Episode 10

Phew! Well L zipped through that last episode, can anyone understand what the hell she was on about, I'm totally confused.

At present we are sitting in the showroom of the landrover dealer in Tyumen in Siberia, 300k east of Yekaterinburg. D is having the wheel bearing checked on one of the wheels as he fears it may be collapsing. Just another thing! Anyway, this would be probably the most expensive town in Russia as it’s the centre of a large oil producing region. What a place to have to get anything done. One thing though, it’s more likely to have spares here if some are needed, though our model range rover is so old they probably don’t have spares, oh well, one can only hope. There appears to be a large storm brewing outside too, the sky is black and ominous looking. Gee, I wish L wouldn’t use words she can’t spell!

L is now having problems keeping up the blog as the inverter in the car has packed up, yes, another thing that’s gone wrong. Camera batteries, lap tops, mobile phones, and all those other things that need the inverter now sit idle. The kettle is still working when it’s not blown a fuse that is.

Where were we now, ah, yes Kirov. I met a lovely lady named Lena in Kirov, she made a fuss of me, I liked that: I had an offer to stay but L whisked me off again and we saw several more churches before leaving this pretty city

So we headed on towards Perm on the western edge of the Urals. This is another very pleasant city. Leafy tree lined streets and some lovely old buildings from the mid 19th century onward. There was a great fire here in 1842 so very little pre-dates that. Most of the buildings on a very well presented self guided walk (just follow the green line) around the city were built as merchants homes. The cathedral sits on the hill above the river, below is a wide park and promenade currently lined with many stalls as it is the time of the 'white nights’ festival.

One house we saw was where, in 1918 Grand Duke Mikal and his English friend were abducted from, never to be seen again. Their graves have not been found, until the Royal family whose graves have been found and their bodies identified and re-interred in St Petersburg.

It was a very hot day and a long cool glass of kvas was enjoyed by my humans. This is a local brewed drink made using bread in a similar way to how ginger beer is brewed, and often sold on the streets from a small yellow tanker.

Not far outside Perm is the pretty town of Kunger famous for its ice-cave. This we found surrounded by a small park that has an area set up with a heart shaped trellis and artificial roses for those who choose to have their wedding here. In another part we found an abundance of wooden carvings.

My humans took a tour of the cave and came prepared for the icy conditions inside to as low as -5C. The first few grottos were the best with their ice formations including an ice sculpture. For the rest they went from one large cavern to another with nothing really to see, no stalactites or mites here. Some caverns did have perfectly still water. They had taken the cheaper tour without the light show but it seems they still had the coloured lights anyway. Considering they had to pay a good deal more as foreigners and then the tours are only in Russian they thought it a bit of a cheek really but that’s Russia.

As we continued on towards Yekaterinburg we keep a very sharp eye out for the Europe/Asia marker. This was our 3rd attempt to try and find it. We had a good idea of its position but still didn’t find it, the original one that is, in the correct position. We did see the new one only 15k’s out of Yekaterinburg, 25’s east of the true division. D found another embroidered piece of Heather’s nightie and tied in on the fence with all the other prayer flags. This is usually a Buddhist thing. As I have said last year, the Urals here are definitely no mountains just an elevated area of rolling hills similar to what we’ve been travelling through all along our route.

Only called into the shopping centre we know in Yekaterinburg, Russian sure have taken to retail therapy just as everywhere else. After that we took the new ring road around the city and on to Tyumen the oil capital of this region.

Of course it was here that David discovered that the wheel bearings in the l/h front wheel were wearing out. So we found the local Landover dealer and tried to get some new bearings. Sounds simple, believe L , it wasn’t. D was annoyed that he had to get the whole assembly, not just a bearing or two. He considered getting them sent out from the UK but they could well end up in Russian customs for an unknown period of time, so the alternative was to have them sent from Moscow where they had some in stock. D was told they would be here in 3 days, by Monday, that is, well that was until the day after he ordered them, then they say it will be Tuesday before they arrive. Who knows!.

Now there is an ongoing debate between L and D as to whether we go on to Irkutsk or return to Europe. If we are to continue to Mongolia my humans must get Mongolian visas and they are only available in Irkutsk or Ulan Ude and could quite possibly take more than one day. L is really annoyed at herself for not getting them in England. If she had got them there then we would have about 1500k’s to the nearest Mongolian border, as it is we have 3200k’s to Irkutsk and depending on when the car is going to be ready 5 days at the most to get there. That’s providing the visas can be got in one day, then perhaps we can scoot to the nearest Mongolian border a mere 300k’s from Irkutsk. We must leave Russia on 25th June, no ifs, buts or maybes. Either that or get arrested for overstaying their visas. So you can see quite a dilemma. L also considered getting a Kazakh visa in Omsk, now that would be real nice, however, they take 5 business days to issue so that too is not an alternative. Omsk is quite near the Kazakh border, and only 600k’s from where we are now.

Which ever way they head getting out in time depends on whether the car keeps going or not. D is spending the weekend working on the car, trying to sort the air suspension problems but it seems the more he tries the more things that go wrong. This trip is definitely not going to plan – any plan! Also D has found out that my friend Cybil is still in Ulan Baatar and I would very much like to see her again.

© Lynette Regan 15th June 2013

PS. A belated birthday wish to the following friends: Gilly’s 70th on 21st May, Amy on 8th June, Dawn Napper on the 13th June and Hazel Carlyon aged 96 years on 15th June. Hope I have them all correct. If I’ve missed someone out sorry!