Russia....

Russia was really rather boring compared to the excitement of the Stans, so we decided to change our plan and go through Ukraine to spice things up and to trim down the days spent in Russia. That meant doing a number of exceptionally long days on the motorways, to push on through. We were also keen to get out of Russia as we found out (half way through the country) that we were breaking the law by not having any vehicle insurance. The problem was that there did not seem to be any way of getting insurance! We asked at the hotel's, looked online and even phoned the bike's insurance company, but no joy. So we decided to cross our fingers and proceed with caution and just hope for the best. We also found out that there is a law in Russia that states that you must not have a dirty vehicle!

The final sign that suggested we should leave Russia was our string of 3 bad luck events; I got stung in the chest by some sort of mega nasty insect (it really hurt and itched like mad), the bike fell apart (the pannier rack sheared off at one of the mounting points) and it thunder stormed and rained heavily all over our non water resistant luggage before we had the chance to cover it.

The boarder crossing out of Russia and in to the Ukraine turned out to be a potential nightmare. The Russian boarder official told us that we needed to have customs papers for the bike showing entry to Russia! We clearly did not get given any at the entry boarder. The official told us 'very very big problem' (that was the only English that he spoke).
At this point the prognosis seemed grim. So we did our usual; Andy stood back, I smiled a lot and showed the official our map of where we were going from and to, and also gave him all of the evidence/ paper work from the other countries. It was really rather obvious that we brought the bike with us, even the official could see that we had not levitated through the Stans. A long and worrying wait later, and a brief baggage search and we were allowed on our way.

Our first impressions of the Ukraine were that it was beautiful. We decided to wild camp and rode in to a quiet village and then continued until we found a freshly ploughed farm field. We decided to camp on the edge of the field. Dinner consisted of chicken curry in a bag and warm plastic bottles of beer. Luxury :-)