troopytracks

After two cooked meals yesterday afternoon and evening, and a big cooked breakfast followed by cake in the morning, we were sure that we would not starve on our way to Jaroslavl! Olga spoilt us right until the end! She even led us right onto the road to Novgorod checking on the way that we could manage the ‘pay first then fill system’. You actually have to put the nozzle in the tank first before you pay so that they know which pump you are on. It was nice to see the litres move so fast and the Roubles figure move so slowly!

We set off for the M10, and before we had joined the road we saw a policeman wave his batten at us to signal us to pull over. I wound down the window and said good morning to him and shook his hand. Marjool gave him her best smile and handed the documents as he asked for them. International driving license, V5 (registration doc) and green card. He was really friendly and even waved as we carried on. A nice man!

It was raining as we drove along the M10, which is more of a bumpy A road than a motorway. With the stream of lorries passing in both directions, some riding close to your tail, it is not our favourite type of driving. We amused ourselves listening to another episode of Lord of the Rings (thanks Dan and Ben!) and looking at the roadside stalls. The tea stalls are nice but they are right on the hard shoulder  and not easy to stop/park at unless you have nerves of steel!

The other stalls that were every few miles, sold huge cuddly toys, inflatable things of all sorts, water heaters, plastic garden gnomes in incredibly bright colours and all sorts of other items that you may need on your long drive! It must be a dangerous job as the stalls are only a couple of metres from the road.

Each time you get to a village it is split in half by the busy road. Its seems a shame because the houses are nice but the noise of thundering lorries going past must be really tiring. There are also no crash barriers to protect them.

One thing that we would like to recommend is the Garmin World Map. It just shows where you are relative to the main roads. It has saved us a few times taking the wrong route. It is non routable and so it does not guide you, but works well as a compass and a check of your map reading skills!

We thought that we were doing really well but just before (15km) we were due to turn off the M10 and go cross country on small roads, we hit a traffic jam …. sat in it for 2 hours before our exit came! Cars still overtook on both sides of us …. the hard shoulder became the inside lane even though it was full of potholes.

Turning off felt great! Suddenly we were on a quiet road with no traffic! We followed the road for about 10km and found a small side road that led of to a little village (30 people lived there). It was lovely and had a tiny church that had been recently built just for the village.

Within minutes we had some local children chatting to us in Russian and a lady and her daughter making us welcome. Showing us a bit of grass outside the house where we could camp. They also bought us apples and even asked if we were wanted to eat something! Amazing! We were still full from the meals with Olga and so had to decline. The village is surrounded with lakes, but no time to fish as we need to get to Jaroslavl. We’ll have to go back one day.

Tomorrow will be the second leg of the journey. All small roads we hope.

Had a lovely day of sightseeing with Olga. Firstly we went to visit Izborsk which is one of the most ancient Russian towns, founded by one of three viking brothers who came into Russia in 862! In 2012 Izborsk celebrates its 1150th anniversary and so there is a lot of work going on to prepare for the influx of visitors.

Izborsk is also famouse for its 12 springs. The legend has it that each spring has powers to, cure disease, give happiness, good luck and love and various other desirable things. You are supposed to drink from each one ….. we cheated slightly and went to a point where the waters from the various springs meet ….. a sort of ‘lucky cocktail’!

We then went back up the hill to the fort and had tea in a little tea shop that was in an old traditional wooden house with a great fireplace/oven. The design was such that the smoke travels around a series of horizontal and vertical passages, each with air dampers to take out as much heat as possible before the smoke leaves the chimney. This leaves shelves that the very young and old could sleep on to keep out the chills in the -30 degree C winter nights. This one is still used to heat the tea house in winter.

We carried on to the Pechory Holy Dormition Monastery that has been in constant use for over 500 years. It is also famous for the sand caves that run under the monestery, which are used to bury the monks and other key religious figures. Olga was a little cheeky and attached us to the back of another group and so were given a candle and toured the caves with one of the monks. It was an amazing experience and quite creepy. We could not take pictures inside. Maybe there are some if you Google it?

