It’s a long and pretty boring trip through Germany, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. Forests and fields are the more interesting parts of the trip. Up until Warshau we drive on highways, then we continue on regular (and sometimes very patched) roads. However, the many forests are excellent campingspots.
The only people we meet are the early fruit and mushroom pickers. Funny how we see the same people along the road later that day trying to sell their harvest.
Crossing the border with Russia requires patience. Strangely enough it is more difficult leaving the EU than it is to enter Russia. But the dogs make sure all goes smoothly. They are quite popular, especially with the Russian officials! They didn’t even bother searching the car because of them. After 5 hours of waiting, filling out forms, queueing, getting stamps, filling out more forms and more waiting, we finally reach Russian soil! Christel’s russian apparently is good enough to obtain a third party car insurance and hup… here we go!
The mushroom picker gets competition with another kind of forest wanderer, namely hunters. Along the main highway they sell skins of bears and stuffed wolves and lynxes they shot. It gives us a weird sensation as we drive by.
But are those Russians dog-crazy! Where we come from doesn’t interest anyone, but they wanna know everything about the dogs. As soon as Daisy’s rear doors open, people gather around us. Military, working men, baboushka’s and small children, they all want to take pictures or cudle them.
Pinewood turns into leafwood and swamp and it gets hot and moist. It’s hard to get a good sleepingspot with all the mosquitoes and horseflies and you see acanthus everywhere.
Then Moscow arrives. In the middle of the very busy 10-lane ringroad Daisy suddenly refuses to continue. No more gears! A few scary moments later we find ourselves on the side of the road. We manage to slowly move forward until the next exit and park the car at a gasstation. With the busy trafic, it’s a miracle we didn’t have an accident. So here we are, in this heat and noisiness. Geographically Moscow is still within Europe, so we can appeal to our insurance. A towtruck will soon come and get us. But it is not coming. Many hours and phonecalls later the four of us are thoroughly cooked from the heat and no step further. Eventually we have to spent the night at the gasstation next to the ringroad and it lasts until noon the next day until the towtruck takes us to the Iveco-garage.
It is very unclear wether they can help us. Not because of the eagerness of the mechanics (in between taking pictures of the dogs, of course), but how big is the damage and will the necessary parts be available?
We have to wait quietly…
