Before we left our host family in the morning we went to buy a Russian simcard. The weather was looking great today. So it seemed. We had to cover about 400km. The roads were better than the ones I had seen in Ukraine, so we could ride pretty fast here. When riding through Russia you immediately notice the vastness of the country. Horizons are unlimited here…

The ride went very well until we felt a very strong wind coming up, and the clouds becoming very black next to us. We were passing a severe storm. Thunder and lightning, we were just a little wet and lucky not to get caught in the middle of it.

When reaching Volgograd there were some railroads to pass. Most of the wagons had gascontainers on them.

The first thing we did at Volgograd was make a stop at Roma in Bikecity34. I wanted to check if the Heidenau K60 tyres I had ordered with Denis had arrived. They had arrived, good news! I have asked Roma to send the TKC to Barnaul. Maybe I will use them, maybe I will sell them. Let’s see how the Heidenau’s respond first.

After visiting Roma, we checked in at the localhostel and started a walk down the Volga river. The river is quite wide and it was a very nice boulevard. Almost like you are at the beach.

We arrived at the Stalingrad museum around 6pm, luckily today it was open until 9pm so we visited it. At this point we have reached the summum of our second World War quest… The museum was impressive, but almost all is in Russian. The fights and losses in this city have been enormous. In the museum there is also a tribute to the great sniper Vasili Zaitsev. Behind the museum you can see the remainder of the old flour mill building. The city was almost completely destroyed and rebuild.

We continued the walk now back to the hostel and passed along the planetarium and ever burning flame.

Time for a last beer and hit the sheets… Tomorrow morning we will see the Mamayev Hill Monument.

Today we have ridden from Donetsk in Ukraine to Donetsk in Russia. What a coincidence. We have said goodbye to Larisa’s family in Donetsk. It was hard to leave our son Erik behind for the second time. But the journey to the East must continue.

We have ridden towards the E40 again and followed it via Luhansk, to the border station at Izvaryne. We saw a lot of mines under the way. At the border point, first we had to checkout Ukraine, which took about 20 mins. They checked my passport and the bike papers took some more time. Then we had to check in in Russia. For that you need first to fill in the migration card form. Afther that we got another 2 form paper for the vehicle. Oops it was all in Russian 🙂 So it took us some time to get everything filled in correctly. You don’t want to mistakes here as it will give you problems to exit the country again. Meanwhile the sun was going down and a storm was coming. Our plan was to camp for the night.

We were standing and waiting and the border post to process our vehicle import documents. All of a sudden a man in a van stopped who saw our bikes. His name was Igor and he invited us in his house in Donetsk. What luck! He said to follow him to his house in the nearby town of Donetsk which we did. When we arrived at his house, his son Stas, came out to check the bike. He was a very friendly guy too, and a good painter, he showed us some of his very nice aquarel paintings. We got warm food and some tchai, and a bed offered. What can I say more about the Russian hospitality?! After some time Igor’s wife and daughter arrived and we talked about our journey.

We didn’t know first but the timezone has changed again, we are now at Moscow time or UTC + 4hours. It was already around midnight, so time to hit the beds. Tomorrow we ride to Volgograd.