Belarus transit.

We arose early for 5.00am departure from the Tourist Hotel in Gomel for a 750 k day with a boarder crossing into Poland.

The Tourist hotel was the old Intourist Hotel of the old USSR days and had not had a revamp or anything else other then a name change since it was built in the 60’s. The heating was on in the bathroom towel rail but not in my room so it was as cold as a frog’s bottom during the night. Luckily I had been down the car and got the extra base layer longs from my winter clothes bag ready for the early start. I was able to put my base layer longs on to help keep me warm overnight.           I was also extra lucky that I got the base layer out of the extra bag as during the night someone decide that their need for my back up winter gear and bag was greater then mine so they are now the proud owners by default of 3 pairs of gloves, my good ski coat, a set of light thermal and a set of heavy thermal. I just hope the bloke who has them can fill out the XXL clothes he has so he doesn’t look a dill. I hope they enjoy them this winter and get good use out of them. There are also have a GPS with out the charging cord or any maps of Belarus to find there way around with. The light-fingered Belarusian also got a compressor from Frank’s car along with a bottle of wine. So they are warm, happy and full of wind.

We started our drive in the dark across what has to be the flattest country we have crossed. Back in the Stan’s I thought it was flat, but today was a brand new flat, for the first 350k the only bit not flat was the road and rail overpasses.

We stopped for the packed breakfast form the hotel and to make a hot coffee at 7.30 before continuing on across Belarus to the Polish border. And it still didn’t get any less flat.

About 30 K from exiting Belarus web all got caught up in the toll road not paying system. It seems that when you enter Belarus you must pay all the toll road fees for you trip as you enter. We hadn’t done this so we had to pay a fine of 100 euro each. We all had to sit in this van and pay with a credit card so it was a legit government fine. We all think they sit there and check all the foreign travellers as we don’t understand the toll system.

Once at the border we got out of Belarus with out and pain at all, and as a matter of fact the entry in to Poland was pretty painless as well, it just took about 2.5 hours to get through the queuing system.

Upon entering Poland we noticed a few thing stratup like the place was neat, tidy and clean. The houses are all nicer and more cared for and more themn anything the peoples are so much happier and wave and smile so much more then in Belarus and Russia.

One thing I wont miss about Russia and Belarus is the love for television they have. In every shop, restaurant, service station and anywhere else you can think of there is at least 1 TV going and mostly too loud. At times trying to get served seems a trouble while the staff watches the TV. I don’t now a more obsessed race with a TV.

Tonight arrival into Warsaw was following Frank and Ross due to the loss of our GPS.  I’m looking forward to some spare time tomorrow to look around the town.

The main photo today is us all getting fined 100 Euro.