The area inside the monastery walls are very well looked after. It is a tranquil place to live and walk and entry is free.

Tomorrow we have to leave Olga and her family. Thank you for looking after us, it has been a lot of fun and a great introduction to Russia. We will miss you!

Diesel Price 26.1 Rub / Ltr (£0.57 / Ltr) !!

Clocks forward by another hour. Now three hours ahead of UK.

After our fairly sleepless night we headed down to the border (Koidula) waiting area for our alloted time of 6.00am. Some of the ‘diesel importers’ said that we may have to wait a lot longer, however at 6.20am our registration number appeared on the monitor in the waiting area (in the window of the blue portacabin) and we drove towards the border.

It was a misty morning and we drove through to the first barrier feeling a little bit nervous. We had heard lots of stories about difficult staff and searches which included a complete emptying of the vehicle, even people being turned back after an error was found on a document …..

We arrived at a barrier and queued for a further 15 minutes before we were called forward to the first checkpoint. This was to leave Estonia. We had to show the passports (first border since leaving home), driving license and registration document (V5). There was also a check of the chassis number and a quick look in the back …. which was full of bags etc. The lady was friendly and helpful in terms of our language issues!

Next we went to another checkpoint where we had our passports checked briefly and were handed two immigration cards (more smiles) to fill in before the next checkpoint which was immigration. We pulled over to a parking spot to fill them in. There are several numbers on the visa and so were confused about which number to use  on the form. I went on foot to the booth to ask. A really friendly young man (Customs Officer), who spoke good English helped us. It is the top number on the right (in red ink).

When completed we drove to the immigration booth and the same man helped us again. We had only filled in one side and so needed to complete the same information again on the other side of the form. He could not have been nicer! There was also another friendly man with him who asked about the trip and laughed when we told him how far we were going. They joked about the Russian roads and waved us on with a ‘Welcome to the Russian Federation’. Thank you!

The next step was Customs where we needed to fill in a customs declaration form (two copies) that also covered the temporary import of the car. Again the lady Customs Officer could not have been more helpful. She helped us with every item that needed to be filled in. There is an English translation under the Russian but it is not always obvious what information is required. When the forms were stamped and completed the car was given a brief search, lasting maybe three minutes. She then reminded us not to lose either our immigration card or customs form as it would be difficult and expensive to leave the country without either of the documents. Thank you too!

We were so pleased that the staff were so kind, friendly and helpful that we wanted them to know more about the trip, so we gave each of them a business card with our website address on! I hope that they look at the site to see our progress through their country ….. The whole process from booked time to arriving in the petrol station outside the border area had taken two hours.

As you come out of the border area there is a charge of 150 Rub to get on to the main road, so if you are doing this crossing have some Roubles ready.

We were due to meet Olga who had been introduced to us by Liuba our Russian teacher at the petrol station just outside the border. It was also the place where we were to buy our green card (third party insurance) for driving in Russia. It was the right place, but the girl who was at the desk spoke no English and however much I tried to point at the documents and explain, she just kept shaking her head …. I was stuck! If you want to complete this step yourself without help you need to have a letter written in Russian explaining that you want a green card, with all the details of your vehicle, name, address, length of stay and anything else you can think of! We were lucky, just at that moment Olga arrived and we managed the whole process in about ten minutes. Total cost of the green card was about 2000 Roubles (£44) for the month, but is more expensive (maybe twice) if the car is over 100 hp. My V5 does not quote a figure.

Olga led us to Pskov which is about 45 minutes drive. We went back to her place for breakfast and met her daughter and grandson. They are lovely people and asked us if we would like to stay in her friend’s flat for a couple of days. It would be the first time that we had not slept in the camper since Holland.

