“On an event as tough as this luxuries and creature comforts
are things you really value. Clean sheets, good food and a fast reliable
Internet service are things you want to hang on to for as long as possible.
So it was with some regret that the rally left the Hyatt
Regency at Yekaterinburg this morning, en route for Ufa some 500 kilometres
away. The breakfast was every bit as good as last night’s meal, with fresh
fruit, pastries, cheese and coffee featuring on many of the plates coming from
the buffet, along with various toasts, eggs, bacon and mushrooms - not a
breakfast to hurry away from. Over such a plate we learned of yet another
act of Russian kindness and ingenuity.
Breakfast finished and car loaded we were back on the road
ourselves, driving excellent rural roads through a forest to a rather important
landmark: The border between Asia and Europe. As important as this is for the
Rally the actual monument was a little disappointing - a tall obolisk
definitely in need of some loving care.
The landscapes however still impressed us but now in a
different way as we made our way along the road, through villages of leaning
and creaky-looking log-cabins. Instead of epic, vast and sometimes featureless
farmland we are now taking in rolling hills, smaller fields and more evidence
of habitation, more power lines and steadily bigger villages. Things were
indeed looking more European after the wastes of Mongolia and Siberia. We
couldn't decide if we were in the Scottish borders, or Colorado.
We called in on another cafe control, run by Andy Actman.
Loud Russian music made conversation impossible, so your correspondent followed
a long wire across the grass to a socket in a wall, pulled hard, and suddenly,
all now fell silent. After we left Andy to his duties, he sent a text message
to say the music was rapidly restored, as no less than three weddings were held
on the lawn while he sat under a parasol stamping time-cards.... wedding guests
celebrated with rally drivers mixed in, looking to collect a stamped card.
Bizarre? Kim Bannister will tell you it was all part of his detailed
route-planning...
We arrived dusty, hungry and thirsty into our hotel to find
various salads, beef stroganoff, chicken escalope, salmon, three kinds of
soups, plus Borsch, with fruit to follow... Just what's need after a day when
you leave Asia and enter Europe.”
Peking to Paris Rally Report
Tha Happy Couple.We have been interviewed for television lots, people are recognizing us!
Hyatt. Now this was a high end place, could have spent a week.
This marks the boundary between Asia & Europe, we are now half way!
We see so many abandoned buildings in the country
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