Read about Ron & Viv's journey so far - East Trans-Siberia and Russian Far East.
The nearby village of Germyachinsk which sits beside the lake's edge has some colourful homes.
Our camp in a field with its haystacks.
The large town of Chita and Viv and Ron had three young girls – Anna, Nastya and Yulya, all in Year 8 at the local school, come by and say ‘Hello'. They were delightful.
Quite often it took a few tries to find a camp site and although our Rockpit Camp wasn't the best we were out of sight of the road traffic.
Stopped in the town of Amazar on the Amazar River.
Our Waterpit Camp turned out to be a beauty - the usual state of our camp when we had water – washing everywhere.
Kharbarovsk on the big Amur River – has some renovated and newly built, and quite spectacular churches.
We got the chance to see one of the two 17 year old tigers who call this place home.
Vladivostok was our final destination and our hotel was right on the Amurskiy Gulf with great views over the water; a great sunset from our hotel.
The main square in the centre of town, with the usual statues.
The vehicles get a final clean before heading to the port and into their containers.
6th September to 4th October 2008 - RUSSIAEastern Trans-Sibera and the Russian Far East
North to the Border
We had a couple of days in Ulaan Baatar, staying at the Oasis and even went on a site seeing day trip for one day. On the last day, Gay headed for the airport for her flight home and we headed for ARB Mongolia to see if Rod's spring had arrived and to fit a shock to the rear of my Patrol. Rod's spring finally got to the store at about 3.30 and Neil and Rod fitted it. We left Ulaan Baatar at about 5.30 into peak hour traffic which was a bit of a nightmare but we got out of town and camped about 65km north of the city at GPS 48°10'16”N 106°24'45”E. It turned out to be a good camp but it was very cold!
The road north to the border was pretty good and we reached there (GPS 50°19'14”N 106°29'23”E) the next day and took the 3-4 hours to get thru both border posts. We camped just north of the border town of Kyakhta in amongst the pine forest (GPS 50°23'01”N 106°30'32”E).
Kyakhta was once the centre of the tea trade and in the mid 19 th Century up to 5000 cases of tea arrived via Mongolia making the people here rich while many became millionaires. Tea in bricks was used as money up until the 1930, but when the Trans Siberian Railway was completed the trade collapsed. It is now nothing more than a large border garrison town with a very big military presence – big cement walled camps, lots of parked tanks, APC's, trucks and more. The three once grand churches that dot the town are now being renovated – one looks pretty good.
The country side was very pleasant as we headed north – the grass turning yellow and some of the trees starting to change colour – it was very pretty especially along the river valley's where the birch trees were thickest and in multi-colour mode. There was the occasional village, some set back off the road with their blocks of small wooden houses in all shape and form from the occasional painted one to the majority of bare old timber buildings that looked like gravity was winning and the house would soon fall into a pile of sticks.
To Ulan-Ude and Lake Baikal
At a overpass (GPS 51°45'50”N 107°27'33”E) SW of Ulan-Ude we swung north paralleling the river before crossing a couple of bridges into the city of Ulan-Ude (GPS 51°50'49”N 107°33'57”E) where we found our way onto the road that heads NE towards Lake Baikal. Near a major shopping centre we stopped and found a small supermarket and stocked up with supplies. Then we headed out off town and at a cross roads (GPS 51°50'38”N 107°38'52”E) turned north on the right road to the east coast of Lake Baikal. We stopped at a small park on the edge of town with a stream flowing through it for lunch – the rubbish was unbelievable! After that the road very quickly left the city behind and began to climb through densely treed mountains – the birch and other trees standing out from the pines as they were changing colour – some hillsides looked very colourful.
We descended the range to a wide valley which we travelled along for quite a few km, and again passed a few small villages – their wooden houses resolute against the harsh climate. People were out in their fields and backyards digging pototoes or raking grass into piles. Their yards were crowded with haystacks and piles of wood – getting ready for the onslaught of winter.
One village had a nicely renovated Orthodox church standing proud – nearly 100 years of Communism where churches were destroyed and religion banned, couldn't quell the light of religion or people's innate desire to believe in a god.
