Is it possible to travel to Russia on a standard sedan? What is the quality of the asphalt on the Russian Federal highways? How to communicate with the traffic police and customs officers? On this and many other told the geographers Pixelov Sergey and Nikita Zhorov from traveling team “Degrees of discovery” at the meeting, held in the summer theater of the Moscow Park of arts “Muzeon”. “Ribbon.<url>” I recorded the main points of their presentations.
How to deal with the traffic police
Many do not want to travel to Russia by car, fearing extortion from the cops. But to go, considering all traffic police are bad people, not worth it.
Relationship with the guardians of law and order are constructed simply. Above all, we urge to abide by the rules of the road. But it happens that the traffic police stop you all the same. Here is an example — once we were traveling from Kazakhstan and went to overtake on a heavy car. We were not going to break the rules, but we’re passing a vehicle not only not slowed down, he increased it, causing the overtaking was completed by a solid line, and on top of the mountain were traffic cops. We got stopped.
What to do in this situation? Do not swing right, don’t be rude. When we were approached by the cops, we started with the confidence to explain what is happening, to say that we could not back to rebuild that it would create an emergency situation. As a result, they said that all understand, and advised not to make such overtaking what we readily agreed.
It is useful to know that all the traffic police should implement a plan for the fines, and they need to make it clear that you are not the first time left the track. Once we were stopped in Saratov, and there was such a dialogue:
— You saw yesterday.
— No, not drink.
But yesterday was the 9th of may, well, breathe me!
— Where do you breathe?
Here, in the cap breathe.
The driver breathed, and the policeman says:
— Smells! Well, admit that you drank!
Yeah I haven’t been drinking.
— In Saratov you slept?
— Yes.
— And who?
— From friends.
— Was so drunk!
— Max I drank juice last night.
— And today?
Nothing.
Photo: Georgy Polyakov / inter / TASS
As a result, he let us go (by the way, this fellow was such, as if he himself yesterday should be laid over the collar).
Therefore, the first moment of courtesy, the second is self — confidence. Their — travelers, truckers and they immediately feel and know that with people like that their method will not work. Know your rights, and demonstrate your confidence.
How to cross the border by car
Let’s start with the East. If you want to go to China, you will have to pay a lot of money for Chinese law, order of 50-60 thousand rubles.
On — Kazakhstan, recently we have been there. Before the trip, asked in his blog about what difficulties may lie in wait for us at the border, and we were told that it’s a Customs Union — there will be no problems.
Went. Before the border has put a stall, kebabs fried. Leaving the border strip, and hinders us, like customs, and so imposing with a wave of a wand. We thought, who knows why, maybe he shows us a detour, but stopped. Says:
“Hello, Sergeant so-and-so, the frontier service of the Russian Federation. Let’s put all the things from the car. Where is your permission to stay in the border zone?
— We did not know that it is necessary, — we answer.
— So, go to the nearest city (which is fifty kilometers from here) and get it.
Checkpoint on the Russian-Kazakh border. Russia, Astrakhan oblast
Photo: Dmitry Rogulin / TASS
Remember: to be in a five-kilometer border zone, you need to get permission — this is quietly done in advance in Moscow.
The Russian-Kazakh border on a Russian passport. But prepare for the fact that almost every post you will have to stop and search all your belongings, because this border is the largest traffic of drugs.
Georgian and Abkhaz cross the border safely, but customs officials there like to socialize. With Ukraine, too, no complications. You pass through the passport, without a visa, but the queues are often very large. Belarus — approaching and passing, sometimes you can not even notice that the country is another. There is one important point for these countries: to enter them you need to issue so-called green card — the insurance on the car. Depending on where you go, they are different, but on average somewhere 1500 rubles.
The Baltic country. We crossed the border with Latvia and Estonia. The Latvians are a very long inspection. When I detained a man with two children from Voronezh and said, “Go to the impound lot”. With Estonia’s all great, but there is always a huge queue, as pitertsy go to Estonia to walk.
In Finland, too, is always a queue. From the Leningrad region and St. Petersburg go there for shopping and just relax. Finns — good-natured guys, no difficulties with them. But Norwegians though good-natured, but pedantic, may require you to stop and tell you that you are taking.
To The Urals
If you were in the car and she is driving somewhere, then you have several options. For example, from Moscow you can reach Peter. Nothing interesting on the way there, but after St. Petersburg begins the Federal highway R-21 “Kola”, which goes right up to Murmansk. At the end you can look at several natural zones: taiga, forest tundra, and tundra. The road passes through Karelia — you can drive up to lake Onega, and also look at the Church, depicted in the movie “Atlantis of the Russian North”. Further — tundra of Khibiny mountains, on the slopes where no vegetation.
Russia. Karelia. Road P-21 “Kola”
Photo: Roman Templar / TASS
Few people know, but after the Murmansk route and in perfect condition — 250 kilometers of perfect asphalt. Near the border with Norway I showed people photographs and asked where, in their opinion, it is. Said: “It’s probably either in the North of Sweden or in Norway.” The present highway.
The second area to the South. Be sure to get to the Caucasus. There is a perception that the cops are committing atrocities there that there may be some difficulties with the local, but it’s not. We were not in Ingushetia, Chechnya and Dagestan, but were in the Krasnodar region, where the beautiful mountains, in Adygea, where in the town of Maykop, just fantastic landscapes.
