We had only a short night of sleep. But a new city was waiting for us.

I had to go to the avtomoika first, fuel up the bike for Kazachstan and check the new tyres.

We went to see the city Kreml. We could only visit the church as the whole place was under maintenance. The police guard let me park my bike inside which was nice though.

Gazprom has its main office here and is the biggest employer in the city.

The next stop was at the Volga river, where I did some fishing 🙂

We were wondering where we could find caviar so we checked out the fish market. The black beluga caviar was really expensive!

We got hungry but did not eat fish. It was schaslik time 🙂

Later in the evening we decided for some romantic times and went on a small river cruise. It was really nice and we watched the sunset. A girl, a beer, what does a guy need more? 🙂

In the evening it was really crowded at the river and there was a concert. We had diner and got back to the hostel to get ready for the next border crossing. Kazachstan was waiting for us…

Volgograd is a real big city. A local told me it is about 100km in length. Seems unbelievable, but it could be as we spent a long time before getting out of the city. There were a lot of traffic jams as we left Roma around 5pm in the center of the city. The ride out of city was stressful, as we had to slalom between many cars and trucks over 6 lanes. At the end I began to like it and was racing out of the city. Luckily no police 🙂

The heidenau k60 tyres which were newly fitted, felt good and gave confidence. I had the pressure set to 2.3 in the front and 2.8 in the back. Surprisingly the road had a new layer of asphalt and high speeds could be reached.

The plan for the evening was to camp at sunset in the Volga delta before Astrakhan. After about one hour we made a quick stop to buy some supplies in a small village shop. After removing our helmets, we were immediately attached by millions of midges. The people who walked out of the shop wore musquito hats. Standing still was not an option here. So we ran into the shop! The locals said that once a year for one or two weeks in June, the midges awake from the Volga delta and bug the whole area between Volgograd in Astrakhan. Unfortunately we were right in the middle of this period. It seemed like camping would not be an option for today!

We had to speed up as it was getting later. The ride to Astrakhan was about 410km. The visors of the helmets needed to be closed. As we were riding the bike got blacker and blacker by hitting all these little flies. After riding for a few hours, we had to stop because I could not see anymore through the visor. When you slow down or stop, they find you very quickly!

As the sun was setting, and darkness fell, I noticed my lights were not working. It were the flies who had covered the lights as well.

We arrived safely in Astrakhan around 10 pm. We noticed a stinking smell like fish. Larisa thought it was the fish market in Astrakhan. After walking a bit at a gas station, we noticed it was us! The flies covered also the cylinders and they were baked 🙂

In Astrakhan there were less flies. So we though about camping again, but could not find a safe spot. So we started the hunt for a gastinitsa. It was not easy to find a good one. We found one, right next to an avtomoika – this is russian for a carwash. What a luck, I would need that the next day 🙂 We spent some time to clean our gear and bike suits, helmets etc as all was really smelly! Around 4 am we could finally get to bed and slept instantly.

The Mamayev Kurgan is a hill in Volgograd on which there is a memorial complex commemorating the Battle of Stalingrad (August 1942 to February 1943). It is simply impressive but also hitting you in the face with the impact of one of the bloodiest battles in history.

Before getting to the top you must walk 200 steps. The battle of Stalingrad lasted 200 days, so there is a step to remember each day. On the top there is the Rodina Mat, as we saw in Ukraine in Kiev. On the foot of the monument there is among many the grave of Vasili Zaitsev.

On top of the hill the views over the city are great. You also note how big this city is. We spoke to a man who lives in the city and he claims it is 100km long along the river. I think this can be true as when we road out of the city later, we needed an hour to get out of it.

In the afternoon we did a little shopping and went to pick up the bike at Roma’s garage. All was done. The new rubber was installed, the TKC’s were underway to Barnaul. I have also asked to clean the wet airfilter and prefilter.

The bike is now ready for Central Asia. There is only a small ride of about 410km to do to Astrakhan. Easy right? It was already getting a bit later, but the afternoon was so hot, I decided to ride to ride in the evening.

This ride appeared to be a horror movie scenario…

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.