27 August - 12 September, Altai, Russia to the Ukraine border

We leave the mountains of the Altai Republic and descend to the Siberian plain which continues to the



Whole villages are still full of quaint little cottages



Urals where we visit Ekaterinburg.  Like when we left Mongolia we felt we were just keeping ahead of the cold weather as leaves began to fall or change colour and we needed the extra blackets at night.   The Urals are not as high as we expected  and we are soon over them heading for the Ukraine which will be the subject of the next post.  The weeather got better the last couple of days in western Russia and in Urakraine the sun shone all day. 

This one has been visited by a double glazing salesman!

A disfiguring part of most villages is the gas pipes (painted yellow) which snake along every street rising up where vehicles are likely to pass under.  Presumably there is a good reason why they do not go underground.

We found quite large areas along the road where all the trees had died- possibly from lack of water during recent dry summers

Road surfaces in Siberia were very variable and often bad with broken surfaces and potholds

.... and badly rutted

You could buy most things for the ktchen along the way - mushrooms sellers were very plentiful - specialising in cep mushrooms.  Note that the sellers are well wrapped up for the cold.

In western Russia perhaps the main crop was sunflowers, probably for the oil.  Here a Klaas combine harvester (one of seven in this 500 acre field) gets to work on the crop.

Sunrise over the tab

Carol enjoys her birthday  lunch in the Urals - we had Black Woodpecker at this site. 

Horse and carts are still common in Russian villages, one even crossed the border into Ukraine with us.

Road through the Urals

There are more trucks on the roads in Siberia than private cars and tend to congregate around cafes at lunchtime

After mushroom sellers the next most common roadside vendors are honey sellers.

This guys just sold Carol about 6 lbs of honey - perhaps thats why he is smiling.

The only windmill in Siberia - possibly.

The next pictures were taken at the Novosibirsk raiway museum - they should be at the beginning of the post but blogging does not seem to be that easy.

The railway museum also included a lot of road and farm vehicles - here is there world reference collection of Ladas

Possibly the prettiest railcar ever

A typical camp site in Siberia.  We try always to get a few hundred yards of the road behind some trees so we are shielded for the road - see the truck in the background.  The grass is short because it has just been cut for hay.

Typical Siberia meadow in late August after the hay has been cut and put into small stacks all over the field.  In the more mechanised west hay and strraw was baled and stacked.

Two deer appear near the camp site (above)

Melons are very popular in early September

Sometimes we did not find suitable camp site and needed to pull into a cafe car park with a dozen large trucks for company

This the 'Church over the blood' in Ekaterinburg, at the spot where the Tsar and his family were murdered by the Bolsheviks  

Attached to the church above is a small museum  of Tsarist artefacts.  Here Carol knocks out a popular number on the Tsars old joanna.  What is she wearing?  The headscarf was required becuase it was a religious site and the plastic booties were to protect the museum environment.  Strange that visitors were allowed to play this working piano.  Note the odd visual effect of the floor tiles 

Mike meets the Tsar

A cold day in Ekaterinburg

Downtown Ekaterinburg

Road side monument - there are lots tothe 1941-45 war and every village has a memorial like in England