Ufa

Day 118 Thursday 28^th July 2011  

The basic shower in the Chelyabinsk “hotel” apartment was enough to give a small respite from the heat and even at 7am it was beginning to warm up so we set about taking advantage of the cooler morning air and got going.  The sat nav did its job well and we picked up the main route out of town and left city rush hour behind us but picked up all the lorries along this main route to Moscow. We also noticed a lowering of driving standards as kamikaze Russians took head on chances in their bid to get by the slow, black smoke belching trucks. A proliferation of police speed checks along the way also did nothing to help us pick up any sort of progress so we laboured along in the heat, dust and fumes of his busy road.

Occasionally, we would hit small pockets where the traffic would be much less (especially around lunchtime) but on the whole it was a bit of a sap on both physical and mental energies. 

Quiet Section of Road - Mark behind me

Some roadside "shops"

Another heavenly quiet section of road

I had prebooked the hotel Raduga in Ufa on the internet back in Tyumen where we had a wifi connection so it was just a matter of being guided there by my ever faithful GPS.

We arrived at the given address only to find a large white government building. I asked the gateman about the gostinitsa Radruga and he looked at me confused and said “Nyet” (no) but then produced a pen and paper and drew me a little map which seemed to indicate that the place we were looking for was behind the government building via an access road a little further along. We followed his instructions and went down a little wooded lane in a forest and came upon an enclosed area which bore no resemblance to a hotel but we did spot the word “Raduga”. 

I went forth and found a reception and said “Gastinitsa Radruga ?” and the said “Da” (yes) so it looked like we had found what we were looking for. However, there seemed to be lots of puzzled faces and consternation and then I said “Booking. Dot com” and they checked the computer again and then they went a bit pale, several hurried conversations went on – I asked “Problem ?” and they said “No Problem” so at least something good was happening. I was then whisked away to a little office where I was told to sit down – boy was it hot – the sweat was trickling down my neck, my back, my legs,  I was sitting in my own self made sauna. The lady in the office was querying a few things with the lady in reception and it all seemed to centre around registering us (hotels in Russia have to register foreign nationals so that they can keep track of their whereabouts). I tried to explain that we had ridden the whole width of Russia and this was the first time we had encountered any problems regarding registering us but it fell on deaf ears. Then almost as suddenly as it had started the office lady asked me for some money and she ripped 500 roubles out of my hand (about £10) and I was taken back to reception. Another lady beckoned me to follow her and she took me back to the car park where Mark was waiting and then she told us to follow her. We rode through the grounds on a small path which led to a little two storey house and, apparently, this was ours for the night !

"Our House" in the woods

The inside was wood cladded and it had its own banya (sauna). The bedrooms upstairs were good but it was baking hot and, again, no air conditioning and, despite a complete search of the house, no fan either. It did have a shower though and it was good to get refreshed and changed into something clean. 

Inside the house - living room

 I went back to reception to see about wifi connections but there were none (the internet booking said that there were) so I used the reception computer to send a couple of emails home to let everyone know that we were safe and well. The staff had managed to find an English speaking student who explained to me that this really wasn’t a hotel but a health spa for people with arthritic problems – that explained why I had seen so many older people walking around with black mud on their knees and elbows held in place with clingfilm; The penny had dropped – they were not geared up to be a hotel and especially one which had to cope with foreigners needing to be registered – a learning curve for us all then ! It also appeared that the nearest restaurant was some way and we just couldn’t be bothered to ride so back at the house we raided our emergency camping provisions and had our only meal of the day, a small dish of noodles and tuna, and very tasty it was too. 

Some old Soviet gates near the house that caught my attention

The night was unbearably hot and the dreaded mosquitoes buzzing in the ear and biting ankles and elbows led to a fitful and uncomfortable sleep.