Round the world travel by car

Vladimir Lysenko makes the first round-the-world trip by car in the history of our country, and along a completely original route.

The first (trans-American) stage of this circumnavigation took place in September-December 1997. Then Lysenko (together with B. Ivanov from Omsk) drove his "Volvo-240" from the northernmost point of North America, which can be reached by car - - the village of Dead Horse (Dead Horse) on the coast of the Arctic Ocean in Alaska - through the USA, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Argentina to Lopatayli -- the southernmost point of the island of Tierra del Fuego, which can be reached by car.

The second (trans-African) stage was successfully completed in July - October 1998. Lysenko traveled from the southernmost point of Africa (Cape Agulhas) through South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Egypt and Tunisia to the northernmost point of the continent ( Cape Ras Engel), then crossed by ferry to Sicily (Italy) and drove to Portugal. And then he held the third (Eurasian) stage - from the westernmost point of Eurasia (Cape Roca) through Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine and Russia to Novosibirsk.

In Africa, Vladimir rented different cars, from Portugal he again went to his "Volvo" with the American number "Alaska CZS-779", forwarded to Europe from Argentina. From Egypt to Moscow, Vladimir was accompanied by Muscovite V. Melnichuk, and from Moscow to Novosibirsk, by V. Zabakin from Novosibirsk. On the route, Lysenko did not forget about rafting - he rafted down the mountain rivers Kluane (in Ecuador) and Zambezi (in Zimbabwe).

On the way, Vladimir and his partners had to face thieves, bandits, and terrorists, get sick (albeit in a mild form) with malaria and solve numerous problems. Finally, in March-April 1999, the fourth (Trans-Siberian) round-the-world stage took place - from Novosibirsk through Mongolia, Chita, Chernyshevsk, Mogocha, Yakutsk and Galimy to Magadan, then back to Novosibirsk.

At the same time, two winter roads were crossed twice - from Zilovo to Takhtamygda along frozen swamps and the Bely Uryum and Amazar rivers? and from Ytyk-Kyuyol to Khandyga, then the Kolyma tract (between Khandyga and Magadan). S. Bardakhanov accompanied Vladimir to Ulan-Ude and Mongolia, and B. Onenko from Ulan-Ude to Magadan and back. Now "behind" Vladimir Lysenko is already 35 countries and 72,000 km. Having reached Magadan, Lysenko closed the land ring around the globe, that is, he formally successfully completed his round-the-world trip by car.

VLADIMIR'S STORY

After I broke all possible records in rafting (rafting on mountain rivers), I decided to do something unusual in another form of tourism. Of course, it was supposed to be a round-the-world trip. But what is the way to move? On foot? This will take almost a lifetime. By bike? It will take five or six years. Decided to travel by car. Moreover, none of my compatriots has ever made such round-the-world trips. True, people from other countries did it, but I wanted to drive along a completely original route.

In perfect round-the-world trips, the start and end points of the journey across different continents were arbitrary (no official criteria exist), and I was going to cross the continents in the direction in which they are extended, taking the most extreme geographic points accessible by car as start and finish points. That is, I had to cross America from north to south, Africa - from south to north, Eurasia - from west to east, Australia - also from west to east (or even go around its perimeter). On September 25, 1997, we (I, Boris Ivanov from Omsk and Vladimir Goleshchikhin from Novosibirsk, Andrey Ponomarev from Novosibirsk joined us a few days later) flew to Alaska, to Anchorage.

There we bought a Volvo 240 (1986) and drove to the village of Dead Horse on the shores of Prudhoe Bay in the Arctic Ocean. Previously, due to oil production and an oil pipeline, the area of ​​Alaska north of Fairbanks was closed to tourists (I was not allowed into Dead Horse when I rafted down the McKinley and Kantishna rivers in 1993), only a couple of years ago the road to Dead Horse was opened for tourists. There are no villages along its entire length from Livengood, there are only a few villages for refueling and rest for transit drivers. The road, of course, is unpaved here, and besides, it was already covered with snow (as was the mountain pass on our way).

