Eternal outskirts of Moscow and beyond (LOTS of pics!)

[Skorohod]

539. The center of this district - Gunib village. Look, how it climbs up the the mountains!


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Inicialy we got an idea to spend a night in the mountains, but we were slightly frustrated by the all touristy Gamsutl', the day was young... so what about driving further and end a day somewhere in Chechniya?

541. A view to the Irganai reservoir from up the Untsukul' village:


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I guess, somewhere we chose a wrong road. It's hard to navigate in the mountain roads - they all looking the same and wriggle a lot. Sometimes you heading a west in general and must turn to the north, but when the actual maneuver takes place the car position would be facing south and you must turn to the east. It is very confusing!

But we were in luck - the views around was astonishing!

543. Somewhere between Untsukul' and Ashil'ta villages in the mountainous Dagestan:


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546. Some local family got out their car and enjoying the views too:


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550. The mountain eagle is soaring high, and the 4G cellular radio waves is soaring too:


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[Skorohod]

Ultimately we chose to ride a road with the "spy movie" name of 82K-007. It should take us all the way up to the Khasavyurt town. "In the Mekhel'ta village i should turn hard right to the main road". Of course i didn't - "the main road" was barely visible turn to a narrow gravel road falling to the ravine, so i've ride past it to the Mekhel'ta! Some time to turn around and rectify the error and we storming high mountain serpenines by a gravel road! Sometimes i've could only use the first gear - on the second you either lack of torque at low RPMs or RPMs were high enough to produce enough torque, but the speed was too high and dangerous!

But gravel or not - the road is the road, all road signs, road guide posts, information banners and fingerposts - all in its right places!

After some riding on gravel carousels we approach our highest point of all our trip - the Kharibsky pass, up to the 2200 meters above the sea level.

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558. The loop of road serpentine:


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560. The newborn mountain river - the watershed is very near:


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We ride a little further down from the pass and stopped again - the alpic sunset views to the ravine with an abandoned barn nearby was too beautiful!

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568. "My name is 007. 82K-007!":


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And then we've descended from the mountains into the valley. The valley villages seemed to us somewhat richer and nicer, than villages in the steppe and mountain parts of Dagestan. We passed Khasavyurt town at the sunset time and entered the Chechen republic!

To be concluded.

 

[nicobie]

That's quite the road trip you're on!

Surprised that there is electricity and cell service that far up the mountains. I'd hate to be up there in the winter.

 

[Skorohod]

That's quite the road trip you're on!

I'm baffled myself, this trip is much more, than i've expected! 8)

Surprised that there is electricity and cell service that far up the mountains. I'd hate to be up there in the winter.

Yes, all those small mountain villages are surprisingly civilised inside - tarmac roads (and a very good ones!), natural gas (it's funny to see all those braight-yellow pipes wiggling alongside serpentines "in the middle of nowhere"). But step back a little - and nothing but the wild mountains around.

And you're right about winter, the temperatures maybe not that low, but there is lots of snow. When i've came back and googled Kharibsky pass - i didn't find any useful info or even pictures, but i've immediately found several news about "the pass is closed due to severe blizzard"!

 

[Skorohod]

When the night came, we entered Chechen republic. Wide roads, well lighted, very good tarmac, straight as an arrow and a very flat terrain - such a relief after a whole day of gravel and serpentines.

Parked outside a hotel. This hotel was a part of a Grozny State Oil Technical University dormitories. We got ourselves a three bed suite with A/C for a laughable 2000 roubles per day.

"It's a big holiday tonight, if you can't find an open cafe in the city, then came back, our canteen is still open, we will feed you well!" - the hotel manager said. We went to a walk anyway, we need to walk off a hard day.

573. A Grozny city at night. This is Muhammad Ali avenue. Yep, THE Muhammad Ali - a world-famous boxer:


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[Skorohod]

585. The manager was right - all catering establishments around was already closed.Then they opened a canteen kitchen only for two of us and cooked us a fresh hot meals! This is the famous Caucasus Hospitality - local people take it very seriously:


In the morning i've felt ill, weakness and a fever - that happens sometimes when you a very, very exhausted. The bold cadence of our journey finally catched me up. I've sleeped till afternoon. But soon i've felt better and we went for a next walk of ours!

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588. The recently built mosque named after Shaikhi Khazuev, a local respected statesman:


Then we entered a local "forbidden city", build around the Presidential Residence - a very fancy rich villas, checkpoints everywhere, the bearded guards with automatic weapons. That was actually pretty cool - one can see stuff like that only in movies about warlords and supervillains! Despite the severe look, those armed guards was quite helpful and friendly: "You better not to walk sidewalk this side of a street, but do freely walk right along the road, there is no vehicles anyway!" 8)

Didn't took any photos, though, we've been lucky enough just to walk those clandestine parts of Grozny!

