Photos starting at about Pudozh, Karelia. This is a temporary page to help us sort out travel notes and photos. Back to the main unfinished one >>

Out of the stony part of Karelia, about to enter Russian flatlands.

The bucket serves as wind protection for the gas stove.

Our staff cook preaching on the techniques and subtleties of quick food preparation under field conditions.

What do you do if you want to make two dishes while there is but one burner? Wrap the pot in a thick housecoat to keep heat in, and the cooking process will continue without the need for fire.

Nearly done. The whole cycle, from finding a place to camp to having the tent up and dinner ready, is no more than an hour.

Next day. I think that was the day we entered the mainland Russia.. Pudozh and then Vytegra are about the end of Karelia. The land, names, faces, houses are becoming distinctly Russian..

This is not mist. Smoke. Forest fires continue even after recent heavy rains.

A sign saying that you are driving past the Muromsky Landscape and Nature Reserve. Click to see a list of what you are not allowed to do there. Watch for my comprehensive list of Russian "Nyet" signs.

Pudozh to Vytegra

One long empty road with periodic invitations to stop at a cafe. The signs convinced us. We did. Had real bad coffee at 60 roubles (just over $20) per overfilled plastic cup.

But the cafe has a unique elevated outhouse!

Trust me, this is way better than average. Very soon we'll be leaving Karelia and entering "real" Russia, where the toilet situation largely remains a disaster.

Pudozh to Vytegra

Entering the Vologda region.

Bus shelters no longer are equipped with outhouses but are painted with the colours of the Russian flag.

 
Patriotism is on the rise, and even the dead get their farewell with wreathes made of white, red and blue flowers.

The land is flat and endless. I can't understand why anyone might want to invade it. Future hitlers and napoleons are urged to use my services to see non-touristy Russia before investing years of time, billions of dollars, and millions of lives into their venture.

Verbatim: "Driver, be attentive! Section of Road from Vologda to Medvezh'yegorsk from 380km 550m to 323km 650m is kept in winter period under snow coat".  What is means is that the section of road from the 380th to the 223rd kilometer is now plowed in winter".

200 year old houses are so numerous as not to be considered museum pieces. This one has a funeral home an social services.

Wooden sidewalks seem to be common in Vologda. Till now I only read about them in books.

Entering Vytegra, Vologda region

Accommodation in Vytegra

Boat with operator for rent

Out of Vytegra

Watch out for entire tree lengths

I wonder if there is a story behind this bed by the road..

Natural Monument "White Stream"

An old road, in use since at least 1600's

About the top speed on the old road to Archangelsk

Getting worse..

Those who find dirt roads romantic should be made to driver on one for a couple of hours. Or just to look at plants if not killed them made quite unhappy by dust. Asphalt is one of the great inventions of humanity.

Stopped for dinner someplace between Vytegra and Vologda.

Alexandra will not comply with my request that this be destroyed.

Continue to Vologda under heavy rain.

What? Three days on the road and we are still 400 miles from the sea?!

An example of "tourist base" of the sort you can't really find through the internet despite the fact that they have a site that will even open occasionally.
 

En empty road along the eastern side of Lake Ladoga. Watch out for log trucks. Only the cowardice of our driver who is obsessive about keeping distance saved us from meeting a trailer that separated from one of these trucks.

Chisty Dor (Clean Clearing). Just a small village made famous by ??? Koval, who lived and worked here for several years. Clean indeed. And rare case of a sign that remind motorists that unless you are a born assholes going over 15mph over dirt road through a village is not the thing to do.

A resting place by the stream. No garbage. An exception.

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Note the bell. Another sign of a well-organized little village.

A community engine hoist.

Log piles need to be tall to keep water out.

Leaving "Clean Clearing". Our driver is peacefully asleep. Our "look at the road" calls were met with skeptical "I've seen enough of them". Yes, our driver's unique ability to rest while on the job allows him to cover hundreds of miles. We are still looking for a rational explanation why he managed to stay out of trouble for over 30 years on the road.

Last stop for the night?

"No swimming. No walking on weak ice. Find 100 roubles. No driving on weak ice. Fine 500 roubles." To be added to the collection of Nyet signs, probably part of the Russian Misery Travel (c) concept.

By now breaking the camp and making late dinner happens like clockwork. In exactly one hour the tent is up, a sleeping place in the car is ready, two dishes are served for three, and a bottle of vodka is opened if our staff demagogue and rhetorician overcomes the resistance of Alexandra, the sobriety watchdog.

