After leaving Kazan and the Volga region of Russia, we ventured into the Urals. The Ural mountains is a celebrated division between Europe and Asia and stretch 2000km from the arctic Kara sea in the north to Kazakhstan in the south. The Urals have been vital to Russia for centuries as a major source of metals and minerals.

Perm is one of the major cities in the middle Urals and this is where we had a day off, but before we got to Perm there were a number of experiences we had to face from a 15 hour high speed van ride on dodgy Russian roads, swarms of horse fly s, mosquitoes and a soviet style Russian hostel!

The 15hour erratic van drive reminded me of my near fatal drive in Nigeria last year - high speeds, breaking all the road rules, and roads full of pot holes and this had me hanging on for ‘dear life’ the whole way, At one point out came my Buddha and lucky Turkish blue eye and this was clenched in my hand for most of the journey. Victor from Guatemala sat there relaxed as, laughing at Taeko and I, he after all is use to this sort of erratic driving, telling me they have these ‘chicken buses’ in Guatemala and this is where a bus that is capable of carrying 60 people onboard squeezes in double the amount as well as a host of ‘wild life’ which includes ‘chickens’ , the speeds they drive are much faster and as well as having ‘chickens’ on board the bus they also play ‘chicken’ with the other traffic!

We were on our way to start the 9pm to 3am shift just outside a small town called Ingre, the team stopped at a small Russian restaurant for an early dinner, I didn’t eat as I was starting the first leg of our run, so I left them all to their dinner of ‘mystery meat’!

It was a tough run tonight, I felt like the last 5 weeks had caught up with me - the 39 different hotels, motels and hostels I have stayed in since leaving New Zealand , the countless hours in the van, the broken sleeping patterns and the pounding on the hard roads - 16km tonight felt like 60km as I inched along as a snails pace. I was lucky, however to have a stretch of road free from traffic and was surrounded by beautiful forests on either side, so I breathed in all that oxygen from the tress which was a welcome relief from truck fumes.

I still had to watch how much air I was sucking in because of the Siberian horse fly’s that swarm around your face, they are in your hair, eyes and mouth and it is very unpleasant and quite scary, especially when I kept thinking back to that movie I watched as a kid called ‘ THE SWARM’ a horror movie about killer bees swarming and killing people!!!! The mosquitoes are equally as bad and this leaves you trapped in the van, the moment you get out they are there sucking as much blood as they can out of you……I have got to say they have a real variety in our van with Japanese, American, Guatemalan and New Zealand blood!

We finished our shift and arrived in Igre at 5am at this 1950’s Russian dormitory used by the oil station workers and I must admit was a little apprehensive about what to expect especially where bedding and bath rooming were concerned, and well it was as basic as I expected - a squat down toilet and hose for a shower, but you know what I didn’t mind a bit because the place was CLEAN and as long as I can smell cleanliness I will sleep anywhere, plus I was absolutely exhausted!

So it was off to Perm the next day where we had a day off and were treated with a 4 star hotel ( remember we are in Russia now and 4 stars is not the same as back home) and I can’t begin to tell you the excitement we all felt and there was even a ‘normal’ supermarket next door where you could buy things you would buy back home! Ooooohhhhhh we were in Heaven that night!