The road went through a few sections of road works and we crossed the Kika River which was a delightful stream hemmed in by trees changing colour. Got to a small lake and then passed through the village of Germyachinsk - ramshackled timber buildings and looking a bit poor – is one the edge of Lake Baikal but you couldn't see it because of the thick screen of trees. A few km north the road skirts the edge of the lake and there were a number of camps along the way – the most popular with a grassy bank fronting a wide half-sandy beach – it had a few campers/picnickers there so we pushed on. Our Baikal Camp (GPS 52°50'39”N 108°00'19”E) was just a 100 or so metres off the road about 5-6km north of the village, but fairly well hidden from the passing traffic and was right beside the water on a low grassy bank surrounded on three sides by trees.
Lake Baikal is a mammoth lake holding nearly 20% of the world's un-frozen fresh water; it is larger than the five Great Lakes of the US/Canada combined and in parts it is over a mile deep, making it the deepest lake in the world as well. And the Russians haven't stuffed it up … so it is still pretty pure – so far! About 2/3rds of the shoreline is protected in some form of reserve or another but like most of Russia wherever people go there is bloody rubbish everywhere. The campsites along the shores are delightful except for the rubbish, empty vodka bottles especially, and crap that is near everywhere – it is disgusting!!
The lake freezes over in winter and you can drive on, or even across it, in places. There's also ice diving and fishing during the winter season – the fishing thru a hole in the ice or as the villages do, with thin nets that are strung beneath the ice to catch the delicacy of Omul, a relative to the salmon. Along with the 50 varieties of fish in the lake the lake also supports its very own seal – the beautiful Nerpa Seal. Not surprisingly the lake generates its own weather patterns and is considered by many as the ‘climatic kitchen' of Siberia. We got a taste of it! For more info on the lake go to: www.bww.irk.ru .
Spent the next couple of days here but after the first day the weather turned cold and windy – we actually shifted camp 100 metres to get into the lee of some trees and into a small depression to get away from the howling, icicle-laden wind.
Our plans to stay for a few days were thwarted by the freezing conditions, so we left and on our way south we went into the village of Germyachinsk and wound our way down the wide dusty streets past high wooden fences enclosing ramshackle, and some not so ramshackle, homes to the wide sandy beach. There were a few small runabout style boats tied up high on the beach while there were a few derelict shipping containers and a hut or two scattered along the long windswept beachfront. Further south there was sign of a once important pier or landing area, but it has long been washed away.
East to Chita
At Ulan–Ude we stopped at the Shopping Centre just up the road from the Elevator Shopping Mall (shown on the map in the LP guide) and the supermarket we had stopped at on the way out. It was a great supermarket – the best we had seen since being in Russia over a month ago - and we got all we needed for the next few days.
About 25km from the heart of the city passed a good camping spot down on the river (GPS 51°32'11”N 107°20'55”E). The countryside was very pleasant to drive through – grassy valleys with a backdrop of pine dotted hills and ridges – a little drier than I thought they would be and almost like they are in the mid-north of SA. The country continued like that for much of the way south – good grassland backed by pine-clad mountains.
As we got closer to Mukhorshibir (GPS 51°02'51”N 107°50'37”E) the country became barer and drier – almost like a Mongolian landscape with no trees but this soon improved once more. Stopped just east of this village for the night - our Dry Creek camp (GPS 51°03'49”N 107°55'48”E) – was about 1km from the road amongst trees and shrubs on the edge of a small creek.
There were a surprisingly number of villages along the valleys that we drove through next day – most clung to the railway line as their only visible means of support although a few bigger places had mines nearby – coal from what we could tell. The occasional train went by with ore carriages trailing behind while a number of trucks loaded with the black coal headed along the road to a nearby village. There were also lots of grain crops being grown through this section – the most we have seen for ages, but still there was a lot of grasslands being cut for hay, although very few animals were seen.
We stopped to repair Neil's spring hanger just outside a railway village just east of Balyaga where we had pulled up for morning tea. Luckily only 2 bolts had sheared and after a couple of hours Rod and Neil with me lending verbal support (only two can really work on a spring) we were away again.
