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Tuesday 6 May - Volgograd to Akhtubinsk, 162 km
Kasha for breakfast, which I ate with some of my new pot of jam . Fortunately it was a fine sunny day with light winds, and the terrain was steppe - flat with low rolling hills, so the distance was not too bad. We crossed the huge hydroelectric dam across the Volga, very impressive. Much nicer landscape now, bushes and trees and no longer the endless fields. We saw horses and several herds of cows, which we have not seen up till now in Russia.
At the closed town of Znamensk we were met by a big delegation of the inhabitants, who greeted us with lilacs and booklets about the town. It was the original rocket base inRussia, from which the first Sputnik was launched, and is now a military town. I was interviewed at length for television - I assume local.
At Akhtubinsk we had a tremendous welcome in the square with a brass band! The usual welcome speech and bread and salt ceremony, then a rock band played and we did a bit of dancing round the square - great fun.
A most peculiar place to stay - apparently it
is quarters for officers on training courses. I was lucky and got a single room, it stunk of cigars and had no shower, but very nice all the same. Communal showers on the floor below.
Wednesday 7 May - Akhtubinsk to Kharabali, 153 km
Breakfast at 6, early start. Still following the course of the Volga across the steppes, with the railway on our left. The river is very wide and there are lots of half-submerged islands, and the trees along the bank are also half under water in a lot of places. There are loads of frogs, they go ca-ca-ca-ca-ca all day.
Kharabali is a small town with no big buildings and none of the usual huge depressing blocks of flats that are so common in Russia. Many of the houses are wooden, and all of them have the windows brightly painted in blue and white, or sometimes other colours. Our accommodation was outside the town at a sort of farm hostel. Very quaint, no hot water, but good beds.
Thursday 8 May - Kharabali to Astrakhan, 194 km!
Up at 5.45 for the bus into town for breakfast at 7.15. Lovely weather, all went well all morning
with sunshine and light winds. We had a late lunch stop at 110 km at the village of Aksaraiski, where the local Volga cycling club cooked lunch for us. It was boiling hot and we had a good time signing autographs for the village children. They cooked fish soup, rice cooked with meat, salad, tea and cakes. I gave the bits of meat to a grateful village dog. Found the Post Office and ,after a lot of misunderstandings, got some stamps. A little boy called Sacha, who spoke some English, helped me.
After lunch we pedaled on blithely for the “easy” end of the journey, but on the outskirts of Astrakhan it all went pear-shaped. The police decided we had to go all round the ring road round the town, which added 40 km to our journey. We were pretty tired by now, cycling fast in a tight group, and there was an accident - one of the ladies fell off her bike and two other people fell over her. They were OK, fortunately, but the original lady hurt her knee and had to continue the journey in the van. We pedaled on through countryside and over river bridges, no idea where we were till I saw a sign that said Astrakhan 17 km … we were very depressed by this. It was indeed 19 km till we reached the hotel.
The hotel is nice, all mod cons, I sent some laundry to be done and also washed some stuff. Dinner was OK, I suppose, protein-free as usual.
Friday 9 May - Astrakhan
Excellent buffet breakfast including cooked broccoli and cauliflower, fresh fruit salad, scrambled egg, coffee with milk … and all the rest.
Went on a guided tour to thr Kremlin (old walled town) but most of the buildings were being restored and were covered in scaffolding. Today is the big celebration of the end of the 1939-45 war here. There were soldiers with a field kitchen giving out free food - kasha cooked with meat, bread and tea. The officers were going round with flasks of vodka giving glasses to people. We walked round the town and went to a museum where I bought a few postcards.
Lunch back at the hotel and then it was time to clean the bike … several weeks’ worth of dust, rain and sand. Found it had a flat tyre so changed the inner tube. My second spare. I haven’t mended the first one yet, and forgot to take the pump with me so can’t do them this evening either. Got Claude the mechsnic to put some new front brake blocks on.
Went to a big supermarket and got some stuff for the next few days. Kazakhstan tomorrow, and they can’t tell us what to expect. Found a bottle of Bishop’s Finger - brewed in Faversham - at the shop so had it with my dinner. It was a little cheaper than in England! Dinner was a disaster - crab salad I didn’t eat, kebabs with potatoes, and chocolate cake. I ate potatoes. Had a cheese sandwich in the bedroom.
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