Samara, Russian Federation
Russia: apparently not always snowy. Way into the 30's and it's only 10.
Samara, Russian Federation
Finally arrived after 5 1/2 hours! 4.30am now. No suspicious money handovers suprisingly. Time to find a field.
, Ukraine
Crossing the Russian border later. Should be interesting. We're going to miss those lovely Ukrainian women!
Mykolaiv, Ukraine
Another case of amazing Ukraine hospitality last night. Couldn't find a campsite but the manager of a summer camp, Timo, let us stay at discount price! Some cheeky back rubs on the older female workers got us another free litre of vodka! Then absolutley wasted went to what seemed to be a disco for the kids. Next morning Timo sorts us out with breakfast and buys us water and food for the road. Desperately wanted to come with us, would have been great if he could had, such a nice guy.
Ukraine
Chocolate spread is not a good mixer. Anyone want to sort us out?
Odes'ka oblast, Ukraine
Sergei (who speaks about 5 words of english) then gives us the number of a friend of his in Maidstone! We're told to call if we have any problems or need any thing whilst in the Ukraine. Turns out Sergei is a bit of a top dog here. Settle in for the night in the hotel (quite fancy considering where we were and only €10ea). This morning we repay Sergei and get invited into his cafe for more freebies and meet some of his mates. They give us detailed instructions to get to where we're going next and some useful tips on how to deal the police. As a parting gift our new best friend gave us a 2L bottle of vodka. Couldn't have asked anything more from him. Ukrainians are without a doubt the nicest people we've met on this trip.
Odes'ka oblast, Ukraine
Amazing, unbelievable and crazy night. Having passed through the Ukraine border reasonably late in the day we had to power on into the night through the country to make up for lost time. With not much around started to think about setting up camp, however had no water so decided to stock up first. Most petrol stations were closed and no shops around but eventually found an open supermarket in a tiny village. Amazingly cheap again, cheapest yet. With the help of some diagrams and wild, charades style miming explained our trip to the staff. Ended up spending around £20, not much by our standards but loads by theirs. Next thing we know we've been invited into the attached closed cafe by its owner Sergei and being given various freebies. He then sorts us out a hotel for the night (and loans us the money as we have no cash). Rest to follow...@
, Romania
Goodbye Europe, hello money grabbing officials! Made it to the Ukraine border. After roughly a week and 9 countries since we started the easiest part of our journey is over.
Åžercaia, Romania
First road kill! Poor little sparrow never saw it coming. Popped like a bag of crisps.
Bran, Romania
Another fix up session for Ben toaday. However not for the lovely Felicity. Fear and Roaming to Mongolia, great guys but topped their oil up to the brim and then lost the dipstick. Messy job draining the sump, oil everywhere but all working smoothly now. The ever versatile duct tape used to help fasion a new dipstick. Plenty of faith in Ben if anything goes wrong with Flic. On another note, visited Draculas castle today, bit of a let down when it turned out it wasnt the real one.