After breakfast we went out sightseeing with Olga, and she had also agreed to take us to the local immigration office to complete the visa registration process. You must do this within 3 days of arriving in Russia. First stop was the Pskov Kremlin which is inside one of the old city walls. The city is very old and goes back to 903! It is older than Moscow which dates back to 945.

The walls and towers have been renovated, and look beautiful from the other side of the river.

On the opposite bank of the river from the kremlin there is a railing where newly married couples stand to have their photos taken. It is traditional for them to fix a padlock on the rail as a symbol of their marriage. They either throw away the key as a sign of the permanent bond or take it home in case they change their mind !?

We also visited a lovely, simple church, build in a local Pskov style. It has two towers (onions) and has an unusaual design around the tower called the Pskov necklace.

In the evening we went out with the family to a restaurant and to park the camper in a secure parking for a couple of days. It was good value at 100 Rub per 24 hrs. I am sure that the car would have been fine, but for our first nights in Russia we decided to play safe.

On the way to the restaurant we decided to give our new reserve driver a test. He passed with flying colours, although we may need to invest in a booster cushion!

It has been a great day and a lovely welcome to Russia. Thank you Olga!

We reluctantly left the lake in the morning and headed back to Voru to see if we could find somewhere to buy a green card for Russia, as our insurance will not cover us at all and we need at least 3rd party to satisfy the police if we get stopped on the way. We could not find a company that would do it unless the car is Estonian registered. We gave up in the end, as we had heard that we could get it somewhere on the Russian border. The countryside down to the border crossing at Koidula is rolling hills and forest and we were surprised how empty it seemed. I suppose with only 1.34 million inhabitants (800 k of which live in and around Tallin) it should not be a surprise. Lots of houses were deserted, but still looked pretty with the flowers still growing around the windows.

On the other hand there were also a lot of old factories that are no longer working. There are very few jobs outside tourism in southern Estonia.

Next stop was some sandstone caves at Piusa. We did not go in the caves themselves but liked the playpark equipment …. typically nice woodwork.

Later we headed to a small village called Matsui just about one km from the border. We slept there (sort of) as there was lots of noise made by locals importing/dropping off cheap diesel right through the night. The diesel is around half the price of the diesel in the Baltic states and so some of the car owners increase the size of their fuel tanks and make up to three trips a day over the border to collect. It is gathered together and sold on for a profit. Good for the people doing it but bad for the queues at the border.

The next post will explain the border process and will describe our first day in Russia, which due to our host Olga, was great!

Had a nice relaxing day in the campsite, only jobs were a minor repair to the woodgas stove and some washing. It is such a lovely quiet place, that we’d love to return to one day.

The campsite had a rowing boat that you can use, so we thought that we would spend a bit of time on the water exploring.

We were not the only ones on the water. There was a man fishing who had obviously decided that the priority for his fishing boat was comfort. It came well above stability and size!

Having received a number of urgent requests to have a shave, coupled with the fact that I could never tell if my face was clean after a messy sandwich ….. I decided to go back to clean shaven …. at least for a while.

Ahh back to normal!

Last picture from this place is the sauna, which has been fired up for the owner of the campsite.

Spent last night parked in a free camper place, right on a lake and next to an hotel in Otepaa This is actually where the world championships for cross country skiing are held every year. We woke this morning to find that it had stopped raining! Not sunny but dry. We had been trying to sort out which border crossing to take using the internet last night and stumbled across a series of posts on the new (since 1st August 2011) border crossing system. As the Estonians are so into technology they decided that it would be a good idea for every person wishing to cross into Russia to book a crossing date and time on line. This is in order to cut down on the big queues. We have heard of people taking 10 or even 15 hrs to make the crossing, although 3 to 4 hours was more common. The only problem for us is that it meant that the earliest we could book was 06.00 on 16th August rather than our planned date of 15th. We will see how well it works!