So, our "throw" to the south began from Prudhoe Bay. Having traveled 30 thousand kilometers through Alaska, Canada, the USA, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Argentina, we reached Lapataya (Argentina) - the southernmost point of the island of Fire Land available for cars. From the city of Phoenix in the USA to Buenos Aires, only Boris Ivanov accompanied me on the way, and from Buenos Aires to Lapataya - Alexander and Elena Ignatov. If when moving around the USA and Canada the main difficulty was finding cheap hotels, then in Central America more serious problems were encountered. Although the Central American stage started surprisingly: we traveled all over Mexico without using Mexican visas.

We crawled into Mexico at a speed of 2 km / h, but not a single border guard stopped us. The reason for this was the American numbers on our car. There is a visa-free exchange between the USA and Mexico, and we were clearly mistaken for Americans (later, many in Central America wondered why we rich gringos sleep in the cheapest hotels - our daily "norm" was $ 7-10 for a double room ). However, we did not take into account another thing: to travel through Mexico, you had to get a transit permit - a yellow sticker attached to the windshield (in Guatemala we already drove with such a thing - only green). Because of her absence, we were stopped six times by the police, but to all their questions I answered: "But ablo espanyol" ("I do not speak Spanish"), and we were released.

Mexico is a very pleasant country for recreation: cheap, beautiful, you feel free in it. But there were adventures too. Once (we spent the night in the field) we were awakened by the screech of brakes and the light from car headlights hitting our faces. Armed people jumped out of the car and began to ask who we were. It turned out that the police were looking for some bandits hiding in the mountains. We were ordered, for our own safety, to go to sleep in the nearest village. A couple of times (this will be repeated in almost every Latin American country, and then in Africa), local police asked us to provide sponsorship to their families (children, they say, are starving), but we had to refuse because of our poverty.

The biggest problem in Mexico was the typhoon, which almost destroyed Acapulco and knocked out several bridges along the Pacific coast along our path. Because of this, they were forced to make a detour of almost 2000 km, losing two days on this. Acapulco was a pitiful sight: the city was covered with a layer of mud, and its inhabitants in "muzzles" cleaned and swept the streets. But all the same, the most pleasant impression remained from Mexico (as, indeed, from the USA and Canada). Harsh everyday life began in Guatemala. At first we were not allowed into it, although we had visas obtained from the embassy in Moscow - the local border guards did not know the word "Moscow" and doubted the validity of such visas.

We were sent back to Mexico to the Guatemalan consulate for new visas. There, thank God, they put them down for us relatively quickly - for a fee, of course. We were allowed into Guatemala, but a financial “ripoff” began for a bunch of papers that you need to fill out when you enter there in your car, and, importantly, only in Spanish (and I only know English). By the way, almost the entire population of Central and South America (except Brazil, where Portuguese dominates) speaks only Spanish - this creates additional difficulties on the route.

For a week we were "stuck" in the Guatemalan capital: we had to obtain transit visas from Nicaragua and Panama, and most importantly, from El Salvador and Honduras, whose embassies are not in Moscow. If in El Salvador, after four days of deliberation, we were given one-day transit visas (and the consul himself advised us in a friendly way to travel through his country as quickly as possible in order to avoid any incidents), then at the Honduran embassy the consul refused us visas - they say, Russian citizens do not issue. I had to explain to him that we were doing a round-the-world trip and had already passed through the USA and Canada. The consul was filled with sympathy for us and, right in front of me, called his boss in the capital of Honduras.

He was clearly dumbfounded by the impudence of two Russians who wanted to penetrate independent Honduras, where Russians are not allowed. But after the consul's story about our trip around the world, the chief promised to make a decision in 15 days. We couldn't wait that long. Then the Honduran consul advised us to take a ferry from the Salvadoran port of Kutuco to Nicaragua, bypassing Honduras. The next day, they learned in Kutuko that the ferry had not been running for six months. We talked to fishermen from nearby villages, who sometimes ferry cars to Nicaragua, but the fishermen refused to help us, since our big car could capsize their boat.

What to do?! There were several hours left before the expiration of the one-day Salvadoran visa, back to Guatemala we already had no visa, and ahead was Honduras, for which we were not given a visa. In the end, they followed the advice of one of the Salvadorans to give a bribe at the border. Its size was determined by the Honduran border guards themselves - $400. So we ended up in Honduras and passed through this anti-Russian country without a visa. The farther south we traveled, the lower the fees at the borders. In Panama, we were fined $10 for not knowing Spanish. First, the customs girl who issued us a transit permit asked me with gestures: are you driving a car? “C,” I replied, who was driving at that moment.