"A boat all to yourself. An absolute guarantee against sinking. You will not get sea sick or full refund." Sign up for Uncle Pasha's Russian Misery Tour (c).

A board announcing that the village of Syama is the birthplace of Vladimir Gilyarovsky, "a well-known writer, "the king of reporters", a chronicler of Moscow".

Went into the village. Got shouted at for supposedly parking improperly twice. In both cases unprintable words were used. Welcome back to Russia. Noticed this piggy made out of a 5 liter plastic jar.

The Village of Yarunovo, the birthplace of a Russian WW2 flying ace, who died when his plane ran off the landing strip and flipped over.

The entrance to Vologda was not at all what we've been expecting. The city has an image of churches and old wooden houses. Instead we were met by a long traffic jam and an extensive fence with patriotic graffiti. This one says "Love for the Motherland".

A welcomed exception: "Irisha! I love you!!! Maxim K."

"Forward, Russia!"

The colours of the Russian flag are everywhere. Even on graves and public toilets (see above).

"Power in Unity", and allusion to Putin's "United Russia". Patriotic graffiti on a concrete fence with razor wire on top...

"Beer is the swill for imbeciles".

Found the touristy district and then the road through which the Golden Ring travellers are supposed to enter and leave Vologda.

And a few wooden houses too..

"To Vologda Region motorists". Will someone tell me whether period should go before or after the closing quotation mark?

The Monastery of Pavel of Obnora. Saint Pavel was famous, among other things, for having lived in a hollow in the trunk of a huge linden tree. After the tree period of his life birds started landing on him and small animals would refuse recognizing him as a human. The monastery is still there. One of the few that show no sign of trying to attract visitors and and don't appear to position themselves as tourist attractions. We ran into it after I made an announcement that Higher Powers will guide us to a body of water large and secluded enough to take a bath..

Here is a map of the area for those who want this monastery that seems to be authentic enough to be worth a detour. Also Saint Pavel seems to fall into the "be nice to animals" current within the generally violent Russian culture and for this reason I'm making a note to add him to my Vegetarian Russia page.

( http://www.peremeny.ru/column/view/127/  )

WC is not a "water closet" but an outhouse. Back to the one shitter per mile stretch of the road. And the colours of the Russian flag are gone. A pattern? The enemies of Russia just need to build enough clean outhouses to win.

Yaroslavl? Never ever approach these GR cities from the direction other than recommended in guidebooks!

The morning after the last night of our trip.

In case you ever need to load something heavy into a truck.

Entering Rostov the Great. Instead a newly whitewashed church we are greeted, as always, but the "We buy scrap metal" sign.

A fancy new hotel. See photos of signs (below) for contact details but there is no shortage of places to stay in Rostov.

Hotels are so numerous. We noticed about a dozen by just making one circle around the city.

House of Arts and Crafts. Closed "for technical reasons".

After half an hour of unsuccessfully looking for a cafe and encountering locked doors we found this establishment that welcomes you 24 hours a day. But it was a funeral accessories store.

Tornado in Rostov. August 24 1953.

Another hotel "with a view onto the Kremlin and Lake Nero" run by Rostov painters.

  
Signs that invite you to just about all Rostov attractions. Click to enlarge.

Mikhail Koshkin, the designer of the T-34 tank, was born in the village of Brynchagi near Rostov-the-Great.

We've been expecting to be greeted by the usual "We buy scrap metal" sign as a punishment for daring to enter a Golden Ring city using an improper road. Instead the first establishment that greeting us in Pereslavl-Zalessky was a night club.

Pereslavl-Zalessky. Central street. Probably "Ulitsa Lenina". I've been born here and spent the last 15 years in this country and still can't get used to how Russian towns lack identity and character.

When travelling the GR watch for these signs. That's where you are supposed to be. Stick to the designated route if you want to leave the country feeling you've got your money's worth.

You are even shown which way to circle the Red Square. Do that and then the opposite.

 
"Museum of Clever Solutions". Low-tech answers to life's challenges. Cute. I especially liked cups with moustache protectors.

"Non-whites go home". There is still Sergiev Posad ahead of us but by now we've had more of small town and rural Russia than what we could handle. So Alexandra is putting her camera away and I'm stepping on it to be home not too too late tonight.