Ukraine to Russia in Just 4 posts

Post Details

Original Author: 

Seth

Posted on: 

July 29th 2006

Day: 

8

Stuck in Charcoal

It is 1120 pm and we are currently sitting on the side of the road in Kharkov. This is the most frightening city we have been in thus far. The Mini Scamp has severely bent its rear suspension on a man's sized pot hole. To add to the excitement it seems that Russia is starting to deny ralliers. Man all I want is to get out of the Ukraine, as the Brits say it's dodgy as hell, mate.

Russian Border within Range

7:45 am
There's nothing better to wake up to than the jibber jamber of a couple of Ukrainian women attempting to rise the occupants of five rally cars. The lads managed to fix the suspension issues on the Scamp but alas we only made another 100 miles or so before everyone needed to sleep. As always, we chose the most frightening place possible to retire, just decaying concrete structures and overgrown. Slightly hidden above the neighboring tower, one could see the remnants of the CCCP, a rusted hammer and sickle.

8:40 am
Well we just had our first run-in with the infamous Ukrainian police, luckily we deftly dumbfounded him with idiocy and ignorance. There was some tension when he kept pointing at the video cameras and he really wanted my leatherman, he kept saying "presente, presente." Honestly at the time I was sure he was saying "Prison, prison" to which I replied "No thank you." The wiffle ball bat was a particular hit.
Back on the road, no bribes, just babble.

And ah kinda hid out behind it

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Sitting At The Border Again

4:00pm
Well we are through the Ukraine border and waiting for the Russian border to open. Its been an interesting day thus far. We had our interaction with the police, then the Scamp threw its rear suspension again. There was a lot of discussion and some wiffle ball in the countryside, then we fixed it with a few hose clamps and silicon. Upon arriving at the border, we were accosted by insurance salesman. I am not kidding either, we have the photos and little calendars to prove it. The Ukrainians did a lot of babbling about the required documentation then let us through. Not before the obligatory angry female guard laughed at both Dom's and my passport photos.

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More border, more border, finally in Russia

7:34 pm
We are still sitting at the Russian border, they are starting to mess with us. We got to the front of the line and then they pulled us out to fill out forms that no one else has to fill out. Now they won't even acknowledge that we are here. How very Russian.

10:45 pm
We have just made it across the border. If anyone tells you that the Russians run an efficient operation, they are lying, plain straight lying. On to a campsite. More tomorrow. Seth......

Sweat brothers kind of thing