Team Dixie Chickens | Siberia to Vladivostok

05 Sep Siberia to Vladivostok

Posted at 11:23h in On the Road by FunkyChickens

0 Likes

The final 2300 miles from Ulaan Baatar to the seaside city of Vladivostok were completed with a skeleton crew of chickens. Don was accompanied by Will, Tommy, and newcomer Alex, of the Vermont-based Blue Eyed Grizzly Clan rally team. We’d met Alex and his teammates on a visit to Vermont at Easter; little did we know that wed have this chance to get to know him even better.

Their first day on the road was a rough one thanks to the big 6th Week Finish line party out on by the Adventurists the night before. Alex and his teammates had taken full advantage of the free vodka and he was living the results. Nonetheless, they took off in good spirits to make their way to the border and beyond. Thanks to too many Youtube videos of encounters Siberian motorists have had with tigers and bears, they opted to eschew tents and sleep in the bus, Sarita-style.

The roads were fair to terrible, with improvements as they for closer to Vladivostok. One particularly hairy spot was near the town of Chabarosk, which was experiencing devastating 120 year record floods. In all, they covered an additional 2300 miles or so, in 7 days of hard driving, arriving on August 30th to the pretty seaside city of Vladivostok and their first showers in as many days.

Once ensconced in the relative luxury of the Hotel Azimut, they explored the waterfront and cleaned out the bus in preparation for donating our excess gear and canned goods to the very worthy Living Hope charity. As a bonus, they went on a nice tour of the city and an “ex-pat dinner” with the charity folks where they got to hear the rarest of sounds…people speaking English.

Their time in Vladivostok was not without drama, thanks to some confusion as to whether Japan would accept our existing paperwork for temporary import or if they would only accept a Carnet de Passage, which would be impossible to get on short notice. A tense few days ensued, but with the expert help of a moderator over at HUBB, the motorcycle and 4×4 travelers’ best resource on the web, we were able to get confirmation that the customs form would do in place of the Carnet. Probably.

The boys and the bus loaded up on Wednesday, September 4th to head offshore. Right into the path of Tropical Storm Toraji.

Here are a few photos from the road.