From Aral’sk to Saratov the wind, sun and road conditions were relentless. Every day was a struggle to keep to schedule. We briefly thought it was getting cooler, but then from Aktobe it became hot again. At least there were trees lining the road most of the time now, and the occasional river. We had left the real desert, but it was still hot dry steppe.
The day after Aktobe Ting became sick, we could go no further. She rested under a tree, near a river, while I went off to find food. Ting had a terrible fever.
The russian border provided no relief. After a 3 hour crossing process, during which numerous officials tried unsuccessfully to find ways to extract money from us, we were in Russia.
Little changed, except the drivers were even worse. We thought about getting on a train at this point. It was just too dangerous. Drivers in both directions were going much to fast and constantly overtaking one another. Oncoming traffic would be constantly moving into our path while overtaking, expecting us to scramble off the road.
On reaching Saratov we were at our physical limits, it was time for a rest. Luck provided us with just the place. We stayed with Elina Barskova and her family, in their beautiful two-storied home with a lovely garden. We had planned on staying just two days, but at the end of the second we were still exhausted.
Much of the time had been used shopping. The city was quite beautiful, with nice old buildings everwhere, and a large produce market near the center. So we stayed a third day, this time taking a real rest. By the time we left we felt we had the strength to make it to Ukraine.
0 Responses to “Day 84: Leaving Saratov, Russia”