On the Road Again – Day 51 – 06.08.2017

Driven km: 405

We left the hotel really late because it took us a lot of time to write and put together yesterday's blog post as so many things happened and we had so many pictures to go through and filter and correct and upload, etc. that it was around 1:30 PM we actually started off with the motorbikes. We were both a bit sad to leave behind Moscow. We both liked the city and could have spent some more time there. At the same time leaving Moscow also means that we are more or less finished with our big circle and have to start heading home. Because this is what we discussed ourself in the morning. We looked at the map and made some calculations as well and sadly realized that we will not manage to squeeze St. Petersburg in our trip because then we will not manage to get back to Austria until the 15th of August. So we changed our route again and instead decided to head towards the western border with Latvia. We will also skip the Baltic Sea coastal route that we planned through Kaliningrad because we realized that our visa expires on the 10th of August and then we will not be able to get into Russia until we get another visa. So in the end we will just drive around Belarus and drive through Poland and Czech Republic to get home.

Before we left we took some picture of our hotel room so that you can also see how retro styled it was:

After we left it was relatively easy to get out of Moscow. There was not that much traffic and the route was easy. There were only 2-3 spots where we had to pay more attention but otherwise it was easy. We both had some fear that the traffic in Moscow will be crazy. But we have to tell you that after Istanbul and especially Tbilisi and Georgia in general the traffic in Moscow is actually a piece of cake. We would come back and ride our motorbikes there anytime without a problem. The car and truck drivers are very cool and move out of your way and also pay attention on the motorbikes. The other bikers are also really nice and cool. So all-in-all Moscow was not as bad as what we have imagined from the traffic side.

The first 100 km or so we were driving on a 3-lane highway. Good for covering some distance but we both hate riding the motorbike on highways as it is loud and uncomfortable and just simply not fun as there are no turns no curves, nothing exciting. But it was good because we managed to cover in shorter time some more distance.

Later the 3 lanes merged into 2 and after leaving some city they merged into 1 and from there on the road was just a normal road. Luckily all the traffic was in the other direction as people were going back to Moscow from the weekend getaways.

According to Google Maps in Zubtsov we crossed again the river Volga. This was really amazing because we crossed it in Astrakhan and then in Volgograd and then it is also here in the West. This is one long river that we did not expect to cross again but it was a bit like the river wanted to say bye to us and it appeared here once more.

The road was taking us through a lot of forests. Basically not many settlements or cities and nothing next to the road just trees and sometimes some street shops selling weird things (ex.: all kind of stuffed animals, even bears). The only problem was that we were also running low on fuel and there were not many petrol stations. Luckily we managed to find one and fueled up the bikes just before running empty with Transie.

At around 8 PM we started to look for possible wild camping spots as we drove and we found one that was perfect for us not far from the road. We quickly set up the tent and cooked some pasta with cheese sauce. As it started to get dark more and more mosquitoes appeared and we hid ourselves in the tent. We watched some movie before it started to rain and BoB had to go out to close the flaps of the tent and make sure the bikes are also sealed. Then we were just sleeping like a baby until the morning. 😴

Our route on Google Maps: Map