Day 26: Monday 7th September
Another bright sunny Mediterranean morning. Bury the waste under the trees in the dark soil – so rich I decide we should bring some home with us – a Tupperware box full! Then a shower and get ready to pull forward to empty the waste tank on the field edge when who should turn up but the farmer on his tractor. He’s gesticulating at us to move out and I assume he wants to get back on to his field so we oblige almost straightaway. However, he’s showing no friendliness at all so I’m curious as to what he’s really going to do and I pull up on the road to watch. Next thing he’s driven down the ramp on which we had parked and started ploughing up the area behind – apparently in an attempt to stop any more campers – or the locals who evidently use it as a spot for fly-tipping, fornication and drinking! He must have been responsible for blocking the other field entrances off from local lovers but his actions at this spot wouldn’t have stopped us anyway. No words are exchanged between us but it’s a little sad that he’s being unfriendly – though this seems the prerogative of farmers the world over – the most territorial of our species. We could still return and park in the same place on the concrete slipway if we wanted to …
The road down to Krasnodar is variable – Euro-standard motorway in places and the old Russian standard in others. We are pulled in for a DPS check but soon released.
Krasnodar has a cosmopolitan air to it, and marks the beginning of the holiday resort area along and to the north of the Black Sea coast. There is a sign in English ‘Welcome to Krasnodar’ and some of the street names are transliterated. Still little English spoken, however, judging by the supermarket staff who are helpful but unable to help. (The supermarket and necessary street parking took some finding in this big town heaving with traffic. Had we known we could have done our shopping later at a shopping centre – including an IKEA – on the way out of town!)
Every town and big village we pass through has a war memorial, tank or artillery piece on its boundary.
The journey between Krasnodar and Anapa on the coast is slow with bad roads and frequent checkpoints holding things up. (Sochi is a no-go with a population of 329,000 according to Lonely Planet!) South of Krasnodar we see mountains for the first time in our whole journey – can’t find a place to stop for photos though. But it makes a nice change from the endless steppe of grass, sunflowers and corn.
Anapa does not prove to be the little seaside resort we had expected. It is big and full of Russian holidaymakers. It looks just like a resort in the Peloponnese, only bigger. It’s nice for its type, with plenty of public gardens, but not our type. We take a look at the sandy bay and decide to move on further round the coast to find a stopover spot – which we soon do down a track across waste land near an army training area. The track is very rough but we find a spot hidden away behind some trees – again with evidence that it is a destination for local romantics. The sun is setting fast so we have found it just in time – nothing worse than being stuck in a strange place after dark without somewhere to stay.
The cicadas are noisy but that shows we are in the country!
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