The girl wrote me down on paper. On the way, we were stopped to check documents (and Boris was driving the car), and the law enforcement officers took a fine for the fact that the driver's name did not match the one entered in the permit. Increasingly, they began to face manifestations of obvious lawlessness. First, in the city of Panama, two robbers who tried to take away Boris's video camera in broad daylight broke it. Then, in Colombia, other robbers tried to take all the last money we had from Ivanov, but, fortunately, the police prevented this. And, finally, in Peru, a video camera was stolen from me, which was in the car (we stood two meters away with our backs to it and paid for a new tire).

Ecuador got its name from the word "equator", but in its capital, Quito, it was relatively cool: during the day up to +17 degrees C, and at night about +7. The explanation is simple - the city is located at an altitude of 2700 m. Here I sold my catamaran (during this trip I rafted on it along the Kluane River in Canada, through the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River in the USA and along Machangara in Ecuador), but funds for a normal completion route is still missing. From that moment until Buenos Aires, we had the most severe economy: we slept only in the car, ate only bread, drank only water - almost all the money went to gasoline.

We were in a hurry. Once (in Peru and Chile) we drove almost non-stop for a whole day, covering about 2000 km. I was struck by the Peruvian high mountain desert between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes. The full impression is that you are driving on the Moon for almost 2.5 thousand km - such landscapes here! But in the same Peru, on the banks of the Maranion (one of the mountain sources of the Amazon, along which I rafted in March 1993) there were many green trees.

When we arrived in Buenos Aires, we had $50 in our pocket. And only thanks to the financial support of the RIA Novosti correspondent Alexander Ignatov, I ended up on the shores of the Strait of Magellan and in the very south of the island of Tierra del Fuego. In Puerto Piramides Bay we saw whales with small cubs, and on the shore of Puerto Tombo Bay we walked among Magellanic penguins (they kept trying to grab my pants). We visited Ushuaia - the southernmost city on the island of Tierra del Fuego. And the trans-American stage of the round-the-world trip ended in Lapatay, the southernmost point of Tierra del Fuego, accessible to a car.

I returned to Russia to find money for the second (trans-African) and third (Eurasian to Novosibirsk) stages of the circumnavigation. And only on July 21, 1998, on an Aeroflot flight (this company became the sponsor of my expedition), I flew to Johannesburg (South Africa), through Cape Town I got to Cape Agulhas (Agalas) - the southernmost point of Africa, and from there, in a car rented in Cape Town, I went to north. When driving in Africa, I had to change several rental cars; it was known in advance that the border of Sudan with Uganda and Ethiopia could not be overcome on its own - there was a war going on there (as well as between Ethiopia and Eritrea).

Cape Town is similar to a modern European or American city, the majority of the population is white people (a significant difference from, say, Pretoria). In general, South Africa is a very civilized country with excellent roads. And the nature of the southern part of the country (green meadows, sheep, pine groves, squirrels in the city park of Cape Town...) is closer to European than to African. Savannah appeared only in the north of South Africa. And starting with Zimbabwe, the real "black" and not very civilized Africa "went".

On the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia, he admired the Victoria Falls (108 m high and 1.7 km wide), and then rafted down the Zambezi River below this waterfall. Zambia is a very poor country. In its northern part, the roads are extremely bad. I have already been to Tanzania before (rafted down the Karanga River from Kilimanjaro in 1993, by the way, then I was “capitally” robbed, and my partner Gene Kopeika was cut with a knife on his hand). Therefore, it seemed that I would get to this country without any problems.

But it turns out that Russian (Soviet) passports were not seen on the Zambian-Tanzanian border before. The border guard asked me where Tanzania is written in my passport as the country for which this document is intended. The border guard did not recognize the visa issued in Moscow. Only after an hour of dialogue did I manage to convince him with the argument that there would be no need to enter so many words in French in a Russian passport ... The roads in Tanzania are clearly better than in Zambia, and the country is richer. Here I again visited Moshi at the foot of Kilimanjaro, on Karanga.

Before the border with Kenya I saw a lot of young guys of seventeen years old from the Maasai tribe, dressed in black clothes and with white-painted faces. They fenced each other with sticks. It turned out that these guys had just been circumcised and were initiated into men. I almost stayed forever in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. On August 7, at 11 am, I was going to call Russia from an international call center located near the US Embassy, ​​but I was 20 minutes late. And so I go in the direction of this point and already 2 km before it I see broken glass in buildings around. The closer I get to this point, the more destruction.

