Saturday, 29 August 2026

 

Start: Perm (RU) 10:15

Arrival: Yekaterinburg (RU) 17:15

 

Total: 360 km

 

 

A day on which nothing much happened. We just

** drove through the whole of the central Ural Mountains

** waited almost 2 hours in line for petrol

** and walked on foot from Europe to Asia

 

When we left our hotel room this morning, we saw two grown men in boxer gloves wrestling in front of our door. Odd. We pretended not to notice and walked past. They took no notice of us either. The things you see in Russia.

 

We headed to a nearby Pyatyórochka. It's one of the biggest cheap supermarket chains in Russia (the other being Magnit). We stacked up on fruit and yoghurt and returned to our room. The wrestlers had disappeared. After checking out, we hauled our luggage towards the front door. A young man stepped through and let the heavy door fall right into our faces. I stemmed it open and said loudly to Sonia, in Luxembourgish: "This hotel is full of gopniks." Unfortunately, I used the Russian word, since that's how we call such young louts among ourselves. Convenient secret code in Lux, not so secret in Russia. He turned around and looked at us, then headed on. Well, now he knew what I thought of him.

 

 

Soon were on our way out of Perm. All the gas stations we passed were out of petrol. Nothing but diesel on sale. "We can make it to Yekaterinburg on what we have still in the tank", I said to Sonia. Not that we had much of a choice.

 

Somewhere on the outskirts of Perm, we passed a fake police car with warning lights on. They look remarkably life-like from afar. Before you realize it's just cardboard, your guilty conscience makes you jump on a brake. Which is the idea, I guess. They have them all over Russia.

 

 

Soon, the landscape became hillier. Today, we would be crossing lengthwise through the Central Ural Mountain chain. The "mountains" were rather sizeable hills, a bit like the Belgian Ardennes. Up and down we went, like a rollercoaster on the back of an ancient sea creature. "Nessie roads", Sonia and I had baptised these kind of roads, a quarter century ago on our first trip through Scotland. Of course, in such an environment, an enthusiastic driver is likely to use up a lot more fuel. And still no working gas station in sight. I gently crawled up the hills, managing our fuel. The needle moved suspiciously close to "half full". And it was still a very long way to the capital of the Urals.

 

 

"I'm sure we can make it to Yekat without fuelling up", I repeated. "At least if we also use the fuel in the spare jerrycan, it should be more than enough." And the hills became ever steeper and more frequent. Sonia looked at her map for gas stations along the way. There were many, all empty. Silently cursing those responsible for this unfortunate situation, we drove on.

 

"There's a Lukoil coming up", Sonia said, for the umpteeth time. "Go slower, so that I can check their display". No need for that, long before the station came into a view, we saw a queue of cars, half blocking the first line, half hugging the guardrail. "Get in line, get in line!", Sonia urged me on, and I jumped onto the brake, just in time to come to a full stop behind the last car. I checked the rearview mirror. Trucks thundered past us, half into the second line, half still on the first. The idea to just slow down evidently never appeared to them. I breathed a sigh of relief when we had a safety barrier of half a dozen cars behind us. We settled down to wait.

 

 

And waited. Do they even have petrol, we wondered. Yesterday, we'd seen huge lines queueing up on the way into Perm, half a kilometre long, and the displays in front had stated that there was no petrol. Those drivers had been waiting in vain. "Can you go check?" I begged, when the queue had not moved for a while. I couldn't very well get out. Might step right into a truck going 100 km/h. Grumbling, Sonia trudged to the front. 10 minutes later she was back. We still had not moved. "The display says they have 95 and 92." That was good news. But had she actually seen cars filling up? No, she hadn't gone that far to the front. Well, we would just have to take their word for it then. A man from further back in line tapped on our window: "Benzin yest?" Sonia answered: "95, da." He nodded, satisfied. That's how myths are born.

 

We settled down with a crossword puzzle. About an hour and several puzzles later, the station came into view. We were moving faster now. It had started raining, so our car got a much needed power shower into the bargain. "We would have made it to Yekat", I repeated my mantra. And I really do believe it. But not enough to get out of this endless queue.

 

 

 

 

After almost two hours, we were ready to hit the road again. Feeling much better, I pushed the gas pedal down. Two hours later, we reached the final hill before Yekaterinburg. A most noteable hill. Its summit marks the point were the European and Siberian continents crashed into each other when the ancient Uralian Sea closed to form the supercontinent Pangaea, 200 million years ago. Yes, back then, all continents were harmoniously united.

 

So up on the summit of this hill, we would cross for the first time (not in our lives, but at least on this trip) from Europe into Asia. We exited the highway and quickly found the marker. Hmm, judging by this, we were already in Asia, moving back into Europe? A quick look at the map informed us that, indeed, the highway had taken us about a kilometer into Asia, and now we were doubling back on the sideroad. We snapped a pic with me straddling two powerful continents. I love the connotations! Sonia refused to pose for such silliness, so we drove on for a kilometer. The sideroad looped back towards Yekat. Another marker. Yipee, we were in Asia once more! This one was much bigger and as it had conveniently stopped raining, we got out and my sister walked all the way from Europe to Asia. We have the memorable event on tape.

 

 

 

 

That done, we turned the car around, drove back onto the main highway, passing into Asia a third time. After a few minutes, there was yet another Europe-Asia marker! This was getting confusing. But no time to dwell on this now, as we were driving into the heavy traffic of the metropolis. We passed high rise after high rise and finally reached the centre and our hotel. Luggage out, check in, luggage up, hair down. No more driving for 36 hours.

 

 

Even though the sun was shining brightly, I was in no mood for any further exertions. Sonia went in search for a decent close-by resto, while I closed my eyes and let it sink in: we were in Asia!

 

Unfortunately, our hotel hosted an uber-chavvy wedding with booming techno music and funfair-like megaphone animation. In spite of this, the in-house restaurant was surprisingly quiet and cozy. We gorged ourselves with yummy Georgian food, then enjoyed the sunset view above Nevsky Cathedral from our room and devised a plan for our last few days in Russia. Any blog writing would have to wait until tomorrow.