My diary from the last few weeks, make a brew first!

[kyrbo]

Great diary, but I run out of brew about halfway through it

Next time you’re heading to Finland by a ferry you can have few beers as tolerance in blood alcohol contents in Finland is 0.05%.

My first thought about that red International you saw at the customs was that it was same I spotted, but after checking register plate from my image it turned out to be different one. Despite that it seems pretty similar at least to my eyes.

That last picture of the old Scania is quite awesome It’s nice to see that also old Finnish lorries are still going in Russia despite few missing parts… About the customs asking you about date of your lorries purchase price and first registration date could have something to do with the fact that you can’t import “old” (something like 5 years old) lorries into Russia any more, but just a guess.

euromat:
We pull out onto Finnish soil and into the first services which is within spitting distance of customs, and park up until the Saturday to run into Helsinki and load in.

You were able to find enough free parking slots? Those couple times I’ve stopped there it has been so full that I was barely able to find one free slot let alone 13, if I counted amount of your lorries correctly. But if that was the case, I think the recession has then hit Russian traffic pretty badly.

limeyphil:
are there any vosa types in russia? looking at some of them dodgy trucks, they don’t give a [zb].

I don’t know if there is (I think there isn’t), but I’ve heard from quite many drivers that at least in the past Russian police has been more eager to stop lorries to get bribes than for any other reason. Couple years ago there was a story on a news paper where journalist had been with a Finnish lorry on a trip from Kotka to Moscow and back (about 1200 km on one direction) and they had 25000 roubles (about 600-700 euros at that time) which were mostly meant for paying bribes…

twisterboy:
a quick question by someone who never goes east of germany, is that the best way to get into russia (via helsinki) ?

Check also route through Denmark and Sweden and then taking ferry from Kapelskär (Sweden) to Naantali (Finland).

[acceptme]

Great read buddy. Cant wait to go out there as will be a nice adventure. Might follow suit and do a diary of my russian experiances. see ya soon

[betz]

amazing pics!!
interesting journey!

Nice to see Pulleyn does driving to Russia

[greek]

Good read Matt your mate Danny`s middle name not Rodney is it?

[mickyblue]

Matt,

Once again you posted some good pictures and once again i want your job!!! but i have a question!

How does the wife cope with you being away for a long time?

[belfastgt]

Mat, As always thanks for taking the time to share your journals with us. Gets me through my boring slow days at my place of work.
Obliged!

Mick In Denver

[acceptme]

mickyblue:
Matt,

Once again you posted some good pictures and once again i want your job!!! but i have a question!

How does the wife cope with you being away for a long time?

Alright micky Mat is actually young free and single so no wife to worry about at home…

[newmercman]

Good reading that Matt, keep us posted on the rest of the tour

Can’t remember which one of you lot did Mettalica, but here’s the trucks currently pulling their gear around, there’s 16 of them on the tour.

Just standard motors really, see them about quite a bit, they’re always super clean, 53ft box trailers are the norm over here, they’re wider than Euro trailers & 13’6" high on low profile 22.5" tyres so probably the same cube as your megas

[repton]

Great diary as ever Euromat.

Quinny:
Nice to see some old ex UK trucks on as well, converted to lhd. Corby Chilled ERF, K&J Renault, Hurst Renault, Containerships Scrapco errr Iveco, and a Turners trailer to boot and because of them not a low emission zone in sight. (Ever get the feeling we are getting ripped off?)

It amuses me that they can afford the time and cost of the LHD conversion on them but seemingly can’t afford the time to peel the old livery off or respray them. I wonder if perhaps having the old livery on is some kind of weird status symbol over there?

Paul

[mickyblue]

acceptme:

mickyblue:
Matt,

Once again you posted some good pictures and once again i want your job!!! but i have a question!

How does the wife cope with you being away for a long time?

Alright micky Mat is actually young free and single so no wife to worry about at home…

LUCKY SOD!!! thats all i say

[shade]

Jesus Matt , could you put a little more effort in next time

Top Banana

[euromat]

limeyphil:
are there any vosa types in russia? looking at some of them dodgy trucks, they don’t give a [zb].

do they have limiters?

hi phil, there are regular police checkpoints but they dont seem to give a toss about the condition of trucks, i have some more pics of some of the worse looking ones ill share when my signal is better, if you see a truck with a full compliment of working lights and tyres with tread there is a good chance its foreign! it is almost scary really, i saw one car driving with no lights at all at night (i say saw it, only just), trucks with no headlights, rear lights etc. the european stuff seems to have limiters, although the american imports rock past you at a fair pace, then get caught behind the russian built kamazs etc which wheeze along at about 40mph tops!

rob the pullyn was between moscow and st petersburg, cant remember exactly where, there was also another british driver at the border going in when we were coming out but i didnt see who he worked for, and i didnt ask, was trying to get my carnet sorted, i did see another heading for the ferry at puttgarden this morning, so maybe he is en route that way too

britpete, i think out lot charge by the km, we ony went rostock to get a 24 hour break else we would have gone up to kappelskar in sweden to ship across, we dont have any choice in which ferry we can use, only dover we can choose

maverick72, we are now being double driven, and as its not peak season, we dont seem to have any muppets out here, i know full well tour drivers ca do as much damage, however throughout the summer, all the damage was done by double drivers iirc, its not slagging them off this is sadly just the way it is, im lucky that i have my brother to drive with me, and so far, the only damage to the truck has been me catching the mirror on the ferry under instruction

ill add some more to this tomorrow when my signal is better, thanks all for the kind words

[maverick72]

thats the probs matt,we had a good crew on for busking but as the jobs got bigger,they brought in a right load of glory hunters that couldnt drive pigs up an alley,all they wanted to do was a bit of fame hunting,and couldnt wait to tell other occupants of hotels what we was doing,they would be out on the ■■■■,go into catering during the half time of performance when they was strictly told not to,micky boyle and ade were pullin wot little hair they had out and said it was like takin children on a day out then they started treating us like dirt,so a lot of the old hands and usual guys decided to “retire”