It turned out that just at 11 o'clock, terrorists exploded a powerful bomb near the American embassy, ​​from which more than 80 people died and many people were injured. At the same time, a bomb was detonated near the American embassy in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania). At first, all the local media "sinned" Saddam Hussein. However, later American intelligence agencies determined that the terrorists were from Sudan. American cruise missiles flew at him - ironically, just when I was there ... In Kenya, I visited the Nairobi National Park, admired the lions, rhinos, giraffes ...

I almost got arrested in Uganda. I accidentally photographed a man in a dark blue long coat, and he made a big fuss because I was photographing Ugandan police officers. At the local department of "state security" I was offered to give them the photographic film, otherwise they would arrest me. I had to obey. Uganda ended the former English Africa with an English-speaking population and left-hand traffic on the roads (I got used to it for a very long time). By the way, there is a through highway from South Africa to Uganda.

Sudan is already a Muslim world. The country is very poor, but people help each other, share products with the "near" one. But in Sudan, the most expensive gasoline in the world (at $1.5-2 per liter; by the way, in all other African and American countries where I visited, its price ranged from $0.3 to 0.6). In the very north of the country from Abu Hamed to Wadi Halfa, the road runs through the sands of the Nubian desert (part of the Sahara east of the Nile). Naturally, there is no hint of asphalt here - a sandy primer. At the same time, the heat is more than +50 degrees C. American tourists are practically not allowed into Sudan, the country is clearly anti-American. In Atbar, a local elder, hearing that I was from Russia, said: "We love Russia because you are a counterbalance to the Americans."

From Wadi Halfa on a ferry through the Aswan Reservoir, he got to Egypt. Here I was met by Muscovite Vitaly Melnichuk, who became my traveling companion before Moscow. With him we visited the Red Sea (in Hurghada), Cairo and Giza (of course, we examined all the pyramids and the Sphinx here), the Mediterranean Sea (in Alexandria) and northwest Egypt. Then our journey continued in Tunisia. We crossed it along the northern coast to the border with Algeria and reached Cape Ras Engela (Angel's Head) - the northernmost point of Africa.

Our car under the Eiffel TowerFrom the city of Tunisia, we took a ferry to Sicily, to Italy, and, after driving along the Mediterranean coast of Europe, ended up in Portugal. In Europe, gasoline prices were unpleasantly surprised (about $1, the record holder is France - $1.2). We visited the famous Italian cities: Palermo, Pompeii, Naples, Florence, Rome. In Portugal, the story with the change of cars on the way has finally ended: my Volvo-240 car “arrived” from Buenos Aires to Lisbon, on which we continued our journey.

True, the ferry ran aground off the coast of Brazil, and the car arrived a month late, we had to wait for it. All this time they lived on the Urania-II yacht, the crew of which (led by Muscovite Georgy Karpenko) was going to make a round-the-world trip with the passage of the Northern Sea Route. Due to lack of money, the yacht has been in the capital of Portugal since December 1997, but on October 8 it was still planned to sail towards Brazil. It was only on September 23 that we received our car, reached Cape Roca (the westernmost point of Eurasia) and from here we began another "throw" - now to the east.

We drove through Portugal, Spain, the southern part of France and stopped in Paris with our friend. Then we drove through Belgium and Luxembourg and from Trier entered Germany. Already in Portugal, we had very little money left, and we had to travel through France on free national roads (expressways in France and Italy are very expensive - $ 1 per 10 km of the way). Fortunately, in Germany, "highways" are free and there are no speed limits. We visited Mannheim and Heidelberg, and drove two hitchhikers to Dresden - a guy and a girl (they turned out to be Rigans who speak Russian).

And then there was a transit through the Czech Republic and Slovakia. We entered Ukraine (Uzhgorod) with $50, so we had to “twist” a lot to get to Kharkov, where my mother lives (by the way, in Kiev we were financially supported by the guys from satellite television who made a report about us). Finally we got to Russia and through Belgorod, Kursk, Oryol and Kaluga got to Moscow. Vasily Zabaikin from Novosibirsk became my partner from Moscow. Our movement to the east continued, and, having made stops in Ryazan, Tolyatti, Chelyabinsk and Kurgan, we arrived in Novosibirsk, where the third (Eurasian) stage of my circumnavigation ended.

