Day 33 - Somewhere between nowhere and elsewhere

Locals waiting near the Mongolian Border

Somewhere on the Russian / Chinese border in Siberia

6,883 Miles GMT +9 Temp +21 on the train -14 outside

We are on the most isolated  part of the journey now. There are twenty something stations between Ulan Ude and Khabarovsk, most of the ones I have seen are little more than outposts, this is the Wild East, all it lacks is tumble weed. It’s a desolate landscape, a mixture of patchy sandy earth, snow and hills. Trees are few and far between, most of them long gone, used to build this railway, and the associated gulags. 

Miles and miles of nothing

We’ve now said goodbye to the Mongolian border on my right, and with it the Hill that is said to be the starting place of the Mongol army’s campaign to defeat the Roman Empire. We only have China to the left now, which will at times be visible across the Amur river. 

Ivolginsk - the hill from which the Mongols set forth to pick a fight with the Romans

 

I’ve accepted two things today, the first is that we’re almost at Vladivostok and only have a few days left. The other is that I’ve only seen a tiny portion of Russia, cut out by the Railway, give or take a few excursions. I want more. It’s been frustrating, frightening, joyful, sad, beautiful and bloody freezing, but I’d turn around at Vladivostok and do it all again on a different route if I could.

The practicalities of the trip have been more or less as expected. In some way we’ve been fortunate with the weather and only had to go beyond –30 twice for a short time. The trains are well heated but you have to be careful when moving from carriage to carriage to remember to wear gloves so as not to leave your skin on the door handles. 

Warm on the inside but............

There are restaurant cars on the trains but perhaps they would be better named café cars. There is nothing wrong with the food, but it is somewhat limited in choice – soup with, and without lumps was the one that got me. We have more or less bought food from the local women on the platform and had picnics on the train. They are amazing, they turn up at all hours to greet the train and sell their produce. 

Meals on Wheels

the future of catering at Cheltenham?