Day 15: Thursday 27th August

It has rained a little during the night and then we get downpours. But the ground is well drained and we will be able to get out. First, though, I go across to the Germans to explain we’ll be coming into the centre of their little encampment to draw water. They suddenly realise what they’ve done and start moving vehicles away from the point. As we’re filling up a guy from the hotel turns up and starts complaining to me about the obstruction of the water tap by the tents – he assumes it’s our group! I point to the German youth leaders and he tells them they’ll have to move their tents away. I fill to overflowing. Now to dump grey water.

We had noticed a group of about ten German motorhomes in the outer car park and assumed there must be a dump point somewhere over there. If there was I couldn’t find it (or any other form of drainage in the car park apart from surface run off) and so it was a matter of lining the van up to hide the outlet and then dumping it into the verge on the edge. I had no intention of trying to drive the next stage over bumpy roads while being top heavy. It had already been wallowing uncomfortably as we drove out of the campsite. Not nice but there was little choice. It soon flowed back on to the car park surface but it was in a remote spot and so would likely not even be noticed – but as we were still within the exit control barrier we would have been stymied if anyone had noticed!

We have worked out a short cut to the ring road to get out and then back in to the siege memorial on the other side of town. Amazingly we take no wrong turns (they come later) as we zigzag through back streets. The Russians have a peculiar habit of rarely putting on urban road signs the destinations that the junctions might take you to. Instead they give the name of the road itself and even this does not always coincide with our maps! Fine if you’re a local but for the visitor it is a nightmare. But the ring road is of high quality and if there were no traffic on it you would be able to make rapid progress.

(Another quirky thing is the Russian habit of putting up signs showing a coming bend in the road as if it is a junction turning off the road. Slowed down quite a few times for those!)

We think we’re on the wrong road but then come across the siege memorial on an island in the middle of the road and pull into the free car park across the way and walk across. Most impressive. Socialist realist statues of heroic figures for whom the memorial has been created surround the site. As you go down the steps funereal music gently engulfs you from hidden speakers and an air of reverence is unavoidably imposed amidst the inscribed granite monuments and the marble staircase down into the underground museum.

Here banners hang down from the ceiling, a newsreel loop plays on a big screen and a couple of groups of visitors are being guided around. Mosaic murals decorate the walls and large ‘books’ with cast bronze pages sit on a plinth on the side. Each day a page is turned to report the events of that day during the Nazi siege, which lasted 900 days, from 8th September 1941 to 27th January 1944. It was a hellish period of immense suffering and loss. People were reduced to absolutely any means possible to stay alive under constant bombardment by the Germans. Horses, dogs, cats and other pets disappeared into the cooking pot as did any wild animal that strayed by. Only the Russian winter came to their aid as it made life almost as difficult for the Germans and froze Lake Ladoga to the east that allowed some supplies to be ferried in over the ice. The downside was that the frozen ground could not be dug for the thousands of graves that were needed. Frozen dead bodies were stacked up in the open air until the spring thaws came. It is estimated that one million lives were lost.

From one extreme to another – we leave the memorial and cross the road to seek out a café for an early lunch before starting our journey to Novgorod. We find a Pizza Hut! The Russian waitresses have this time been trained in the Western mode of customer care and we are made to feel welcome and valued. We have a salad lunch and then get on our way. According to the map the road out from the memorial ought to put us right on to the M10 that we need but no, it takes us towards Pskov and it takes two back-tracks to find the correct route, and then we have 100km of broken rutted road and heavy traffic to Novgorod.

During this part of the journey I realise that the purchase of a 4x4 may owe more to good sense than mere status seeking. The things are powerful for rapid overtaking, have stronger suspensions for the ruts and potholes, four-wheel drive for those hard-shoulder undertaking manoeuvres, and bigger wheels to carry the vehicle over the rough surfaces in relative comfort.

We arrive in Novgorod, park up and seek out a mini-market – in which we are able to pick up a few basic supplies including some frozen salmon and a couple of courgettes. Then we go hunting for yet another non-existent campsite marked on the map. Having failed at this we turn off the main road, drive for a couple of kilometres and then fall back on our old friend – the village tip – or so it appears. A derelict farm building, a concrete hard standing being reclaimed by Mother Nature and piles of rubbish tipped around the edges. Nobody will bother us here.