We passed by Petrovsk-Zabaykal and crossed the bridge over the River (GPS 51°12'38”N 108°50'42”E) as we headed east. Khilok (GPS 51°20'24”N 110°26'35”E) came and went with hardly any notice of this small village – it was just another hamlet along the railway line amongst some pleasant country - which was extremely colourful at this time of year. Our Haystack Camp (GPS 51°07'37”N 112°05'50”E) was over 1km south of the main road on the edge of a cleared and cut field of grass, amongst stands of beech and poplar in a delightful small valley.
Got to the Western M55/M58 Intersection just outside Chita (GPS 52°06'40”N 113°22'41”E) and headed towards the centre of town, which is quite big with a population of around 400,000. Went into town with every intention of booking into a hotel and ‘registering' for the night. This Registration thing is a bloody pain and was to be a pain all the way across Russia. As it turned out we couldn't get a hotel in Chita, and certainly not one to register us, so we gave up and headed off.
Just after we had found a spot to park in the city so we could check some hotels out, Viv and I had three young girls – Anna, Nastya and Yulya, all in Gr 8 at the local school came by and said ‘Hello' . They were delightful and were very keen to see if we had enjoyed their beautiful country. We gave them a few stubby holders to hold their pencils at school and one, Yulya, wanted to give us her favourite pink pencil but we declined. Anna done most of the talking - she was very confident the others a little shyer. Meetings such as this make independent travel so interesting and enjoyable.
At the Northern M55/M58 Intersection outside Chita (GPS 52°07'58”N 113°29'22”E) we stopped at a well-stocked shop and got some bread, while a helpful, friendly drunk gave us directions and impressed Helen and Kate with his mouth full of gold teeth (you see that a lot – gold teeth!!!), while he was ecstatic when Neil gave him an ARB cap. We had lunch a few hundred metres away and as we were about to leave some not so friendly ‘goons', as Viv called them, pulled up in their smart white Russian made car and insisted we show them some forms, and to Rod, our Passports. We played dumb saying, ‘Australia', ‘Photo' , and when the leader got a phone call we drove off, although he indicated for me to stay where I was. The fact that they didn't show us any ID meant we weren't going to hand over anything, especially our passports. What they were – secret police, KGB, bums or conmen we weren't too sure. They passed us a bit further up the road, before the next police checkpoint, and we saw their car again parked in a cafe and they put the wind up us a bit - a not so enjoyable meeting!!
At the Eastern M55/M58 Intersection, quite a few km out of Chita (GPS 52°01'52”N 113°39'50”E) which is located at a police roadblock, we were stopped and the boys had to go in with all the passports for some form of ‘registration'. The cops were friendly enough and we were soon on our way.
The Long Drive Continues
Our Hay Valley Camp (GPS 51°52'47”N 114°45'55”E) that evening was a beauty and about 115km out of Chita. The access track wound down the hill to a wider but still small valley that had been cut for grass and a few round pimples of haystacks dotted the cut field which bordered a very narrow stream. The cleared grassy areas was only 50-200 metres wide and just up the hill the forest – in all its glorious colour, began.
Around the 150km mark from Chita the countryside began to change into more gentler rolling hills and the thick forest began to give way to more and more open country. As we got towards Chernyshevsk the country was a vast rolling cleared field with sweeping vistas rolling away to the horizon in all directions. Once again while most of the grasslands had been cut for hay the sight of any stock was the exception.
The township of Akseno-Zilovskoe (GPS 53°03'22”N 117°32'03”E) lies about 7km off the main road so we went by with just a glimpse of this town. The autumn colours on the tress through here were spellbinding – not only the trees but the low scrub that entirely covered the low swampy valley's - it was just delightful. It was still raining though and trying to get a decent pic was a pain.
The road had varied through the day from potholed gravel sections that were supposedly being prepared for bitumising to good dirt to rough blacktop to excellent bitumen although the latter wasn't the most common.
About 17km east we pulled off the road to find a camp. It took a few goes before we found a spot – our Rockpit Camp (GPS 53°05'06”N 117°46'14”E) wasn't the best but in an area where the valley's seemed to be more bog pit than good standing, we decided a hard-pack road to a gravel pit was a mighty fine option.