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Insurance.

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Vaccinations.

Get all the necessary vaccinations and go through the medical examination once again to make sure that your health will not let you down along the way.

Learn how to call for help (you never know).

A car can behave unpredictably, and when traveling, you will not always have to travel around the metropolis and crowded places. Any breakdown will not only spoil the experience, but also interfere with your further movement. Write down in advance for yourself all the numbers of field technical assistance, a tow truck and an ambulance in the area depending on your route.

Go through the list before leaving.

Five times. Better ten.

Throw a party that no one will forget.

Leave, slamming the door loudly! Remember: not only the journey is important, but also the farewell to it. As you know, how you meet an adventure is how you spend it.




family status: Married

Occupation: journalist

Driving experience: 18 years

Age: 36 years old

Dream car: Toyota Land cruiser

Ugliest car: OKA

Maximum speed: 170 km/h

Ideal man: husband

First private car: Mazda pop-up headlights

Where most often found: in the car

Craving for adventure comes from childhood

When I was little, my parents and I traveled by car very often. I am from the Kaliningrad region, so I have almost never been to Russia. Just because it was much cheaper to go, for example, to Poland. I'm used to traveling this way and don't really like airplanes, although I certainly fly. We experience the most buzz in the car: a thermos in which you pour tea, stops in unfamiliar places where you explore every nook and cranny.

My husband and I both love to travel. At first we went with only our sons. Then they adopted three girls. And in August we went on a trip to Sochi and Abkhazia. For three weeks, they traveled all over and across. All mountains, all abandoned cities. We traveled in a seven-seater Land Rover. Previously used Toyota Highlander To be honest, I like him better. I am a fan of Toyota - now I want to sell Land Rover and buy Highlander again, I feel calmer when traveling with this car.

"Rugrats"

You know what's amazing? On the trip, the children behave perfectly. My boys have been traveling for a very long time: the first trip with Arseniy by car was when he was 4 months old. The husband came home and said: “It is impossible to find good tomatoes in Moscow!” And after a couple of days we jumped into the car and went to the south of our country for delicious vegetables and fruits. We got to Sochi, stocked up and went back. And we celebrated 6 months of Arseniy in Switzerland, where we naturally got on Toyota Rav 4.

Traveling by car is not difficult at all. Once I alone with the children drove from Moscow to Italy, my husband could not, because he worked, and I already wanted to go somewhere.

Kind with healthy

We do not worry about their studies at school, despite the constant travel, they study well. I believe that children need to be shown more in this life, to be given emotions. Plus, when we travel, we give them life lessons. We learn to help each other, to help others. For example, when we come to the sea, we take bags and each time we collect garbage, 2-3 bags a day. I do not need to force the children, they themselves are happy to do it, because we have set the right example for them! And most importantly, they come to the understanding that it is impossible to litter. Last time we rested there almost alone on the local Abkhazian beach and cleaned it daily. You know what else is nice? People passing by joined in our work. We can say that we have introduced a fashion for this in Abkhazia.

Child navigator?

It often happens that our children choose the route themselves. In August we went to Europe. First we reached the Czech Republic, where our parents have a house. From there we went to Germany, where the purpose of the trip was to get to Neuschwanstein Castle. When we got there, we didn't think it was enough. As I remember now. Evening. We are sitting somewhere on the border with Germany and Lera asks: “We took swimsuits, so why didn’t we swim even once during this trip?”, Pasha picked up: “Let's go to the sea!” Where? We open the map and decide to go to Italy, to the nearest town from the border with Austria.

Family travel charter

The main rule is no gadgets in the car. We don't watch cartoons. The maximum is headphones and a player, we allow listening to music. The main thing is to entertain yourself. On a trip, you get high from the fact that you have the whole family in one car. You may think that three days in one car can go crazy? But this does not happen to us. We are constantly inventing activities for ourselves: we play games, sing songs, take drawing boards with us.

At the same time, we are learning, for example, counting cows. When we were driving around Abkhazia, we came up with a game: did you see a cow? Mychi! Did you see a horse? Rye. dog? Barking. It was a lot of fun. We also take question cards with us and arrange intellectual quizzes!