Once we had made the decision we decided to try to find a nice campsite in a quiet place, by a lake with shelter in case the rain starts, with good wifi. Hmmm not fussy ….. should be easy! As we drove down towards Veriora to find the elusive perfect site we noted that the houses were different in style to the Latvian houses.

We stopped in the small town by the church to look for bread, and even in this tiny place there was a wifi sign on the post by the church and little gardening shop.

We carried on to Polva and dropped into a tourist information centre and told them what sort of campsite we were looking for. The lady knew just the place!

About an hour later after following smaller and smaller unmade roads we came to a lovely lake and house. It turned out to be just about perfect!

Again we were the only ones there!

The place had its own sauna on a floating pontoon on the lake.

The shelter was really nicely made, had power, wood cooker, smoker, open fireplace and wifi …. as we said perfect!

The roof was covered in grass/plants and the gutters were machined from logs and held up with tiny uprooted pines. The four corner supports were made from uprooted trees with the roots trimmed to shape to hold the roof. We have not been to Scandinavia but I suppose they must have things made in a similar style.

Even the legs of the tables were made from the roots and bottom of the stump!

Maybe its a bit odd taking a picture of it, but as you can see we like wooden things …. even loos!

We’ve decided its too nice here to move on and so we think we will stay another day …. as long as its not pouring with rain….

We were hoping to walk around and get some nice photos of the campsite and the walking tracks around it, but this morning it was pouring with rain and we had to pack up without really getting out of the car. Just moved things around … like a Rubiks cube until everything was in the right place and we could drive off. It was a shame as the location was fantastic. This is the river that runs along the edge of the campsite.

The wood store where you pick up your free wood for the campfire.

Once we left the campsite we headed up towards the Estonian border, stopping only to pick up a bit of shopping in one of the well stocked supermarkets. There you can buy everything loose by weight, from the normal sweets, to rice, nuts, seeds, wheat and even biscuits. I remember places like that in Enland from way back, but have not seen it for a long time.

One of the things that we forgot to mention earlier was the fuel prices in Latvia.

Diesel costs around 89 Lat / Lt ( £1.10) and Petrol is around the same price.

We then continued on to Estonia, although it will be a short visit as we are due to arrive in Russia on Monday.

We had not realised it but Estonia joined the Euro in January. It is also the place where Skype was invented ….. It seems to be that Estonia is really into technology and they say that for every 100 Estonians there are 150 mobiles in use. Can’t quite see why you’d need 1.5 each …. but still!

On the other hand there are still many people that live in the countryside that lead a very traditional life. One of the guest houses where we looked at camping in the garden, was very rustic but had wifi signs all over it (the old meets the new)!

In the garden they had a really unusual boat. I’m not sure but it looks like it is made from an old float plane …. any thoughts?

Really hoping for sun tomorrow to dry us out, but the forecast is not so good!

Last night we went over to eat stew with our Lithuanian neighbours. It was very kind of them to ask us over. The stew was delicious and was washed down with Lithuanian beer from a wooden tankard passed around the table in turn. It was interesting to talk to them and we learnt more about the Lithuanian people and their way of life. Thank you! It turned out that they were in Latvia to take part in a battle reenactment and were taking the opportunity of doing a days canoeing. They hoped to do 40 km on the Gauja the following day.

In the morning we exchanged contact details and took a few photos to remind us of the meeting.

Graham even got to try on one of the helmets while Marjool just giggled!!

Marjool was then given a gift by Egle (the pretty young lady!) which she had made herself including weaving the strap. It was lovely and so touching. We hope that they keep in touch and come and visit when we get home!

We were also sad to leave the campsite because the young lady (Lelde) who looked after us there was so nice too. We have invited her to visit us at home too. We hope she keeps in touch! Marjool forgot to spruce up her hair (no easy job!) before the photo … oh well you give up after a while don’t you?!

We finally left late after the goodbyes and headed onto the B roads towards Cesis. As soon as you get off the main trunk roads in Latvia, you are straight onto unmade roads. I wonder if they require less maintenance in the extreme cold. Lelde said that last winter it got down to -40c.

