Picture Gallery - images of trip - RUSSIA - Russian Far East
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Russian Far East : Images from left to right:
The next large city we stopped at was Kharbarovsk on the big Amur River – it was quite a pleasant town. The heart of the city has wide tree-lined boulevards, a nice riverside park, a water front stretching along the river, some renovated and newly built, quite spectacular churches, some nice shops and pleasant street scapes. Check out the unfortunate name for a bar, which was opposite our hotel!
Our next camp wasn't too bad, but Viv got stung by a bee on her top lip while drinking a gin & tonic and she had a bad reaction to it, as can be seen with the pic she wasn't too pleased Ron took, but it shows how bad you can react and this pic was taken 20 mins after the bite ... and got worse before it got better – check your drinks before sipping!!!
Yet another quarry camp where me met a wonderful and friendly young truckie from Kharbarvosk called Oleg, or Ole – the gravel pit was a known spot to stop and rest on his travels. He could speak a bit of English and we had a fine time – he gave us a watermelon; he didn't like our Mongolian cigarettes or vodka we tried to give him but enjoyed the pencils and koala Viv gave him for his kid. He wanted Ron in the cab of his truck for a photo, so he obliged before he headed off.
The small village of Gayvoron was our next port of call and we found a really good store to replenish our supplies before heading to the Russian Academy Of Science Biological Research Reserve which is home to three Amur tigers.
Its not easy to find places of interest in Russia, but at least this sign gave us some idea of which way to go to the home of the tigers. We got the chance to see one of the two 17 year old tigers who call this place home as one of them came out for his/her ‘chicken leg' tit bit – they are magnificent creatures.
Our last camp was about 70km out of Vladivostok beside a river and on a nice grassy area. The weather was good for most of the time and we spent a couple of days sorting the trucks out and cleaning gear for the final pack. Viv had brought a bottle of ‘Moet' from the ‘duty free' at the Mongolia border, for a celebratory drink for the last night's camp and with a few nibbles and sun it was a great way to end the last camp.
Vladivostok was our final destination and our hotel was right on the Amurskiy Gulf with great views along the waterfront and over the water; a great sunset from our hotel; Rod enjoys a quiet wine in their hotel room; The main square in the centre of town, with the usual statues.
Vladivostok has only been opened to the outside world since 1992 and is set on a series of bays, headlands and harbours around Golden Horn Bay making it a pretty spectacular city; The small harbour and waterfront and promenade just down from our hotel; the prom saw lots of activity on a good weekend.
Vladivostok is a bit of a contradiction and while it obviously has a lot of well off people (just look at the boats in the harbours) there is still a lot of poor scraping a living – this house was in the middle of town, behind a new apartment building and the lady was still collecting water from a water pump at the front of her house; This pic is especially for Gay – a Vladivostok fire engine.
The vehicles get a final clean before heading to the port and into their containers; Our vehicles inside the port area – a NO GO area for us – this is where Yuri took over and saw to the customs clearance and the loading of the vehicles into the containers; our ‘helper', Yuri, with the boys having accomplished his job of getting the vehicles into the port and into their containers.
The grand adventure is over … until the Americas, south to north in 2010!!
The end of our Russia Overland trip and homeward bound. Our travels won't finish here if at all possible and we have plans in 2010 to continue on our wanderings through the Americas, Canada and South America.