Next day we had only done 15km and stopped when Rod thought he had hit a piece of metal belonging to Neil's truck. In fact what we discovered was the metal was part of the LH rear spring of Rod's truck, while Neil also discovered a busted RH rear spring. We got both of them patched up and pushed on – slowly – along the road east.
The country remained heavily forested all day and there was not one field or paddock of cut grass or grain to relieve the spectacle of yellow and gold, red and green that swept by. In places you thought the sun had come out the trees were so brilliantly yellow. I guess it is too tough out here to grow much though!!!
We by-passed by Kisley-Kly (GPS 53°42'38”N 119°46'00”E) and Mogocha (GPS 53°44'13”N 119°46'00”E), the main M58 road swinging to the south of these villages (or towns) and taking a different line to what was shown on the map. The road was nearly all dirt – road construction – for most of the 220km we achieved that slow, slow day.
There was a near continuous stream of 2nd-hand Japanese cars heading the other way – it was incredibly - possibly over 500-600 cars passed us each day! Thousands get delivered into Russia (and Mongolia and Kazakhstan) this way every year. And while Russia is officially a LH drive country you'll see plenty of RH drive cars on the road – more as you head east! We had spoken to one ‘businessman' – a young fellow in Chita - who got cars in Vladivostok and drove them to St Petersburg or a place on the Black Sea. He took 8 days for the trip across Russia – which isn't bad when you consider it is over 9000km (5000mile) and much of that is a very bad road – to put it mildly. And most of these cars are ‘ shopping trollies' never ever designed to tackle this great rough drive! That they do it is testimony to how good they are in the first place.
That evening we tried to find a spot to camp, but it was difficult. Finally we settled for a small spot about 600 metres off the road amongst the low spindly regrowth of a beech forest. Our Crowded camp (GPS 53°39'16”N 120°08'37”E) was just that - all three of us in a very small spot. It was still raining, the vehicles were covered in mud which transferred to anything that touched it, so it wasn't the happiest spot on earth.
Next day we set off again into the fog and rain, the wind bitingly cold once more. The town of Amazar (GPS 53°51'39”N 120°53'04”E) is situated just off the main road east (the road to it follows the Amazar River from the highway before crossing it into the town) and we dropped into this railway town to pick up some supplies. The houses and buildings clung to the railway line for a visible means of support while the town was crowded with side lines, shunting yards, old platforms, overhead power lines for the electric trains and the discarded paraphernalia of a working rail terminus. Like many places we have visited it had a very run down feel and look about it. On the outskirts there were some abandoned factory buildings (the norm - not outstanding as we have found) while the houses were nearly all timber, unpainted and on the verge of collapse. The streets for the most part were unpaved and after the recent rain, muddy. Found a store – it's hard to tell at times where a store is, let alone what sort of store it is. Had lunch on the outskirts of the town overlooking the river where a bloke was fishing – with not much luck as far as I could tell.
Like most of the settlements along the way we bypassed Mal Kovali (GPS 54°06'58”N 121°31'45”E). These towns and villages cling to the railway line – for nearly 100 years it was their only sense of civilisation and communication in a vast and inhospitable land. It still is as the ‘highway' has a long way to go to replace it.
We passed the largish town of Skovoroino (GPS 53°59'01”N 123°55'54”E) once again on the railway line and a short time later after a few efforts at finding a spot to camp settled on a poor one which was our PipeLine camp (GPS 54°00'20”N 124°05'16”E). We clocked up nearly 300km and it was all on dirt that varied from good to horrible.
Next day we passed the very fancy overpass turn-off to Yakutsk (GPS 53°44'43”N 124°44'38”E) which would do credit for any freeway clover-leaf outside LA but here there is stuff all traffic with the roads on all sides soon degenerating into muddy tracks. We saw no crops or fields cut for grass nor any animals. It was cold harsh country, the land between the hill slopes and mountains tops that were covered in pine and beech, were low and marshy and boggy covered in a course growth that was very colourful but no good for anything else. The swamps got bigger as well. Found our Wet Track camp (GPS 51°58'04”N 127°54'02”E) down a small side track which was in dense beech forest just 15km east of Shimanovsk. We did nearly 400km – from good blacktop to about 300km of variable dirt.
