The M10 we use to get to Pete is variable, sometimes uneven yet a smooth ride, other times it’s uneven and very bumpy. There are only occasional potholes but the uneven joins at bridges are invariably a source of a big ‘phwump’.
Along the roadside are numerous smallholders selling their produce – ubiquitous yellow mushrooms (which we never try as we’re unsure how to cook them), blackcurrants, redcurrants, potatoes, gherkins and carrots. Few vehicles seem to stop (there are risks attached to pulling in and out of the traffic stream) and there seems to be a huge oversupply of all this produce. This is the pattern we find throughout the Russia we experience.
Throughout our journey so far we have had no trouble finding radio stations playing English pop and standards, though not English commentary or news between. We haven’t had any news of ‘the outside world’ since we left England and we’re not really bothered.
We saw one sign for Motel Camping 46km into Russia. Place names are transliterated on road signs but there are no road numbers to confirm you are on the right road.
We arrive at the outskirts of Pete without seeing signs for our turn or even a junction that might have been what we wanted. The ‘Motel Camping’ found on the internet proves elusive. We need to find the old M10 that runs along the coast, not the newer road we are now on. We ask a traffic cop and he directs us back and off towards the coast. We pass through a lengthy resort area close to the beach, there is no room for an alternative road, and so we must be within spitting distance of the place we are looking for but there is no sign of it as up and down we go – nor of the road shown on the Russian map that is supposed to go across to Krondstat. This would have been an excellent landmark but we can’t find it. I make a mobile phone call and get to speak to a person at the motel but her English is as bad as my Russian and I have to give up on it. We drive towards Pete and decide to look for an ordinary hotel that might accommodate us in their car park and one not too far from a metro or rail station. This is where good fortune again comes our way – right on the St Pete city boundary we see the Hotel Olgino with a huge car park in front of it and a railway track across the road – ideal.
Fortunately the woman on reception has good English and we explain what we want. She turns out to be an anglophile, having recently befriended a ‘lady receptionist’ from London, and hopes to visit her there one day. She can’t help us enough, which is touching. She makes a phone call to the boss and then tells us that they actually have a campsite at the back of the hotel where we can stay over, without using their services, for R350 per night (about £7). With services it would be R1450 (£29). We book in for three nights which we hope will be enough to do Pete. The receptionist says there’s no need to register our visas with the hotel though we don’t know whether this is because we’re only there for three nights or because we are only parking in the campsite. One of our cards works in the ATM in the lobby and we have some roubles to pay with and to keep us going until we get to a bank to change the dollars. Once again we find that dollars are not acceptable at the hotel counter. The receptionist tells us all about the busses and the metro stop to head for to get into the centre. When shown the road map she also tells us that the road across to Krondstat does not exist! Later, when I return to ask about the hotel restaurant she does that thing that must be quite common in Russia as it comes up in one of my language tapes. The receptionist is busy with something else but she registers your arrival at the counter and without raising her head says ‘I’m listening’. (In Russian ‘slooshayoo vas’.)
The campsite is semi-derelict with abandoned houses and disused lodges dotted around. Presumably it was better used during the Soviet era when school parties and Pioneer groups would have made use of it as a base for visiting Pete. But there is a small recently built toilet and (communal) shower block and a water supply. We don’t actually make use of their services except to empty the cassette down a toilet and to fill up with fresh water…
Pete is warmer than Helsinki, though it’s cloudy and there’s a bit of rain in the air.
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