“The Transit” day 3-7. Distances: 688, 720, 787, 840 & 620 km.

The second day was quite tough with heavy rainfalls and low temperatures. I wanted to circumnavigate Moscow in the north, but changed my plans due to heavy roadwork for several kilometres. The ring road near the centre or “MKAD” was no better choice: bad weather, rush hour with 5 lanes in one direction combined with Kamikaze driver style turned the whole thing into practical Darwinism… Vader fitted in all narrow pockets when pushed aside and we made it alive to Pokrov east of Moscow to a nice hotel.

The following days the route led to Vladimir, Kazan, southern part of Ural. Ufa, Kurgan, Omsk. I followed the M7 & later M5 eastwards. The roads are really boring and especially in the western parts  busy. After the hotel I stayed at simple motels along the road.

Heavy industry complexes dominated the landscape in the west and changed to gigantic agriculture areas, some woods and grasslands in the east.

The sky was often more interesting than the landscape…

Yesterday I met Rob who is still on his RTW and on his way to Mongolia (via Baikal) and we will share the road to Novosibirsk tomorrow. I will continue south to Barnaul and when to Mongolia. Rob will continue to Baikal and we will meet again at the Oasis in Ulan Bator (coming from opposite directions).

I’m now 7 days on the road and a little bit exhausted from 10-14 h monotonous driving every day. “The Transit” stage will finish in the next 2 days and the fun will finally start. I’m really looking forward to the next coming days. In Barnaul I will meet Christian and we will travel through Mongolia together. But first will Vader get som nice “shoes” (off-road tyres)  in Manzherok (Altai) at Vladimir’s place (http://altai-moto.ru). I will probably stay for one more day and recover a little bit before continuing to Mongolia. But camera items are ready… ;0)