Finally the next day was a good one weather wise, which was a nice change. There were a lot more villages and bigger towns along this way as well and while the main road bypasses most of them you can see them in the distance. The country changed too and there was more cleared land with some crops and paddocks for hay, although that didn't last for long - the forest, the Taiga continues to dominate even though we thought we had left it behind. But the make up of the forest had changed – pine trees were nearly non existant while beech had given way to a multitude of other trees – you could tell with the autumn colours that there was a bigger variety of trees now.
Got to say that this region of far Eastern Russia seems to be able to grow a lot as each house has a small garden out the back, but for the most part the country is too swampy and too densely forested and what has been cleared has been left to grow just course grass and thin scrub – it was to stay that way for much of our time east and south. We still didn't see any stock in any number apart from a handful at a time – it's got to be the winters that means they have to hand feed them that limit the number.
Turned off the main road and went into the small village of …????? . We eventually found the small store - like many in these towns they are just in the front of a house and are virtually unmarked. We saw the first chooks for ages, a few sheep, goats and cows as well. We bought a couple of beers from the friendly lady who was laughing and hiding as we took photos and video. She had no bread but out at the cars a women came up and gave us two loaves – this was the beginning of a delightful hour or so with Natasha and her ‘Mama' . They couldn't speak a word of English, we only had a handful of Russian words and a dictionary but we had fun with these two characters.
They had a small (read normal) house and we were invited inside. In fact it was in two buildings both lined on the exterior with sheets of tin. One was a kitchen and store the fireplace keeping it very warm. The kitchen only measured about 6'x9' with a very low ceiling, had a small wooden table and an old electric stove. The storeroom (with a rough and simple single bed) was immediately behind that.
The main house where Mama lived and slept consisted of an entrance alcove (to help keep the cold out and the heat in), and a single large room – say about 20' square – with a low ceiling. All the better to keep the heat in, I guess. This larger room was portioned off with a work bench to the immediate left as you walked in and a curtain to the right. Behind the curtain was a big cement-lined stove come water heater almost in the centre of the larger room, while tucked in near the stove beside the wall was a bath. Most of the room – with the cement chimney of the stove/heater making up a warming central wall - was a lounge room complete with fold-out bed which was Mama's. It was clean and tidy with carpet on the floor and curtains on the double glazed windows, which Natasha's husband was very proud of. The coloured moulded glass light fittings, shaped like a flower, Mamma was very proud of – ‘retro' we'd say from about the 1940's! A small old style portable TV stood on a low table in the corner, a wall carpet took up most of one wall and there were a couple of old pictures and photos as well.
There were a couple of much smaller and rougher outbuildings – garden shed and toilet amongst them. The husband took us out to his garden where they were harvesting the last of the (giant) pumpkins and spuds and carrots. There were a few chooks, a couple of cats, a small dog and a couple of small pigs. We ended up with tomatoes, spuds, carrots and a couple of relatively small pumpkins – they didn't want any money for it all but we stuck it in their pockets anyway.
We pulled off the road early for a change as it was still sunny - our Waterpit Camp (GPS 49°19'03”N 130°23'59”E) turned out to be a beauty; located just a few hundred metres but well hidden from the road. Apart from about 100km the road had been blacktop for all the way. We had planned to stay a couple of days, but the weather changed again and we woke to a cold, overcast morning and yet more rain!!
The next day we passed thru numerous villages , these becoming a little more richer and more varied in what they grew as we headed south and east – as well as the normal staples of potatoes, onions and tomatoes there were apples, grapes, pumpkin or more correctly squash, watermelon and more. People were still out on the side of the road trying to sell their excess fruit and vegetables and honey and preserves – hunched up against the bitter cold wind and the drizzling rain. They are a stoic mob, these Russians! There were some fields cut for hay and even a couple with crops but generally the open areas were course grass, or swampy while the forest remained the dominant force all day.
One of the bigger towns we skirted along the outskirts was the city of Birobidzhan, which back in 1927 was set up with Jewish migrants coming from the USA, Argentina and even Palestine. Stalin got rid of many during the 1930's and in the early 1990's many returned to Israel. However with the boom now happening in the Russian Far East many have come back and the schools in the town are again teaching Yiddish and the synagogues are open – better here in a fairly friendly, now more tolerant atmosphere than in the bloody Middle East, I reckon!