As we drove we saw so many nice old farms and buildings that we wanted to photograph …. far too many to put on the website.

Our next camping spot was again an empty campsite. It is right on the river again and has 5 volleyball courts on the sandy beach and you are provided with wood and free but slow wifi. This site was 10 Lat per night and has lots of lovely tracks along the river. One goes to an ox bow lake and is fed by a spring. We will go there tomorrow and fill some bottles of drinking water. It is nearly as good as Phil Harvey’s …. but not quite! After a walk we cooked dinner on the campfire … somehow it always tastes better!

We spent the first part of the morning reading through some of the notes that we had made on Russia before we left home. We had copied and printed some notes on the forms that we would need to complete at the border, but had not had a chance to look at them yet. We then tried to do a bit of Russian revision …. hoping to do a little every day before we arrive there!

After about half an hour Graham sneaked off to do a bit of fishing, mumbling something about doing more when we were not camped right next to a river. The rain, which has been the main feature of the weather over the last couple of days stopped for long enough for us to walk up towards Turaida Castle, which is only about 15 mins walk away. It is at the top of a hill looking right out over the river.

In the grounds of the castle there is a whole collection of granite sculptures.

As we got closer to them we realised how large they were! We just could not imagine how they were put there. There is only rolling grass lawns and these things (maybe 20) are huge!

As we continued walking through the castle grounds we arrived at one of the oldest wooden churches in Latvia it was built in 1750 and although it has been renovated it is mostly original. The timber inside is painted in light colours, making the inside really light and airy and still has all the original markings on it from when it was cut from trees.

When the rain started we headed outside the castle grounds to a drab looking concrete building that had ‘Bistro’ in large letters on the windows. It turned out to be a soviet style public catering room. These were built in the soviet era when people were encouraged to eat in these establishments rather than cook at home. The shops had very little in and the kitchen space was tiny in the apartments and so it made sense at the time. This one has been kept as a reminder of those times.

We now have new neighbours! We are not the only ones on the site now! Not only that but they have  just knocked on the door of the camper and asked us to join them for a traditional Lithuanian (they are tourists in Latvia) spicy stew cooked on the camp fire. They say it will be ready in an hour …. its already 9.50pm. They asked so nicely that we couldn’t refuse. People are just so friendly!

Left the Riga campsite in heavy rain today, and after stocking up with essentials like cakes, fresh bread and chocolate (Marjool likes the Latvian supermarkets!), headed out to the Gauja  National Park. We also tried again in vain to stock up with methylated spirit (denatured alcohol) for our stove. It seems that it is just not available here …. we have tried all the big supermarkets and today went to a huge B&Q type store called Depo. Still no luck. We have enough to last us about another two weeks but need to make sure that we can get it in Russia, otherwise we may have to rethink our cooking set up.

We arrived in Gauja National Park at around 1.30 pm and found a really nice little campsite for 5 Lat, right by the river. It is small and we are the only ones staying there. If this is peak season I would like to see it outside the school holidays. I guess with a population of only 2.4 million people, and more than 500 km of coastline plus numerous lakes and rivers to choose from, it’s not that surprising.

Graham even managed a bit of fishing, one roach and a small perch. Massive splashes in the river so might try again tomorrow!

There are lots of canoes and rubber boats passing by as there is a 231 km 7 day canoe trip down the river, with campsites and little cafes dotted along the route.

As we are starting to think about conserving methylated spirit (just in case), we cooked dinner on the wood gas stove. Managed boiled potatoes, spicy chicken wings and coffee with about four twigs ….

Tomorrow we are going to stay here and sort out all the papers and forms that we need to enter Russia, plus start a bit of Russian revision. We may even read, as we now have some books again. Thanks Natalie and Stuart …. and thanks for taking our Poland guide book and maps back to England! : )