THE COAST IS CLEAR OR IS IT?

WHAT WE’VE EXPERIENCED IN PRIMORSKY REGION and
FAR EAST RUSSIA: narrow gravel mountain tracks through to four lane intercity highways (main road M60 motorway has all of this); wells in villages for drinking water; regular police checks for documents; mosquitoes and midgies; ticks; curious onlookers; potatoes and tasty continental style sausages; lots of right-hand drive vehicles; seen lots of vodka bottles; nightly serenade of cuckoos; busy train lines.

WHAT WE’VE NOT EXPERIENCED: green vegetables other than wild herbs and cabbages; many advertising signs; supermarkets; fresh meat; fences; not many native animals.



We drove Essy and Troopy onto the Dong Chun ferry in Sokcho, South Korea, for the 18 hour trip to Russia; our vehicles were the only two cars on the car deck. At the ferry terminal, the wind was so strong that it was difficult to walk. The strong wind made the coast clear. On board, we met Jean Louis from France who was travelling Russia by train and kindly lent us an atlas of Russia.

Ferry docked at 10.40am and the clearances with customs and documentation took until about 6.30pm. The coast was not so clear after all. This late start meant our first camp beside a river, instead of our planned night at our hotel.

Matt at Harvey World Travel had booked two nights for us at the Amursky Zaliv Hotel in Vladivostok. We arrived in peak hour with zillions of cars, very few street signs and any that there were, all in Russian. Finally found the hotel overlooking the coast. From the street, the Amursky didn’t look much, but on the inside was a pleasant surprise. Most of the highlights of Vladivostok, a hilly and busy city with a harbour lined with large ships, were within walking distance of the hotel.



Alastair had done some research on roads north of Vladivostok along the east coast. The coast was clear for us to avoid the M60 motorway for a few days. The lack of street signs and directions out of Vladivostok meant our trip to the east coast was not easy at the start but was clear when we were our of town and in the country.



We have been camping every night but one since leaving Vladivostok; many beside beautiful rivers and streams and in lush forests. Our supplies are replenished daily from small ‘magazins’ (local shop). Most shopkeepers are perplexed by our presence and our miniscule grasp of the Russian language, but we remain well fed and our skill at charades and animal impersonations improves. We have been helped by locals in some ‘magazins’. One, a kind chief radio operator from a fishing vessel who had a smattering of English, helped us with selection of sausage.



We joined the M60 heading for Kharborovsk but there were fewer rivers. The landscape is quite reminiscent of Australia’s south east; rolling hills, open green pastures, and distant mountains, with eucalypts replaced by birch and maple.



A chance meeting, as we hunt for an internet café in Dal’nerechensk, results in an interesting afternoon with Sasha, and an invitation to the home of Anfisa and her mother Olga. While Olga made us welcome in their beautiful home with a huge spread of cheese, bread, and tea. Anfisa translated for us. A mature and confident 15 year old, she had been hosted in Sydney and the Gold Coast for several months and had travelled to other places around the globe and hence her excellent English. The future of Russia is indeed bright if she and her friend Anastasia are an indication of the next generation.



It was a heartfelt farewell when we said goodbye to Sasha and his brother. It was fortunate that we had such a lovely experience with Sasha, because we might have been disillusioned when in another town there was an attempted break-in to our vehicles, while we went into a small shop. This resulted in a broken door lock for Essy. Local shopkeepers were very agitated and may have driven the thieves off. We drove a kilometre or two into the town centre only to discover Troopy had a flat tyre which we then prepared to change. Three young men came up and spoke to us in English. After changing the tyre we found that the air had escaped through a small slit in the wall. Minutes later, Ann discovered her handbag missing from the cabin of Essy.

Later we pieced the scenario together, the mongrels had stabbed the inside wall of Troopy’s tyre with the intention that we would have to stop and change the flat tyre. In the one minute of discussion that the boys had engaged us, one of the group had gone to the other side of Essy, opened the door and had stolen the handbag. We were all very upset about this for a day and it will take us some time to recover the lost information and replace items. Ann and Chris’ phone number is unlikely to be operational until mid-July.

We are continuing west, soon to turn north into Siberia.

Some costs that might be of interest:
When we are away from the cities, we are spending about $10-15 on food and $20-25 per day on fuel, per vehicle.
$A1 = 24.4 rubels
Diesel AUS 80-90 cents or 18.5-22.5 rubels per litre
Customs charges on arrival to Russia $US150
Compulsory third party insurance for Russia for two months was 1662 rubels per vehicle
Beer – standard 1.5 litre bottle is between $3 and $4 (alcohol content 4.5% to 15%)

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