Khabarovsk South to Vladivostok
Crossed the very big Amur River bridge (GPS 48°32'11”N 135°00'06”E) which every map and the Garmin Nuvi doesn't shown and entered the large city of Khabarovsk . Found our way to the InTourist Hotel (GPS 48°28'27”N 135°03'05”E; web: www.intour-khabarovsk.com), which is located close to the Amur River in the heart of this very pleasant and large city. 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. Apart from being the provincial capital of a mineral rich region, a large industrial centre, a military base (China is only 10 or so km away and the last border dispute over some islands in the Amur River was only resolved 10 years ago) this is also a tourist town - most of the tourist are Japanese and Korean - and there is plenty of them.
Had a problem with our ‘ Registration' as we had been over 3 days since coming across the border. The English speaking girl at Reception told us ‘we would be punished' . We wondered whether that was going to be a whipping, a good thrashing with a cane, jail, a gulag, or what. When we asked we were told the Hotel could get fined R40,000 for registering us without telling the Passport Police of our failure to Register, while we could be fined R2000 (A$100 approx) each for not registering. As it turned out they accepted our excuse and we were registered without a fine.
Got to say how surprised I was at the amount of Russian looking people that are around. That may seem a strange thing to say, I know, but here we are 5 to 25km from the Chinese border (for the last few days) and a few hundred km from the Korean border (and getting closer every km we travel) while Japan sits just off the coast …. and Moscow is nearly 9000km – yep! 9000km away. Yet it is European Russian looking people that dominate the towns and places we have been. You see a few Chinese or Korean looking Russians but the Russians have done a good job at colonizing their Far East – a benefit of Communist collective farms, POW camps and Gulags, I guess!!!
Headed south next day paralleling the Chinese border and the Amur River. We passed thru a lot towns and villages and a lot of low flood plain country which made it hard to find a reasonable camp, but we did just on the outskirts of a town. It was originally going to be called Policepost Camp as there was a police checkpoint only 300 metres away on the main road but when Viv got stung by a bee it become Bee-sting Camp (GPS 47°32'00”N 134°47'33”E).
Next day and further south again we camped in a quarry – yet again! Our Quarry Camp (GPS 45°26'55”N 133°33'37”E) was just off the main road in amongst some low rocky hills. A young truckie, Oleg, or Ole as we called him, came in along with his mate in a different vehicle to fix his truck – the gravel pit was a known spot to stop and rest on his travels. He lives in Khabarovsk and often travels to Vladivostok and up beyond Yakutsk. He turned out to be a fine young fellow – his family owned a cement business, his truck, a Hino V10 with a long tray was his pride and joy; he carts a lot of insulated cement sheet for buildings on it; his wife was a maths teacher and he had a son. 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 me in the cab of his truck for a photo so I obliged before he headed off.
Got to Spassk-Dalny which like most of the towns and cities along this route is located just off the highway and turned off the main road at (GPS 44°35'27”N 132°51'30”E). Found our way to the west side of the tracks at the railway station and headed via a major junction (GPS 44°37'00”N 132°47'00”E) north-west towards the small village of Gayvoron.
West from Spassk-Dalny towards Lake Khanka the country is pretty flat and nearly all cleared paddocks and is under grain or grass growing – the first even close attempt at intensive agriculture we have seen for ages. We even saw a few cows – about a 100 all up – hardly enough to stock VRD but a lot more than we have seen in the past few days. The lake itself is shallow and the surrounds marshy and the top quarter is part of China but it is a well known bird haunt with over 350 different species being recorded. Got to say though that birdlife in Russia is pretty poor most of the time. There's lots of water – rivers, swamps and lakes, but we have seen only a hand full of ducks and 2 or 3 egrets or herons; you see few flocks of small birds, less birds of prey and not much else except for crows and the B&W bird that is like our willy-wagtail but bigger. Maybe there has just been too much DDT sprayed around – a Rachael Carson's Silent Spring in fruition!
