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Day 17: Saturday 29th August

 

We’ve had a quiet night – no ghostly visitations. The thick hedgerow and rarely used ‘lane’ provide the opportunity to dump both grey water and the toilet cassette – buried beneath the trees. We’re soon off to get diesel and water. The fourth garage appears well organised (as they are closer to Moscow) but an exchange with staff is not very fruitful – basically telling us not to park where we’ve stopped as they are inspecting the fuel tanks. I look around the building and find the liquid gold – an outside tap with plenty of pressure. At least the cashier was friendly when paying for diesel. When pulling into these Russian garages I always watch what others are doing before me – to work out the system. This one is a pre-pay one but others close to Moscow and Pete have been on the western European model of pump then pay.

 

The road is good all the way, apart from some roadworks of course, then it widens in parts to five lanes in each direction. Crazy driving continues even here though not as bad as on the single carriageway roads!

 

We reach Moscow and find it to be a rather big place! We follow the motorway in towards the city centre and are able to note on the map the major landmarks we pass but the location we’re heading for proves elusive – forwards, U turn, backwards, try again! We take a stab at a turning off and enquire at a kiosk – she says it’s in the next street, which just happens to be Hotel Street. It’s just off the edge of our Moscow city road map – classic!

 

Around the corner and there it is – the Gastinitsa Sherston -though it looks a bit of a rundown area. We find the English-speaking reception and we’re soon accepted and paid and in the ‘secure’ car park. The request to stay over in the car park seems perfectly routine and the fee of R350 per night is the same as in Pete.

 

After parking up we start to explore the area down to the metro which is a 15 minute walk away. The last few hundred metres are through a dense clothes market selling the same sort of stuff you see in Leicester market – only hundreds of stalls selling the same gear: counterfeit designer gear, teeshirts, jeans, bags, hats, tights, shoes, etc. Retracing our steps we buy some fresh fruit and veg before settling back in the van for some rest and reading.

 

The car park is not large – about 50m square – but it has a guard and a watchtower, a hut on stilts that is. We wonder if he sleeps there or if he goes home at night. It may be that the secure aspect of it is only during the day for the gate is always open and the guard disappears at night (he can’t actually live in that hut on stilts can he?). Thankfully we are in the van overnight when the guard is off duty.

 

It’s a quiet spot behind the hotel though the trains can be heard especially when they sound their klaxons so enthusiastically.

 

A brief but very heavy shower passed over us and after that the evening turns out to be quite pleasant and sunny.