We do not load the car much. We are those who like to travel light. We don't even have a roof rack. From clothes - no shoes and evening dresses. Everything is just convenient and practical. That is why several small suitcases and even 7 scooters easily fit in the car.

We usually set off early in the morning to get to the border at night, when there are few people there. Although sometimes we leave at night, this has its own charm, because the children are sleeping and you have the opportunity to go fast, because no one needs to be fed, entertained, stop to go to the toilet. The best time to leave is around 4 am. Children get into the car and fall asleep, and we have already slept for 3-4 hours at home.

We never take food with us, except for a light snack and drinks. When you travel around Russia, you can always stop and eat. We take it to Europe, because there is an option to get stuck at the border, and in order to save money, food there is quite expensive.

And another important rule: take a few blankets and car pillows with you, it is advisable for children to wear comfortable clothes, for example, a tracksuit, so that they can sleep softly.

All the subtleties of autotravel

Everywhere has its own rules. When you pass, for example, the Latvian border, you need a technical inspection there. Not needed in Lithuania, but mandatory in Latvia. They didn't want to let us in - they told us to turn around. It was 5 in the morning, I went to the boss, stood, smiled, said that I did not know that we were going for the first time. I began to put pressure on the fact that 5 children were in the car, it was hard to return. We would have traveled, of course, through Belarus, but this is an extra 6 hours. In addition, we have already set ourselves up to pass through Latvia. Latvians are generally very strict on the border. But in the end they took pity on us. We promised that we would show the technical inspection on the way back, but in the end we went through another border.

Often they are strict with us, despite the children. We somehow tried to smuggle yoghurts in order to feed the children after crossing the border. And one of our sons is very honest, burst into tears: “Why are you deceiving that we do not have dairy products! We are now under arrest!” For him, this is the height of abnormality.

Unexpected twists of fate

Somehow we decided to rent a motorhome - to get to Portugal. But on the way back, a not very pleasant story happened to us - we were robbed. They took out ALL. We didn't stop at the campsite because we just couldn't find it. I had to stand at the gas station. I opened my eyes at night and saw that a man with a knife was standing near my child and cutting packages. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but absolutely everything was stolen from us. We were able to get home only because my husband had one bank card hidden. I was very scared then, for 2 years I couldn’t even think about traveling by motorhome.

And in the mountains in the Czech Republic, our car got stuck. The fact is that there was no snow in Karlovy Vary. And we wanted to ride, and decided to go to the mountains. We did not understand why cars with chains on wheels were driving towards us. We arrived, it was snowing, the cars were standing, and ours was rolling without our participation into a crowd of people. Tried to get control - to no avail. I had to run out of the car, and she rolled into a snowdrift. Fortunately, people immediately ran up and helped push the car out.

And when we wanted adventures in Abkhazia, we went to the city of ghosts. At what we went there at 4 pm, when it began to get dark. The city is abandoned (during the war, everyone fled from there), located in the mountains. I kept thinking that if the car gets stuck, we will stay there for the night. Because there are no people there. Absolute, ominous darkness. Excursions there are, but only during the day. Staying there is very scary, because of the large number of snakes. But we still decided to go out, drove up the mountain to take a beautiful photo. Before we could stop, the car was surrounded by 5 dogs. There was a feeling that if you open the door, it will happen like in a horror movie: they will rush in your face. So we didn't go out.

Another experience of a lifetime: we went to Portugal on a motorhome and my husband saw the ocean for the first time. We had already passed through France, and I suggested that we drive along the coast. We accidentally drive into some town, there are motorhomes - Europeans generally tend to travel on motorhomes, unlike Russians. We go behind the hillock, and here - the ocean! It's incredible! They both stood with tears in their eyes. It was such a thrill, even goosebumps now, when we remember. We want to come there again for sure, although we did not look for this place on the map, we did not even know where we were going. Unfortunately, this was already after the robbery, we didn’t have cameras with us, so we didn’t manage to take memorable pictures, but this moment remained in my memory for the rest of my life.

Where do dreams lead?

Now the most global dream is to rent a motorhome to drive from Moscow to Beijing, the journey should take a little more than a month. I have already studied everything: there are such tricks, such as, for example, obtaining a Chinese license and entering the territory only accompanied by a local guide.

Although probably the most cherished dream: to America by land and water.