The small village of Gayvoron about 20km north-west of Spassk-Dalny is home to the Russian Academy Of Science Biological Research Reserve (GPS 44°45'03”N 132°46'30”E) which is home to three Amur tigers . Now it is a grandiose sounding name but the reality is far from the truth – the animal cages are small and poorly maintained – hopefully the bears get out and about a bit more than what you can see. The place is open from 1pm to 4pm – every afternoon I think - but certainly on a Sunday when they have a steady stream of visitors.
Dr Victor Yudin , a small wiry guy who with his family, runs the place and has done for 17 years – obviously on a shoe string - and he his dedicated his life to the tigers - and the other animals that mainly arrive by ‘donation' from locals.
The two 17 years old tigers who have been there as long as the good doctor have founded a dynasty of 19 young – their most famous is ‘Globus' in a USA, Minnesota, zoo. There is also a three year old cub in the large 2ha enclosure – probably waiting for sale to another zoo where a breeding programme is under way. Only one tiger came out to a feed on a chicken leg while we were there. When asked, the good doctor said, ‘There were … maybe… 300 to 400 Amur tigers in the wild … but I think less! ” he said sadly.
They are an impressive beast though and we took a couple of quick pics of the tigers – which we were scoulded for - but all was well when we each bought a few postcards and gave them a 100R each for a donation – there is no entry fee!
The three black or Himalayan bears – one with a lower leg missing (probably from a trap) – were in small cages but hopefully only so the visiting people can see them when they come into the reserve. The three bears were given a can of milk each, which they loved – one visitor gave his can without opening it – the bear knew what it was and crunched it until a few holes appeared and then slurped on the proceeds. The doc wasn't impressed with the bloke though!
A couple of wild cats were forlorn in their cage while there were more than a half a dozen Lynx – a few oldies (one with only three legs) plus three young ones just a few months old - they were impressive cats - they are bigger than I thought with big yellow bright intelligent eyes that followed every movement we made. When a young baby girl was carried past the enclosure, the cats became more interested in her than anything else – here was food they could take! They were long legged and thin bodied but were a very handsome cat – a real predator that for its size couldn't be matched.
Headed south on a very busy highway and about 15km south of …??????? turned off the road and found a spot on top of a treed knoll that we called Rubbish Knoll Camp (GPS 43°59'55”N 132°15'13”E). Yeah, you've guessed it – there was rubbish everywhere!
Next day we found our way south and east of Vladivostok and just out of the village of Roma we set up camp for three nights beside a river– our Last Camp being located at (GPS 43°13'35”N 132°26'32”E). 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. The morning we drove into Vladivostok it was threatening rain but it stayed away for most of the time.
Drove down the east coast of the peninsula that Vladivostok is situated on, through a resort town where there was even a motel and then onto the main M60 (GPS 43°13'39”N 132°00'00”E). Got thru the horrendous traffic in the centre of town and found our way to the Hotel Vladivostok (GPS 43°06'50”N 131°52'30”E – 10, Naberezhnaya Str, ph +7 (4232) 41 35 000, web: www.azimuthotels.ru) which is located on a hill just above the water's of the bay (Amurskiy Gulf) and has the rooms facing west have pleasant views across the harbour's entrance. It's a very typical, tall, block type Russian building and the rooms are a bit tired, but clean and comfortable. It's well located close to the centre of the city and Svetlanskaya St (a 5-10 minute walk away) and just 2-3 km from the part of the port we need to get the vehicles to. Some of the staff speak English, there is secure parking, there's free Wi-Fi available in the lobby area, and the business centre has photocopying, etc. Prices range from about A$120/night, breakfast included. The restaurant is pretty good as well, but expensive. All in all it's a good place to stop and sort out what needs to be done. Robert Martin (an American) is currently the Regional Director and he is friendly and helpful and doesn't hesitate to introduce himself to visitors of his hotel.
There's a carwash nearby but sadly for us it was having some building work done and was closed; there is another on the way to the port. A small but well stocked supermarket is nearby if you want to feed yourself, while on a couple of the floors of the hotel there's a ‘Common room' where you can get hot water for a brew.