589. The Palace of Culture in the distance:


590. High-rise buildings of Grozny-City:


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592. The Palace of Culture named after local actor Dagun Omaev:


593. One of the most prominent attractions of Grozny is "The Heart of Chechnya" mosque:


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597. The "Akhmad is power!" motto is a very popular in Chechnya:

 

[Skorohod]

598. And this is V. V. Putin avenue. I kid you not, that is the only street in the whole world named after the actual president of Russia!


599. State art gallery named after Akhmad Kadyrov:


Then we walked to a deep outskirts of Grozny.

600. "The first digital power substation in the North Caucasus region":


601. And the lonely EV charger:


602. The giant snail (this is my finger and i've got a relatively large hands):


603. The another "echo of war". The ruined old building of Grozny scientific-research institute of oil. Very peculiar architecture. Builded in 1920's, wrecked twice in both of Chechen wars:


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607. Behind this bridge over Sundzha river is a construction site of the Akhmad-tower, it supposed to be one of the tallest skyscrapers in Europe:


608. The turbulent Sundzha river:


609. Cement plants and cranes everywhere - the construction is booming!


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[Skorohod]

611. The beautiful Flower Garden:


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614. If you gonna look closer - you gonna notice portraits of Vladimir Putin and Akhmad Kadyrov. This is fancy kindergarden for the rich people, BTW:


When we walked back through "forbidden city", we heard a distant jolly shout from a depth of a Presidential Residence: "Halt! Hands up!". And then nothing, total silence. We exchanged glances with a local man. "We probably just hearing things" we thought silently, then shrugged and continued our ways.

615. The Muhammad Ali avenue again:


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What a curious, unusual city! This was the one of the several moments in our journey, when we thought "We wish to stay longer and explore more, but we must push forward according to plan".

618. In the early morning we pet our acting hotel manager and left the Grozny city:


619. And this is our second reinforced checkpoint, on the border between Chechen republic and Stavropol krai. While i've went to enter my papers into the system, my daughter cleaned our number plates, which was totally covered with bugs an dust during long road:


We passed a part of Stavropol kray, then North Ossetia republic, then Kabardino-Balkarian republic, then entered Stavropolie again.

In Ossetia we heard something outraging - the swarms of locust, sitting in the black locust windbreaks (the locust bug in the locust tree, funny) was emitting incredibly loud sound! We've been in need to raise our voices to talk in a moving car with all windows closed, this is how intense that sound was. It's like a talking beside a powerful air сompressor which lets all compressed air right in to your face. Never heard anything before!

In the fields of Stavropol krai we've noticed a roadside little cafe. There was a some line of truck drivers and local field workers. That was a Cheburechnaya - a place where you served with little fried meat pies called "cheburek".

In Moscow, we accustomed to deep frozen pre-cooked chebureki from a store shelf with a size of kids hand palm. In the good places you gonna be served with a cheburek with a size of grown man palm. Usually it takes two to be full enough. But we've been served with a cheburek with a size four times bigger, than we've expected! It takes just one cheburek of this size to feed a any person, however big and hungry he or she is.

620. The two giant chebureks:


After such a nice meal we've entered steppes of Kalmykia and i've start to feel sleepy.The first time in this journey (gonna be honest, the first time of most of my recent journeys) i've got to stop and took a power nap. The strong steppe wind rocked our car like a cradle, so i've momentarily fell deeply asleep and in 15 minutes i've been good to go again!

621. And again - "Aaaa, we wish we could to stay longer!". This is Arshan ahead, the suburban of the Elista, which is the capital of Kalmykia. Kalmykia is a Buddhist republic, this is the one and only oasis of buddhism in the whole Europe! The monument to the right - is the Stupa of Peace:


622. My daughter, the Stupa of Peace and the strong steppe wind:


623. The road to Elista:

 

[Skorohod]

Just before the sunset we entered the Volgograd (formerly known as Stalingrad). What a long city! Took us a long time to travel from an southern outskirts to the Mamayev Kurgan just north from a center.

First things first - we gonna absolutely ride the Volgograd Metrotram! To the people accustomed to a "just a tramway" or "just a subway" this combination looks absolutely surrealistic. It's a shame the old Tatras are no longer in service, they used to add a lot of charm.

