Day 8 – Driving to Volgograd, Russia
Starting from Derbent, we knew its going to be a long 1000 kms drive with no option to stop overnight on the way as there is limited/no availability of decent place to stopover before Volgograd. With a basic breakfast we packed up the car and started at 7 a.m. for the driving marathon.
Every 300 kms we took a break for stretching and kept ourselves refueling with chocolates and chips all the way. Sunset at our destination Volgograd is 6:35 pm these days and by this time we had covered almost 800 kms. The road was a two way road with trucks speeding on high beam making the kms coverage slow.
It was driving, driving and driving all day long spending 16 hours on road we reached Park Inn Hotel at Volgograd at 11:30 pm. Upon arrival we found hotel restaurant closing and everything else around closed down. Luckily we found a few packs of packed ‘Dal Makhni’ in Jammer’s bag pack and hurried up to hotel restaurant to ask for some plain bread before they close.
That’s what saved us this night and we all fell into bed for a short sleep before another big day tomorrow to MOSCOW.
Day 7 – Getting into Russia
Imagine a landmass one-eighth of the world’s total inhabited area. A country almost the size of the continent of South America. Bigger than Antarctica. Twice the size of Australia. The Godzilla of nations. Imagine: Russia.
Just a thought of the sheer size of this country is enough to numb the brain. You don’t need to be a wizard to know that with its superlative vastness comes the most amazing variety of experiences. And, challenges. So we made a plan. Have a good supper, sleep well, get up fresh, leave early morning from Baku for the border crossing, do the exit-entry formalities, and soon we’ll be in the land of Rasputin. So we thought.
First, there were the usual issues about getting up early. DJ seemed to have no issues with that. But, Jammer was anxious of the long day ahead, and wanted to sleep some more to see the day through. So, finally, after finishing breakfast at 8 am, the three motley men and the Black Beast aka FJ Cruiser were on the road and enjoying the drive and the vistas.