By car around the world

The first Russian to travel around the world in a car was Vladimir Lysenko, president of the Russian Union of Around the World Explorers ( www.skr.web-online.ru). He crossed the continents along or across - along the longest routes: North and South America from north to south and from west to east, Africa - from south to north and from east to west, Eurasia - from west to east and from south to north, and Australia from east to west and from north to south. Its route ran through 62 countries, and the total length of the route was 160 thousand km. Vladimir Lysenko was convinced from his own experience that it is possible to drive all the way in one car, but it turns out to be too expensive and troublesome. It is much easier (and much cheaper!) not to transport a car from continent to continent, but to buy or rent a car directly on the spot.

According to the Guinness Book of Records, Indians Niina and Mohammed Shalahuddin Chaudhary made the fastest trip around the world by car. From September 9 to November 17, 1989, in 69 days, 19 hours and 5 minutes, they traveled 40,075 km (slightly more than the length of the equator).

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Alexander and Tatiana Chemodurov are the first Russian pensioners to travel around the world by car.

Today they are 113 years old together. The first time they were abroad was in 2001 - by accident. For the wedding, the son was presented with a tour to Egypt, the young could not go, the Chemodurovs flew to Africa instead of them. Just so you don't lose your tickets.

Liked. And so much so that over the next 13 years they traveled half the world. As if anticipating the collapse of travel agencies, pensioners in recent years have wisely traveled around the world on their own.

Taking into account the round-the-world trip, they have already visited 102 countries of the world.

Tanya plus Tanya

The Chemodurovs circumnavigated the world with the help of the Russian Geographical Society as follows: from Moscow through Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey to Africa. Syria had to go around by ferry: the war was raging there. Further through Africa to South Africa, from there - to Argentina (by car - by sea, by plane). Through the whole of South America - to the USA, from Seattle by ship to Nakhodka, and through the whole country back to Moscow.

In Egypt, I had to get local numbers for a car, such are the laws there. Then we went to the pyramids. Unusually empty, tourists left Egypt.

I sent Tatyana to buy tickets, and I drive up to the parking lot, - says Chemodurov. - The police demand to show documents. For a long time he studies the papers that I obtained with such difficulty (and they are in Arabic and I don’t understand what is written there), they look at me suspiciously and ask a deadly question: “Is Tatyana a male name?” Everything, I think, hit, the officials messed up, writing down his wife as a driver. The bureaucracy there is terrible, now they will detain the car. Gotta get out. I go ahead: "Yes, of course, this is a man's name!" The police smell a catch, and so incredulously: "And what do you, Russians, then have female names?" I told them: "Natasha!"

General jubilation: "Natasha! That's right! Natasha! Drive on, Tatyana!"

Before the trip, they read that the riots were only in Cairo. It turned out that the war had already moved to the center of the country. I had to wind around Egypt for a long time, going around the troubled provinces.

We got to Aswan, from there - to Sudan. Egypt and Sudan have disputed territories there, so they were allowed to cross the border on a steamboat. There were no cabins, we spent the night right on the deck, under the stars. The car was delivered in a couple of days on a barge.

None of the three car navigators worked in Sudan. We drove by asking the locals for directions. There are no tourists there, and there are no hotels in our understanding either. We stopped at an inn for dervishes, exotics there over the edge.

Putin, machine gun and chocolate

The most interesting country on the route is Ethiopia. True, only in the sense of cultural heritage. But there are no roads there: in a day it was difficult to drive 300 km. Sometimes it was necessary to mobilize the local population to pull stones from the road. One wheel punctured.

They were not allowed into Kenya for a long time. There, on the border, a war began: some kind of tribal showdown. Helicopters are circling, artillery cannonade, explosions.

Every day we went to the police, asking for an armed escort. Three days later they were told: go on your own, but only very quickly: there was a respite at the front. Rushed...

There was an unpleasant moment: a man with a gun was seen on the side of the road. Out of fear, Alexander Anatolyevich stepped on the gas, the armed man disappeared in a cloud of dust and rubble from under the wheels. Whether he fired at their car or not, they did not see.

But on the way we observed the skeletons of burnt cars.

In front of them was a Range Rover with Japanese tourists. Which suddenly disappeared without a trace. Our people were interested at the posts: did the Japanese pass? It turned out - no. But they had nowhere to turn. The story is sad, it was not possible to find out the fate of the Japanese travelers.

