The Great Canadian Beavers

Hello from Russia!

I think the general consensus is Russia and the Ukraine have just been…O.K. so far - sorry to any Russian/Ukranian individuals who might be reading this. Compared to the complete shock and awe we experienced over Romania (how beautiful the landscape was, how nice the people were, how well-maintained the roads were and, how awesome the Transfargarian highway was!), Ukraine and Russia have just felt like a little bit of a let down.

After camping halway through the Transfargarian on a mountain top, surrounded by sheep, horses and herders, we  aimed our car in the direction of the Moldovan and Ukranian borders. The Mad Hatters were using a rather…interesting version of a map of Romanian, and so we failed to see that there was a river in between us and the Ukranian border BUT we ran into a wonderful Romanian/Canadian woman from Missausauga who translated for us and ensured our cars (and hers) were safely loaded onto the ferry to cross. She also hooked us up with a group of Greeks heading to the same borders as us who had a GPS (is it cheating if it was really only a twenty minute drive or so?)

The Romanian exit border, and the Moldovan/Ukraine borders were fairly uneventful. We arrived later in the evening, so it wasn’t too packed. We opted for the “small search” at the Ukranian border (who would choose big?) which came accompanied by a shiny $20 USD tucked into a passport to for customs control and we were, essentially, on our way. What took the longest was purchasing fifteen day insurance for Moldova, when really, we were only going to be in the country for about….oh….500 metres.

The real challenge came AFTER the border when faced with Ukranian roads. I had THOUGHT Romania was going to be bad but was pleasantly surprised, Ukraine however, lived up to our expectations and more. Pot-holed, cobblestoned, bumpy, poorly marked and generally just deterioated beyond belief. We ended up pulling into an abandoned gas station to sleep (after trying for a couple hours to find a hotel and, understandably, getting lost), and we set off for Odessa early the next morning.

Odessa itself didn’t seem all it had been hyped up to be either. The architecture was run down, even their good roads weren’t all that good, and MAN was it hot. The Mad Hatters were having car trouble though, so we decided to spend the night there in case we needed to purchase a seperate part for their car, and we would take it into a mechanic in the morning. I stayed at the sketchiest hotel I think I may have EVER been in (sketchier than Eastern Turkey Sica for SURE), and when we requested a cot for me to sleep on (since there were only two single beds) I was sent a beach recliner. No joke, like one of those fold out sunbathing type lawn chairs. The type you might find in your backyard. Only yours would be in better condition….

Needless to stay, Dance and I squished ourselves into a single bed and made do.

We spent the majority of the next day at the Garage getting the Mad Hatters car looked at. The fuel pump was replaced, the filter cleaned etc. We were there essentially until the garage closed, and wouldn’t you know it assoon as we thought we had it all working and drove away, their car acted up again. We decided we’d have Catch us if you Khan tow them part of the way, just so we could make up some ground out of Odessa, and we’d figure out what to do a little later. We travelled until the tow rope itself broke, and then pulled into a hotel off the side of the highway. The next morning, Aaron and Joe (the Hatters) felt it’d be best if we continued to make progress towards Volgograd, (Moscow is now out by the way, given the forest fires in between here and there), and they would either get the car fixed and meet up with us, or dispose of it (properly) and catch us up by train, joining Jamie in the van.

We have since made it to Volgograd this afternoon (we camped about 50km outside of it last night), and we’re checked into a hotel until tomorrow morning for a much needed shower/proper sleep and meal.

We have had some more tragic news, we’ve just had word that a fellow rallier died in a traffic accident this past friday and two of their team mates were critically injured, but are now stable in the hospital.. We have very little details, but some of our convoy knew the individual and we would just like to say we are extremely sorry to hear about it. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family at this time, as we recognize there is very little we can say, or do to help. It may have been naive, but I think a lot of us were operating under a false sense ofo security that no one had actually died on this rally, and so we felt safer in turn. We no longer have that luxury, and I can assure you the point has been driven home, hard. However, ourselves, and our convoy (Cake or Death and Catch us if you Khan at the moment) are all safe, sound and hopefully freshly showered. 

For now, I’ll leave you with a list of things we miss from back home:

- Easily accessible flat water (none of this carbonated crap).
- Fruit juice from concentrate. Drinking essentially peach puree when I’m parched does NOT help.
- Easily being able to change into (and out of) our clothes each morning.
- Air conditioning.
- Knowing what roads lead where, and being able to find where I’m going easily.
- Fresh fruit and veggies.
- A proper bed.
- Menu’s we can understand.

That being said, the overall experience so far has been wonderful! We do miss you all though (especially you E.C!) and we’ll try and update soon.

The Beavs