The long way or the short way!

For the drive from Volgograd to Voronezh we had the choice of a 580k route or a 780k route. We had spoke to a young Russian that had told us the short way was very rough so 4 out of the five cars decided to take the longer route on the better road. We arrived at the hotel after Reg and Mitchell who took the short route bur at the time of writing I have not spoken to them to know who’s decision was best.

The drive we elected was west to near the Ukrainian border them north up the main motorway that goes on to Moscow.

Yesterday drive was not quite as flat as it has been as we drove through squillions of hectares of broad acres faming land with the last of the harvests taking place and planting already started for crops the will sit dormant in the ground and under the snow for the winter.

A few blogs ago I mentioned that autumn had started, well it in full colour in this area with the changes noticeable as we drove north.

For about 3 hours we drove north approximately 50 k away from the eastern Ukraine border. During this drive we only say mild military movements. We did however see as we left Volgograd in the morning about 40 tank being loaded on a train to go somewhere.(no photos).

Voronezh was reached at 5.30 after 10.5 hour of driving. On arrival Frank Maurie and I went for a walk to get a coat for Frank as the temperatures are now in the range of 1C overnight get up to the very low teens mid-afternoon. Maurie and I have to get all our gear on first thing in the morning and wear it all day.  We both have an extra layer or 2 should the mercury drop any more.