Day 21: Wednesday 2nd September

We’ve done a detour to Suzdal as the most accessible and perhaps the most attractive of the Golden Ring towns and villages to the north-east of Moscow. This is the birthplace of ancient Rus, and Suzdal is a former capital established in the eleventh century. It’s now well preserved with federally protected status. The term Golden Ring refers to the wealth of architectural and artistic riches found in this historic area.

Our plan is to visit the kremlin early and then get on the road for our next stop, Tolstoy’s country estate south of Moscow. The kremlin is a small but fine set of buildings and we stroll peacefully through it – until a tourist official on a bike turns up to tell us to get out as the ‘museum’ doesn’t open till 9am! Another example of the rule-bound nature of Russia, the country that likes to say ‘no!’ Fortunately we’ve taken a few photos before his arrival so we exit and have another brief look at the village, this time in daylight, before getting on the road again, having achieved our object of seeing the architecture of Suzdal in its beautiful rural setting.

It’s been a heavy day’s driving today with roads about 50/50 good and bad including the worst of the ‘motorways’ we’ve so far encountered (M2 and A108). The bad surface produces a sort of rocking motion along with bumps from cracks and potholes. Still crazy driving by others and lots of HGVs. There seem to be many ‘level’ crossings that slow the traffic down to 5 kph as you have to slow right down to pass over huge gaps between rails and tarmac at different levels. Trucks rock violently from side to side. Tolstoy’s estate, at the end of it, had better be worth it!

We have lunch in a parking area of a garage but when I try to buy diesel the girl on the counter just laughs at my attempts at Russian so I say ‘spasiba’ and go on to the next garage. They’re never far apart. No problem in making myself understood at the next one.

After getting directions from some locals we turn off for Yasnaya Polyana too soon and pass along a poor road through the village before we reach the car park. We study the tourist signs at the gate and note that it is not possible to see the houses after 18.00 but we can walk around the gardens until 19.00. The armed gatekeeper has other ideas and refuses us entry until I take him to look at the sign. This changes his mind and he allows us to pass so we have a quick walk up to the house, seeing a couple of small black snakes on the way back.

After reviewing our situation we decide to settle for the car park as our stopover place, later regretting that I’ve chosen to park right next to four smelly waste bins.

The village beside the estate has something of the flavour of an African township but with slightly better-quality housing. Each single-storey and often wooden house sits on its own fenced plot, though the fences are not that well maintained. A couple of fruit trees and a small vegetable plot in the front garden and various bits of amateurish home improvements are visible and various stages of dilapidation. Some, though, have had money spent on them and stand out as desirable residences.

We view the work of local artists and are quite impressed (compared to the often pathetic efforts of seaside artists in the UK) so we decide to return in the morning when we’ve changed more dollars.

Since the early battery scare we seem to be managing them OK. We haven’t been plugged in to a power source since Helsinki so we are relying entirely on engine and solar panel and being moderate in our demands during the evenings. Voltage readings start at around 13.5 when we stop for the evening, declining to around 12.5 or 12 by the time we go to bed. I guess it must have been evening use of the water pump that drew so much power in the first few days. The voltage gauge certainly drops a lot when a tap is used.

We thought we had smelled gas today, going over the bumpy roads, and that connections might have loosened or, worse still, a pipe fractured. However, all connections check out all right and there is no smell of gas when we’re stationary so there can’t be a fracture. Could be that the gas we smelled came from a garage’s LPG tank.

I also check out the reservoir for the power steering hydraulics. A thin film of the fluid has been forming over the reservoir and again I wonder if the bumps have caused some leakage. However, after a big and failed effort to open the tightly turned reservoir cap I think little could have been lost so I stop worrying.

Mind you, if your vehicle has any weakness I’m sure these roads will find it out.