To reach them, you need to get to Krasnodar, then turn, and after 200 miles you find yourself in a real cheese-a mountain Paradise. In Maykop be sure to visit market city: a great vegetables and cheeses and also other dairy products. Dial it all and ride on perfect asphalt further into the mountains. Be sure to have a picnic in the fresh mountain air. By the way, to Krasnodar route is a wide (four lanes minimum), that is, not have to overtake in the opposite lane.
Bruges embankment in Yoshkar-Ola
Photo: Igor Litvyak / Photobank Lori
If to speak about East, to the Urals, then we recommend you to go to Yoshkar-Ola, city of the Renaissance. Here you can stroll along the waterfront, Bruges, look at the Flemish and Dutch architecture, for a copy of the Moscow Kremlin, as well as on the monuments of Louis XIV and Prince Rainier III of Monaco. Think we’re crazy? All that is really there. Built in five years and gathered all in one place. Out through Nizhny Novgorod to Kazan, one of the largest cities of Russia with a rich historical and cultural heritage.
Still have highway M-6, a branch of the route “don”, taking place in Rostov-on-don, in the direction of the Tambov region. Definitely recommend to go there if you like fishing.
Route M-6
Photo: Yuri Yegorov / Image Bank Lori
Drive through Tambov, Volgograd to fall, which has a few interesting sights. View to the underground tram (imagine a subway where trams). Of course, the monument to Motherland. 300 kilometers from Volgograd is a lake Unai — it leads to a good road. This is analogous to the Uyuni salt flats in Bolivia — one in one, only mountains there. When you are on the water, on a completely white salt crystals on the bottom, if you’re lucky with the weather, feel like you are on the sky reflected in them.
Finally, Astrakhan oblast. This is a classic semi-deserts. You drive a car, and left and right — camels, grazing like a cow. Traveler there is always accompanied by the smell of grass, especially in April and may, when the steppe blossoms.
Nearby is Kalmykia, one of three Russian republics, in which the principal religion is Buddhism. There’s a huge Buddhist temples, and as the head of the Republic Kirsan Ilyumzhinov big fan of chess in Kalmykia, Chess is town, lined with sculptures in the form of chess pieces. It is not completed (the money ran out), and the impression is of chaos.
Elista. Boy riding in a car in front of the Golden Gate — Altn Bosch”.
Photo: Victor Pogontsev / Photobank Lori
But if you go to the Central part, there are very interesting. There is a chess Museum, which hosts free tours. The local are very friendly, they are open to people interested in their region. We arrived at the Museum five minutes before closing when the staff was going home from work and we spent it without tickets, and even Souvenirs presented.
In The Urals
Often asked, they say, that you went to the Urals — probably there’s nothing there? Perhaps there is no “McDonald’s” on Krasnoyarsk, but it is not the desert. First of all the Ural — Bashkortostan and Orenburg oblast, and the Northern Urals (if you go through Kirov). The place is very beautiful.
But somewhere between Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk will actually start the plane, stretching for two thousand kilometers. This is the West Siberian plain, a lot of mosquitoes and gnats, so it better pass quickly. There you might be interested in what is the largest lake in Western Siberia — Vats.
Here you will get to the Abakan (Khakassia), located approximately 150-200 kilometres away from Krasnoyarsk. In Khakassia there are mountains, there are the steppe and historical sites. What? For example, ancient statues — menhirs. They look like Stonehenge, only smaller — right in the desert are the vertical stones. You can also paraglide from the mountains, similar to the Crimean.
The Barguzin valley in the summer
Photo: Alexander Podshivalov / Photobank Lori
Then you can drive to lake Baikal, where you will be called to visit the island of Olkhon on the West side of the lake. Do not get fooled by these proposals. From our point of view it’s much cooler to drive along the Eastern shore of lake Baikal, the Buryat side. There is now built a perfect paved road to the Barguzin valley (200-300 kilometers from Ulan-Ude), on which also it is possible to ride a car, as there was recently built bridge over the river Barguzin. Absolutely stunning place, and the best sunsets over the lake, because you won’t see the sunsets over the lake from the West, from Irkutsk. The only negative — along the stretches of the reservoir buffer zone. To get to lake Baikal from Moscow without problems for a week.
After the lake begins emptiness. Along the road no of settlements — they are all in the side. There are wild, therefore we do not recommend to stay there for a long time. Although there is Nerchinsk, where was the hard labor of the Decembrists, and this city has the world’s largest mirror. It was brought from Paris for the local industrialist Michael Butina in the nineteenth century.
Transbaikalia, Nerchinsk town. The bend in the road R-428 on the river Bank of the NERCHA at the station Priiskovaya
Photo: Valery Lavrushin / Photobank Lori
On this track you can drive to Khabarovsk, which is located two thousand kilometers from Chita. In this area too, nothing. To stop and spend the night not worth it — there are a lot of areas and ex-prisoners. If you are traveling with family, especially not worth the risk.
Khabarovsk we pass and find ourselves in Primorye finished our journey in Vladivostok. There for the APEC summit were erected two huge bridge, and on the island of Russian far Eastern Federal University with the more territory the territory of Moscow state University, reminds us campuses. Left — and right in front of you the sea. And, of course, the island of Sakhalin. We, however, it is not recommend to go there, because the road to the port is still under construction and on a normal car to drive is unlikely, and the ferry is expensive.
In General, our Federal highways are in good condition, and it is possible to travel a lot. Of course, if we take any roads of regional significance, they are not always decent quality. But, for example, the route between Krasnoyarsk and Abakan — not Federal, there are also excellent road folding from M-2 to Stary Oskol. Don’t be afraid of Russian roads, ride what you have and you will certainly reach the destination.
