Route through Russia

I'm conscious I've given details about the van buddies, the roads, the experience, but not much detail about where we will be going precisely...

The first leg of the journey will take us from Saint Petersburg to the southern Ural mountains that separate Europe and Asia. We'll pass through the historic cities of Nizhny(/Nizhniy) Novgorod, Kazan and Ufa, before arriving in Chelyabinsk.

Once we're over the Urals, the highway runs along southern Russia, scooting around the top of Kazhakstan, to Omsk. There, we'll continue on to Novosibirsk and Krasnoyarsk, right in the middle of Siberia.

The next major city thereafter is Irkutsk, that sits just off the largest freshwater lake in the world: Lake Baikal.

Some 400 miles later, hopefully we'll arrive in Chita, via Ulan Ude. 

They say (who do "they" think they are anyway?!) that for hundreds of miles after Chita, there are no signs of civilisation, except for the odd truck coming the other way. The majority of goods and people move across Russia by plane or train because of the huge distances (this route is much more famously known for being done on the railway tracks). All of this to say, we're not expecting to see all that much after Ulan Ude.

Then, the road follows close to the border with China and eventually reaches the city of Khabarovsk, before heading south to Vladivostok, just a few miles from the border with North Korea (where Tony has decided he won't be exploring this time around - wise choice, I reckon!).

I've plotted out the towns onto a map to show a rough indication of the route (I struggled to find some of the towns Tony has listed in his document but I'm sure we'll figure out where they are when we get there!! (That's all part of the adventure/advanture, right?!)

For those who are concerned about Ukraine, the tensions only started bubbling up after we set out to make the trip and we're far enough north that we shouldn't be impacted. This said, I am starting to wonder if we need to make a Plan B...!

Below is Tony's table of cities and distances (in miles) between each one:

Starting Point	End Point	Distance (miles)
Vaalimaa	Saint Petersburg	140
Saint Petersburg	Bologoye	200
Bologoye	Moscow	200
Moscow	Nizhniy Novgorod	240
Nizhniy Novgorod	Kazan	195
Kazan	Ufa	288
Ufa	Chelyabinsk	225
Chelyabinsk	Kurgan	230
Kurgan	Abatskoe	225
Abatskoe	Omsk	152
Omsk	Barabinsk	200
Barabinsk	Novosibirsk	180
Novosibirsk	Mariinsk	250
Mariinsk	Krasnoyarsk	200
Krasnoyarsk	Tayshet	210
Tayshet	Zima	224
Zima	Irkutsk	145
Irkutsk	Ulan Ude	238
Ulan Ude	Khilok	182
Khilok	Chita	185
Chita	Asenovo-Zilovskoe	212
Asenovo-Zilovskoe	Urusha	230
Urusha	Shimanousk	270
Shimanousk	Obluchye	250
Obluchye	Khabarovsk	188
Khabarovsk	Dalnerechensk	200
Dalnerechensk	Vladivostok	220
		5,700

27 stops - or that's the plan...!

If you've read this post and have a comment to make, please go ahead. I've done a few posts now and it'd be great to get a bit of feedback. :-)