While looking for the historic old city of Khiva yesterday, we were lucky finding the Alibek guesthouse right across the road from the main entrance to the fortified settlement. The offer of accommodation in an air-conditioned room, small self contained but adequate, with a great breakfast thrown in, was accepted. All for…
Another hot sticky night. Duvet under us, sopping wet but not a bad sleep considering. It was great to have a shower last night after eating and before preparing for bed. We have got it down to a fine art now. So refreshing. Using only about 1 litre each thanks…
Oh boy!!! All the way down from Volgograd yesterday, the sky was darkening. This morning we spent a couple of hours drying out. To say we had a storm last night, would be an understatement. We found the archillies heal to the Caranex. It’s ok in mild weather, in fact…
Up early this morning. Our Landy has a date. It’s now 12.30pm and we have just driven away from the JLR dealers. New ‘genuine’ fuel filter and a non-return valve fitted. In order to align the wheels to rectify abnormal wear on the inside front tyres, the mechanics were able…
We are just back from walking the monuments and memorials to that dreadful battle for Stalingrad in 1942-3. Russia have done a brilliant job of both portraying the essence of the battle and enshrining the memories for later generations. The circular Pantheon, housing the eternal flame, with the names of…
The big news of the day. Germany 0 – South Korea 2. I loved the cartoon in todays DomPost, the daily newspaper in Wellington. “It’s not the first time Germany has gone to Russia unprepared”…:) News from Sokrat, the JLR agent in St Petersburg, the parts weren’t sent when they…
Well, our foray to find something to eat ended very well. After walking down a pretty grotty road with broken paving stones and dirt, through a dilapidated housing estate, we found the main road and Papa Joe’s pizzeria. A couple of litre jugs of excellent beer in World Cup style…
Not a lot to report today. On the road earlyish and battled trucks all day. There must be millions of them. Mainly Scania, MAN, Volvo, Mercedes, DAF & Iveco. The Russian truck, Kamaz is available in a number of guises. A Kamaz won the truck class in the last Dakar…
We set off from our Yekaterinburg apartment at 1015 to look at the city. Very different to Perm. Modern, clean and spacious. Clean cars too, which made us feel very grubby. Being Sunday, the traffic was reasonably quiet. We parked easily and found ourselves in an area of commercial buildings…
A fairly disturbed night. It rained with thunder and according to Jen, there were some rowdy revellers in the car park we were camped in. You simply assume you are welcome until someone advises you otherwise, when choosing a camp site. I suspect that land ownership is a debatable issue…