Once again we had a problem with our ‘Registration' – it had been longer than three days since we had been registered anywhere. It's a bloody pain. We wrote a letter and sent that via the hotel Reception to the Immigration Police. Hopefully they have accepted our excuse of the Ford's broken suspension as we haven't heard that there's a problem and we haven't been ‘punished'!
We spent the next nine nights here as we prepared our vehicles, paperwork for shipping back to Oz. The reality is that shipping, whether ‘In' or ‘Out' can be a real pain. One Aussie group who recently came into Russia here took around 3 weeks to sort out their vehicles and get on their way! We hope our 9 days is enough time!
Vladivostok has only been opened to the outside world since 1992 – before that it was a closed naval city, home to the Russian Pacific Fleet. Set on a series of bays, headlands and harbours around Golden Horn Bay it is a pretty spectacular city and one that is very naturally protected. It's still home to the navy and giant icebreakers but now it is also a tourist city with lots happening – the tall ships were here when we arrived and there was a IFAW meeting discussing the plight of the tiger a few days later. Founded in 1860 it became home to the navy in 1872 and the terminus for the Trans Siberian Railway in 1891. By the turn of the 20th Century it was an international port more like Hong Kong and Shanghai than any other place. Today its population hovers close to the million mark and there are some well off people going by the marina we can see from our hotel room with their private, sleek and modern motor cruisers and yachts moored there. Still apart from the shops, a museum or two, some nice waterside cafes and restaurants and a couple of harbour/island cruises along with a trip north to see the tigers (which we had already done) a couple of days here would see most tourists with not much else to do.
We were shipping our vehicles via Silver Winds (who have a base in Melbourne – see details under ‘Shipping') and we enlisted the support of Yuri Melnikov (pictured here with the boys) who is based in Vladivostok (Links Ltd, ph: +7 (902) 524 3447, office ph/fax: +7 (4232) 221 578, email: ymelnik@links-ltd.com; web: www.links-ltd.com) to process the paperwork and get our vehicles into the container – he was a good and handy contact. We needed copies of our passport, visa, rego certificate, customs permit for the vehicle, along with a letter to customs (written in Russian) requesting our Temporary Import of the vehicle being ended and our vehicle allowed for export, plus a list of equipment that was in the vehicle. We are not allowed to enter the port area so he has to have ‘Power of Attorney' – we needed to see a lawyer (with an interpreter) for that.
Well, Yuri did a god job and the vehicles are in their respective containers and sitting at the port waiting for their ship that will sail early next week (so we are told) – in all from the time we got in touch with Yuri it took about 7 days to get the vehicles all sorted (and there was a weekend in there as well).
There's nothing left to do now than pass the time away until our flight home in a couple of days. We've managed to get through unscathed and not wreck the cars. We didn't hit or get hit by anything or anybody and somehow survived the manic drives in western Russia. We had no real hassles, didn't get a flat tyre during this trip, had no bad illnesses and no other dilemmas that we couldn't deal with. In all we've traveled over 26,000 km this trip, and about 44,000km last year through Africa.
The grand adventure is over … until the Americas, south to north in 2010!!
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Link to Picture Gallery Page for Eastern Trans-Sibera
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After crossing the Mongolia/Russia border we headed to Lake Baikal and found a nice camp right beside the lake.
The drive back to the main town of Ulan-Ude through the mountains was delightful, with the colours of autumn on the trees well into their autumn tonings.
Kate bought some vegetables from this woman and also tried a little communication, with some success.
Ron looks up the road with its dirt and pot holes that will take us to Chita (before it started raining!!).
Another remote Russian village on the road to Kharbarovsk.
The beautiful autumn colours we saw along our drive east.
Stopped in the town of Amazar and finally found the ‘shop' and got a few supplies. Check out the use of the ‘abacus' .
Our memorable meeting with Natasha & her ‘Mama' – we came away with not only pumpkins, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes and eggs, but an insight into their daily lives – they were the most wonderful, warm, friendly and hospitable people you could ever hope to meet.
The view of some the river and buildings from our hotel room in Khabarovsk. China is in the distance.
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.
Our last camp beside a river and on a nice grassy area.
The small harbour and waterfront and promenade just down from our hotel saw lots of activity on a good weekend.
Our vehicles inside the port area – a NO GO area for us.
