Day 11: After a well-rested night at an almost mosquito free campsite, we packed our things in the car and started to drive finally to St. Petersburg. The road turned slowly better, but still the remaining 450isch km were tough. And you actually never knew how far it really was, because the road signs were changing with +-50km every time. Our car held up well, until about 30km before St. Petersburg. After exhausting 5 hours in the car, with the sun burning down on us, we hit the last major bump in the road. A loud BAMF and it sounded as if we had lost our right rear tire. Luckily the road was relatively empty, and we made a smooth safe stop on the shoulder. A first damage assessment showed, that the tire was still ok, but the plastic wheelhouse had broken in two parts, and that the front part was grinding on the tire. We tried to keep a cool head, got our warning vests out, put the triangle up, and unloaded the back of the car to access the tools and the car jack out, to lift the car. The tire had to be taken off, so that we could do an emergency repair. It was no fun to get that thing off, and 38°C, no shade, and a gazillion mosquitos only made the whole endeavor more fun. While conducting our repairs, we saw at least one truck actually blowing up a tire and several cars showing damage at their suspension or tires as well. After readjusting all parts, applying a good amount of duct tape and zip ties, Bryan put the tire back on and we were good to go. We cruised the last kilometers to St. Petersburg, just to find us in the Mother of all traffic jams. It took us an hour to go 600m and finally catch a right turn, so we were at least in slow moving traffic. While standing in the traffic jam, we could exhibit all kinds of Russian driving maneuvers. Especially to be mentioned were the 7,5 ton truck going 20 km/h on the sidewalk, and the SUVs taking the route between the trees on a grassy lane separator. As we reached our hostel, we actually had a decent parking spot off the street in a backyard. The hostel was good quality, and the second shower in two days felt especially nice, after baking in the sun while fixing the wheelhouse. In the night we went out for drinks, and met up with two other teams, and had a lot of fun. -Tom
Posted on: Sat, 29 Jun 2013 09:00:01 +0000
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