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633. Then we found a Subway cafe nearby - the closer to the home, the less exotic food:


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[Skorohod]

638. We got to visit the Mamayev Kurgan in the dark:


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644. Just before we climbed Kurgan from the "back enter", the lighting was turned on:


645. The Motherland Calls:


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652. The Eternal Flame in The Hall of Glory:


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654. The Grieving Mother:


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I'm not gonna lie - that was intense. The Mamayev Kurgan left you with a very heavy, depressing feelings (it supposed to). The photographs and words can't describe it, such experience one have to endure personally, on the spot.

There is a population of one million people in a modern Volgograd. During the Stalingrad battle total of three million soldiers of both sides was perished. The banks of Volga down from Saratov, where we've been some days ago - are soaked in blood. The steppes from Volgograd to Kalmykia is soaked in blood. In the Northern Caucasus the Axis powers advanced as far east as Mozdok town (which we traversed too). The most territory of Chechnya and Dagestan was not a part of big WWII battles, but after USSR fell they were soaked in blood too in two Chechen wars.

We've saw signs and fingerposts of Buinaksk, Hasavyurt, Grozny, Mozdok, Budyonovsk as we've rode - this names are just a names for my daughter, but i have heard them all in the news in the 90's, and not in a good way.

658. With a lump in a throat and the teary eyes we left Volgograd in a total silence:

 

[Skorohod]

That night we've slept on a truckers parking lot. The nearby refrigerator truck was running its diesel engine all night, it give us a funny sense like we are on a cruise motor ship.

659. Our place of sleep under a bridge and a refrigerator truck:


Next time i've filled the tank my warning light was already on. Not a good way to travel, i've nearly miscalculated my fuel reserves. Anyway, that was our last gas station - i've brought to home a two of ten bars on a fuel gauge.

The average fuel consumption was 6.3 l/100km (that would be roughly 37.34 MPG (US)). It's started from 5.7 l/100km, but city traffic, strong winds, rough roads and mountains drived my consumption up.

Around Tambov city i've catched myself on a thought - i've never saw a road accident during our trip. And there it is - a little accident and a traffic jam because of it. That was one and only accident we saw, though.

Totally i was stopped by road police on two checkpoints (that supposed to be that way) and several times i've been checked by road police officers in Dagestan only. Just "papers and registration please" and then "safe travel!", nothing more. In other 14 regions i've passed i've been totally ignored by police.

In Ryazan oblast (penultimate region before our home) we stopped to lunch in a very interesting place - the trapeznaya of a monastery! It's basically a canteen, but servants of God are frobidden to do commerce, so you can't pay for your food. But you can donate any amount you consider enough instead!

660. All this way we've traveled from islamic hospitality through buddhism to a orthodox hospitality!


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662. "Walk off you humans, all your cars belong to cats now!":


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665. In the early evening, just before peak hour traffic jams we've been home. That's the stats my old Garmin showed us (the max speed is almost legal and taken from a high-speed highway, so i did not do any speeding in this journey):


Totally 9 days, 5127 kilometers, 15 different regions of Russia. And a lots of memories!

Should do something like this again 8)

That's all for this week!

 

[99t4]

Grozny city looks amazing! Looks like all new clean fresh construction. All this since the siege of the early 2000s? Where did the funds come from for the entire reconstruction?

 

[Skorohod]

Grozny city looks amazing! Looks like all new clean fresh construction. All this since the siege of the early 2000s?

Yes, renovations and building started in the early 2000's, almost immediately after second siege ended. I've shown my daughter some photos from pastvu, "look, that's what happened back then in the streets we walked". Like this photo of Muhammad Ali avenue (Kirov's avenue back then) or this one of Putin avenue (former Avenue of Victory).

Where did the funds come from for the entire reconstruction?

The federal funds, of course. There is no way the Chechen republic can (nor should) pull this off on it's own. It has relatively small territory (the tenth place from the end of a list), the population is only 1,5 millions, the yearly tax revenues is somthing around 60 billions of roubles (which is less than 1/300 of the whole country revenues). So federal government helps and helped a lot!

 

[goatman]

some of those photos were just awesome

 

[Skorohod]

some of those photos were just awesome

Thank you!

After reviewing all photos i had begun to understand, how much beauty i've missed due to fast pacing of our trip. Well, then more to explore next time (i'm a glass-half-full kind a guy)! 8)

 

[calab]

Bliss, like the birds and butterflies flying next to ya down a trough of grass and a lane of tall trees and the rabbits, yet the deer, but the protein shakes in the teeth with that e-Grin bugs yum yum.

You can not pay for that shit.

Get out and experience the world, log off.

