Khabarovsk, Russia

On Thursday, we FINALLY got the car. Yuri rang us in the morning and said that he would pick us up at the hotel and take us to get the car soon, and that he would ring us to tell us to come downstairs. And so, we waited… and when he rang around lunchtime, we were ready to go. But, don’t be too quick, because he was ringing to say that he would be at the hotel soon. But we went downstairs to wait anyway. After about an hour, Yuri was there and we hoped into his car and we were off to the port.

Oh, but we’re not going to the port. We were going to the yard where the container would be delivered. OK, great, and so when we got there, it didn’t look like any container yard I’d seen before. Yes, I know that I’m not particularly famous for my observations of Container Yards, but…

We did a quick scan but couldn’t see our container (green) and then Yuri said that the truck driver had just rung to say that he was under the crane waiting for the container to be loaded but he had been advised by the Port authorities that they were going to load the containers onto the train before loading onto trucks. So, this meant more waiting. But we went down to a café and had a coffee and at least we got to wait indoors.

And then we got the call to say that the truck was on it’s way. So, off we scooted, back to the yard and then Yippee, there is the truck with our container! The container was unloaded, unlocked and opened. Yes, it was the right container and there was our Troopy ready to start her adventures in Europe.

As I previously stated, I’m known for my observations in Container Yards. When we loaded the car, there was a person brought into nail boards in place in the container to hold the car steady. Yuri had told us that he would arrange for people to be there for the unloading, etc. Now, we thought that this would mean the reverse of what had happened in Brisbane. There were 3-4 guys sitting around, but apparently they weren’t there to help. Yuri asked did we have the tools to undo everything? Ahhh, No! We had some stuff to reattach the roof rack, etc but they wanted us to supply a crowbar, or such like object to remove the timber that had been nailed inside the container.

It took Nick and Yuri about 2 hours to reattach the Roof Rack, the Roof Pod and the metal box for service oils and spare parts. Poor Yuri couldn’t understand why we had a problem with Imperial vs Metric nuts and bolts. Yes, we ended up with some stripped nuts and bolts and had to locate replacements, which we were able to do. Then we were on the road to the Service Station to put some fuel in the car and this was our first experience of nominating how many litres of fuel we wanted and prepaying. But we managed it all OK. Finally, we got back to the hotel at about 6:45pm with the car sorted and ready to go apart from having to relearn where everything was and making sure that things were put away in the best spots.

So finally, it is Friday morning and we were ready to hit the road. The car was packed and we were ready to leave the Equator Hotel and their glorious breakfasts! We had been told to take the new bridge and the new road towards the airport and then merging with the road to Khabarovsk. Suddenly, I realise how spoilt we are in Australia and in Europe – our freeways have signs on them telling you what is in the direction in which you are travelling and maybe even the distance, eg Airport 15 kms. Sadly, Russia doesn’t have time for such frivolities! If you are going to take the freeway, then you are supposed to know where you want to go and how to get there. Anyway, after much nail-biting and fruitless scanning of maps that we couldn’t read (either too small or too stylised), we finally found ourselves on the road to Khabarovsk.

On our first day on the road, we travelled about 350km along a road called the ‘M60’. This road varied between super-freeway, freeway, divided highway, highway, main road, road under construction, dirt road and goat track! We passed a number of fuel stations – how I miss the luxury of a German Autobahn stop! We managed to find somewhere that sold us some bread and we pulled into a petrol stop to make some sandwiches, but we discovered that the butter was set solid, even the peanut butter could be classified as frozen! But we managed a couple of sandwiches and boiled the kettle to make a hot drink, which we ate and drank whilst sitting in the car. Russians are not big on picnic areas!

After lunch, we were back on the road, ready to face the onslaught of Russian drivers, who have to be seen to be believed! There seems to be a thriving industry in driving cars from Vladivostok to Moscow, or wherever. These cars have come off the boat and are either Japanese or Korean imports and they are driven, with temporary registration which is taped to their back windscreen, by a group of Russian loons! Or maybe we had gotten into a taping of the next Top Gear special! But these guys zoom along, and overtake anyone or everything that is slower than them. There are a lot of trucks on the road and these are overtaken at the drop of a hat or they overtake you!

I’m not sure if I can explain Russian overtaking or not, but I’ll try! Firstly, cars in this part of Russia and either Left-hand or Right-hand drive, but roads are set-up for left-hand drive vehicles. Secondly, if you see someone indicating, then they are probably a foreigner. You must never slow down to overtake and there doesn’t seem to be any rules about overtaking ONLY on the left. Oh, and another thing, it is apparently the overtakee’s responsibility to not run into the back of the overtaker when they squeeze into a gap that is too small for them. I believe that there were originally lane markings, but these have been abraded off with the salt that is spread to reduce the ice. Either way, you could not tell whether you were in the right lane (or even in any lane).

And then you get to “roadworks”. I think I can categorically state that Russia has never heard of Workplace Health & Safety or “Lollipop Men”. When you approach an area of Roadworks, yes, there are signs on the side of the road, with a reduced speed and a sign to show that there is to be no overtaking, but nobody seems to take any notice of them. From years of driving in Australia, and the many opportunities to observe road repairs or construction, I understand that dirt (or fill) is spread on the new road and then compacted down before the next layer, etc. But in Russia, a pile of dirt is dumped on the road and then left there. Then the cars start to spread this out and compact it down as they play “mud rally”. If you’re lucky, it will snow and that turns to slush but if it’s dry, then there is this huge dust cloud that shows where the traffic is, but impaired vision doesn’t stop the Russians from making their overtaking manoeuvres! And I’m sitting the car closest to the middle of the road and Nick is asking me if it’s clear so he can overtake! God, that’s a lot of responsibility!

After about 6 hours of driving through these sorts of conditions, we decided to look for somewhere to sleep on Friday night. Thank Goodness for Google translate and my iPhone (with Russian SIM) – I just type in my question, translate it to Russian and show the cashier in the service station. After much to-ing and fro-ing, we managed to find a hotel and book in the one night. God awful bed – the only bonus was that it was warm (too warm). There was no café at the hotel, so we went walking though the town looking for somewhere to eat, but apparently most things close at 6pm! We were wondering around like lost sheep and a woman took pity on us. We managed to indicate that we were looking for a restaurant and she kindly drove us to what was probably the only restaurant in town. We managed to get a meal and wanted to get a drink – no soft drink, only grape juice, water or vodka! What a choice!!

On Saturday morning, when we got up, we looked outside to see a white world! Yes, it had snowed overnight. From our window the view was glorious – no footprints just virgin snow! But when we put our stuff back into the car, we were very happy to see that snow ploughs have been along the roads and they were clear. As we set off, I must admit that I felt nervous about driving through snow, but the tyres that Nick had bought just before the car left Australia more than justified their cost! Day Two on the road was a repeat of Day One, with the added joy of snow on the road, which turned to slush and mud. What was a white car when it left Australia is now a brown car – in other words, REALLY dirty! But we made it to Khabarovsk safely!

Words from Nick:

I have to say all the Russian we have encountered have tried to assist us despite language difficulties. We have had a ship’s Captain drive us to the shipping office and a woman drives us to a restaurant, just to help us out. It has been surprising the number of English speakers we have encountered, unfortunately, not always when needed!!

We have encountered a family from Melbourne driving to Poland, who are a couple of days ahead of us and giving us road condition updates and advising of good hotels. We have even had a call from an English speaking 4WD’er in Khabarovsk, who wants to move to Brisbane (smart man) and we are meeting up with him later today. Despite the late Spring and snow we are having fun, look forward to camping and being a bit more independent.