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Published: October 8th 2012
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sweeping roads along the Black Sea coast
beaches to the left, mountains to the right At 13:00 the ferry from Turkey carrying our Australian & Kiwi travel companions plus their 13 motorbikes comes into view over the horizon. However its seems there is only one berth in Sochi and its currently occupied by a large cruise ship so they have to carry on bobbling about on the Caspian Sea for another 5 hours before they can set foot in Russia.
Having been re-united with the group we start to head north towards Moscow. First we wind our way along the Black Sea coast – its looks very Mediterranean under clear blue skies with 30+C heat. Its a bank holiday weekend so there are lots of Russians enjoying themselves at the beach which leaves the roads empty for us to enjoy. Just in case you get bored of looking at the sea you have wooded mountains stretching away inland and a whole host of road side stalls selling anything from hazelnuts and honey to giant garden gnomes.
Then we turn north back into Cossack country and cross the Kuban Steppes - the land of enormous fields and tree lined roads. Wheat, maize, potatoes and sunflowers cover the countryside with occasional rice paddies for variety. Two
of the main Cossack groups, the Don and the Kuban Cossacks, fought wars for Russian tsars from bases here and still maintain atamans (chiefs) and armies near our destinations of Krasnodar & Rostov-on-Don.
After a day of being polite and riding with the group we revert to our normal behaviour and go off route, with one Kiwi following us, and take the back roads to Rostov-on-Don. Its fine at first: nice countryside, good roads & lots of signs for Rostov-on-Don. Well there are road signs for the first 200 miles then suddenly 80 miles short of our destination they seem to disappear and our GPS is suggesting we turn round!! Undeterred we keep going and head along the coast of the Sea of Avoz. Our Kiwi companion doesn’t quite have enough petrol to make it all the way to Rostov so we follow the signs to the nearest town, Shabelsk. Turns out to be more of a small village with no signs of a main street or petrol station or anyone to ask. We eventually come across 3 teenagers with a small scooter, they must know where to get petrol. An exchange of single words (us in English “petrol”,
them in Russian “benzine”) accompanied by lots of arm waving follows and eventually after a lot of discussion amongst themselves and lots of giggling they tell us to follow them and we set off down a dirt track two large BMWs following two teenagers on a scooter. They take us round to “Dad's house” where the rest of the family comes out to chat animatedly to us in Russian. Several other villagers turn out to check us out including a pair on a Ural and sidecar whose rider seems keen on doing a swap with Edwin. Its like a big street party with everyone sitting on the bikes and taking photos. Dad eventually produces a 5l plastic bottle full of benzine which is transferred into the Kiwi bike. We hand over money for the petrol and they are trying very hard to give us change, they only want to charge us the going rate for petrol whereas we are happy to pay over the odds as they have got us out of a potentially tricky situation.
All fuelled up we set off for Rostov-on-Don, the locals are adamant that the way we were going was correct despite the lack
the Kuban Steppe
vast fields stretching away as far as you can see of signs. So we head back to the tarmac road and keep going. We've only gone 10 miles or so when the tarmac road abruptly stops next to a snazzy, glitzy Casino in the middle of the fields. Now what? There is a dirt track heading round the potato field and a Lada emerges from it. There's also a tiny hand written sign saying “Casino” and we can see another one on the far side of the field. Assuming these are signs for people coming from Rostov-on-Don we set off to follow them and take a very angular route round several sides of half a dozen or so potato fields. Then as abruptly as the old one stopped a new tarmac road appears and leads us all the way to Rostov-on-Don. Why the gap in the tarmac??? Who knows, this is Russia!!
Krasnodar & Rostov-on-Don are quite different from each other. Krasnodar is really pleasant surprise. Its full of grand old buildings, wide boulevards & grassy parks. We go for a relaxing late evening stroll past the floodlit buildings, with 35+C heat during the day this is the best time to enjoy the town and the locals obviously agree
tree lined roads
they were planted olong road sides in Soviet times to protect the crops from vehicle fumes. as they are out in force. Rostov-on-Don is a much bigger city, it has the same grand old buildings as Krasnodar but they are much scruffier and there's a general feel of decaying grandeur. Even the parks aren't quite as well kept and smart. The centre of activity is the mighty Don river which flows through the town. Its banks are lined with a continuous row of shashlik stalls and river boat restaurants, its really alive and buzzing.
As you might expect we ignore the standard tourist attractions and seek out the weird. In Krasnodar its the Shukhov Tower, a hyperboloid water tower built in 1928. Shukhov was the Russian engineer who first came up with the design for hyperboloid structures and they look really neat.
In Rostov, after lots of hand waving, we gain access to a small locked room at the back of the regional museum – its crammed full of the most intricately detailed and exquisite gold from burial mounds of the local nomadic tribes (the Scythians). Its all beautifully displayed and impressively the museum produces to young guides who speak very passable English and provide detailed information on each of the objects. The Scythians
were around from 700BC to 200AD, we are going to come across them again on our trip as their territory spread out across Southern Russia into Kyrgyzstan & Kazakhstan. Its the smallest pieces that are the most fascinating, they are so detailed and so old, 1700 years old.
Tomorrow we continue north. We've had it easy so far travelling on quiet country roads, its going to get busier as we get nearer to Moscow and those Ladas seem to have their own special road rules!!
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Mark Scardifield
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Giant Garden Gnomes
Who would have thought the Russians had a penchant for such things? I always felt we had more in common that first sight suggests! Good to know you are still travelling and nice to have a personalised travelogue ... catch up with you one day. M x