 

[The Toecutter]

Regarding 575, 615, and 617, it is unfortunate Lada is not available in the U.S. Those are well-built cars made to last. There's a brutal Soviet functionality to them and I love them for it. If I needed an offroad vehicle, a classic Lada Niva with a 1.9L diesel engine would be perfect.

Also, how often have you come across a Trabant in the wild?

 

[Skorohod]

Bliss, like the birds and butterflies flying next to ya down a trough of grass and a lane of tall trees and the rabbits, yet the deer, but the protein shakes in the teeth with that e-Grin

Yes, yes! Actually, i've just got back from Bashkiria (yet again). Been there just for a week, but every day i've rode those fields, hills and steppes and every time i'd came back i've got grass and bugs in every place imaginable :lol:

Riding alone on a e-bike through endless summer steppes is the most liberating experience i've ever felt.

 

[SlowCo]

The pictures from there look a lot different...

 

[Skorohod]

Regarding 575, 615, and 617, it is unfortunate Lada is not available in the U.S. Those are well-built cars made to last. There's a brutal Soviet functionality to them and I love them for it. If I needed an offroad vehicle, a classic Lada Niva with a 1.9L diesel engine would be perfect.

Yes, the Lada is The People's Car in Russia, and deservedly so. There is a still some people who turn they noses from the Ladas to cheap foreign cars (even if thщы cars actually built on the russian soil too) but as an Lada owner i can say it's just a silly stereotype. Modern Ladas is a very good, kinda old-school in a good way (but not too old) european cars.

Funny thing is, my Lada Largus based on a Renault Logan (which is a legendary european car on its own, cheap, but good, the proud descendant of the legends like Citroen 2CV and VW Beetle). But it has a russian engine, toughen suspension, bigger wheels. It has two airbags, AC and Bluetooth stereo - and it's all i need. I'm speaking from experience, i've owned Mitsubishi L200 and Ford Focus before, but Largus is THE car for me and my actual needs.

As for Niva (same for old Niva and the "new" one) - they can be uncomfortable for a everyday use in a modern city with heavy traffic and paved roads. But they are perfect for a rural areas, mountains, places with lots of snow and such. When we saw Marvel's Black Widow driving Niva trough Norway - we laugh a little, but in a good way.

It's a shame Russia still hasn't a small diesel engine for a cars! There is a decent 1.6l L4 petrol engines, there is a variety of a big diesels for trucks, tractors, ships and tanks, there is a high-tech aviation and rocket engines, there is nuclear propulsion engines, but no little diesel. Go figure!

The 1.9L you have mention - is probably an old french diesel engine, which isn't in production anymore, and if you can't find a second hand factory-build diesel Niva in a good condition - the engine swap is the only option.

Also, how often have you come across a Trabant in the wild?

Trabants in Russia would be extremely rare, they meant to be sold in a local market to german people in a first place. Never saw one on the road. Maybe in some museums, retro car festivals, private collections there is a some Trabbies.

In the USSR the same market niche as Trabant was occupied by Zaporozhets - a living legend! The English Wikipedia article on them is pretty decent, so be free to check it out. There is some of them you can still see in the wild. One of my uncles had one up until the 2000's, used to drive us from the train station in Bashkiria.

 

[calab]

True, me too :thumb:

Riding alone on a e-bike through endless summer steppes is the most liberating experience i've ever felt.

 

[SlowCo]

I hope people in the Ukraine will be able to carelessly ride their ebikes with their children too soon.

 

[goatman]

in ww2 the netherlands lost to the nazi's in only 4 days.
the russians have a history of fighting for and coming to the aid of the netherlands
Napolean
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Arnhem_(1813)

 

[Skorohod]

Long time no see! Nothing interesting happened since i went to Derbent. One trip to Bashkiria (didn't post any photos yet), couple trips to my favorite wasteland in Moscow (didn't post any photos either). Changed my place of work though, and now i prepare myself and my Sur-Ron to everyday commuting.

Since it's all paved roads on my route, my first step is changing stock offroad tyres to the more suitable. And... Petroshina to the rescue again! Very oldschool, light and cheap tyres "Л-156", available in only one perfect size for Sur-Ron - 2.25-19. Cost me only 1400 roubles a piece (around 20$), with tube included!

That model is older than me, our grandfathers rode on those on "Riga" mopeds in 1950's. And it's still in production!

Here some pics:

 

[goatman]

glad to see youre still alive, i just put a new knobby on my Master today, i was going to go with a street tire but i like doing spontaneous off road short cuts too much. did you clip the hairs off the new tires again?