots of lilac in the Ukraine villages - also next picture

High rise flats in Ukrainian coalfield area

Last lunch stop in the Ukraine

We race a train across the steppes

Military monument eastern Ukraine

Our first truck stop camp site in Russia en route to Volgograd - all mod cons!!

A church in Russia - this one was old, many in Ukraine were new

Dried fish for sale at the side of the road along the Volga river

One of many noisy marsh inhabitants - see video above