Mission Murmansk - The Kola Peninsula Sept 2018

[Rob-o]

I too am feeling a little envious! I found Russians in general to be among the most helpful people I’ve encountered. And some of the most resourceful, I doubted weather you could build up a rear prop yoke with an old arc welder and dremel it to make the UJ cups fit back in, but I’ve seen it done!

I’ve had mixed experience with police though, and had to give ‘gifts’ or money to be on my way. At one point our passports were taken and we had to wait hours until they got bored and gave them back, we didn’t pay on that occasion. Most however have been very helpful.

Rob

 

[Andy]

Almost fresh reindeer stew in Lapland!

 

[Jake the Peg]

One of them would keep the bbq busy for a few nights!

 

[IRLGW]

Did I not see this on another thread at russianbrides .ru ?

 

[Andy]

Russianbrides........quite probably, the woman cashier at a fuel station was trying to persuade Tom to buy condoms!

All going really well, first opportunity for WiFi today, the Russian border only took a couple of hours, no problems there searched all trucks & despite the warnings we had no meat , cheese etc confiscated. Chris eve got through without his original V5!
And our Russian ain’t good!!!!
Managed to get from Hamburg to Kandalaksha in Russia on 172 litres diesel for 1361 k’s, just on the rear tank, fuel in Finland is about 1.45 Euro litre, Russia is 46 rubles/ l, ie less than 50p

 

[moggy1968]

Reindeer steak is one of the best steaks I’ve ever had

 

[IRLGW]

Making good progress chaps and don't worry about that black car following you either, apparently the KGB is more discreet.

 

[Bmonck]

Guys I just caught up with this. Cool trip. Please post a route map as well as photos when you can. Maybe share some trip stats too when you get back and have the time ie total miles, fuel consumption, camping sites etc.
Best of Luck. Cheers.

 

[clivehorridge]

Guys I just caught up with this. Cool trip. Please post a route map as well as photos when you can. Maybe share some trip stats too when you get back and have the time ie total miles, fuel consumption, camping sites etc.
Best of Luck. Cheers.

Me too, have a blast, Russians I’ve encountered are great!
But aren’t we a bit light on photies?


Just sayin’

 

[Andy]

No internet / signal etc, were out in the sticks!

 

[Chris]

Ok so not a great deal to say
We know you want juicy detail well what happens in the forest stays in the forest.
It’s been plain sailing so far. Not a problem with the trucks. Fuel here is 50p litre but we’d pay double that if we could just get a smile out of someone
It’s a bit like a Russian tourist turning up in somewhere like Scunthorpe I guess. Roads in Russia are pretty shocking unlike Finland on the other side of the fence. Hotel is great though and cheap.

We stopped for fuel and started filling cans. Niet, niet, niet!!!! No cans! WTF.

Foreign fuel is definitely more full of goodness than the crap we buy at home. More mpg without question

We’ve seen a lot of trees and some more trees. Then some trees.

Just need to get away from civilisation and we’ll be cooking
Camping has been awesome with no one to bother us. Not seen any bears yet so the repellant we were sold by this old honest gypsy woman seems to be working well.

Border crossing at Salla went smooth enough with no bribes necessary and no restrictions at all despite the stories we’d read

 

[AndyCook]

Chris: you need to feed them with Vodka to make them smile

 

[denboy]

just seen this trip - very interesting - I'll be waiting for the photos ..... sounds great....

 

[chapel gate]

Chris: you need to feed them with Vodka to make them smile

Maybe thats the secret ingredient in the diesel too...

 

[StarCruiser]

Maybe thats the secret ingredients in the diesel too...

I think it may be one and the same Chas. Maybe one is more refined than the other; probably the diesel!!

 

[Chris]

We’re alive and in Murmansk
We’ve bumped into Lorin and Toby three times.

Trucks have all taken a bit of a knock here and there but nothing has stopped us rolling. Going to be some stripping and fettling when we get back.

Camping spots have been awesome and we’ve had the Northern Lights several times to entertain us. First class navs from the guys getting us into some very interesting places

We managed to get chucked off a military base but they were happy with the Scotch we left them.

Very cheap here which is good.
More when we have a moment

There’ll be a book and a film

 

[Andy]

Lots of footage to come, still got several days in Russia. The stuff theses 80’s have driven through, over & under has been unbelievable even about 4 hrs over washing machine sized rocks crossing the kibhiny mountains, through swamps& rivers half way up the windows, and they still come back for more .
Scenery unbelievable
Andy

 

[moggy1968]

Epic, looking forward to this, what an expedition

 

[Lorin]

Can’t beleive we crossed paths 3 times! What an absolutely stunning place this is. The off-road driving is simply superb. We leave Russia tomorrow - I could have stayed a lot longer.

 

[stumog]

I saw your post lorin on mud and thought you were with this group.