They took a lot of medicines on the road, but almost all of them were taken away in Bulgaria. The Ukrainians took the stun gun. In Africa, all alcohol was taken away by the Sudanese. Often, at the entrance to the villages, they were stopped by people with machine guns. They introduced themselves as "customs officers", they were interested: do you have food? Usually they answered - yes, there are, but only bananas. In response, a demand was heard: "Hand over your bananas to us, these cannot be transported - buy ours."

There are bananas, however, there are mere pennies, the racket is not serious.

There are more positive memories.

In fact, you can travel around Africa on public transport, - Alexander Anatolyevich intrigues. - You take a ticket, get on the bus in Cairo and get off in Cape Town. Many Europeans do just that.

But the buses run as long as there is no war. And in Africa, everyone is at war with everyone, and cars are allowed through the areas of hostilities, but buses are not. And until the fighting subsides, the passengers "sunbathe".

They picked up two such unfortunates: an Englishman and a Dane. We drove with them to Nairobi.

What is interesting: in Kenya, there are many roadblocks on the roads, but when they saw Russian passports, the military smiled and let them through without inspection: "Oh, Putin, Kalashnikov, chocolate!" Why they are convinced that chocolate is made in Russia is not entirely clear, but Kalashnikov and Putin are very popular in Africa.

This made a strong impression on fellow travelers. Three days later, saying goodbye, the Englishman and the Dane admitted that they were sincerely jealous of the Chemudorovs: "It's so great to be Russian in Africa!"

Took tongue

Traveled 30 countries, five times paid fines. Of these, 3 - in Tanzania: continuous ambushes.

Sign 50 km / h, we go 45. Stop. What have we broken? Chemodurov gets excited. - They lie impudently: you were driving at a speed of 62 km / h, here are the radar data. But it's not my car on the radar! And we have five witnesses, pay a fine - $7.

And so it is with every village.

I ask round-the-world travelers: what language did you speak with the African traffic police?

On the universal: driver's. There was a case in Turkey, I was stopped for exceeding. The policeman says: "Here you can go 90 km / h, you have 106 - a fine. Do you need a receipt?" - "No, let's fine in half."

I paid, I return to the car, my wife looks at me in amazement: and you, he says, what language did you speak with him? I - in Russian, he is with me - in Turkish. They understood each other perfectly.

The funniest incident is in Zambia. They stopped, they say that your car does not comply with traffic safety rules - there are no reflectors, that is, reflective stickers. Give $20 and don't sin.

And this despite the fact that the locals generally drive without headlights and without glasses.

But at the same time, Africa has good tradition. If you drive slowly and have collected more than two cars behind you, stop, let it pass. If you don't miss it, the police will stop you and fine you. We should have adopted this as well.

Dancing with the globe

Peru is not so lucky. A llama was shot down in the mountains at night. Not to death, the animal ran away. The car was damaged: the radiator dripped, they waited three weeks for repairs. The police reacted very kindly to the incident: they did not fine. There these llamas are like Don Pedro in neighboring Brazil.

We also encountered a completely unexpected problem. The locals blocked the road every now and then, demanding some social benefits and lower prices from the government. They don’t extort money from those passing by, they just don’t let them in, that’s all. The police don't interfere.

The hardest thing is in Bolivia. If men block the road, then it is not difficult to solve the problem: if you give a bottle, they will let you through.

But the Bolivian seniors - those of principle, do not take offerings, - Chemodurov sighs. “We had to look for other ways. He took out a globe from the car (I always have it with me), explained where I was coming from. My wife called it "dancing with the globe."

He began like this: "Dear women of the East, do you know and respect Russia? Look at the globe: here it is. And now we are on the other side of the world. We need to travel to return home!"

Are they women of the East?

And what's the difference, they don't understand a word of Russian. Like me in Spanish. The main thing here is to create an atmosphere, ideally - to make you laugh. If the globe did not help, then the round-the-world travelers took out a tent from the trunk, threatened: we will spend the night with you, but we don’t have food, you will feed.

It worked.

True, a kilometer later - a new picket. And again dancing with a globe.

Exhausted, we immediately looked for a motel. I especially liked one: very smart, the room is all in mirrors, even on the ceiling and then for some reason a mirror. And inexpensive.

Then they got suspicious. They were offered a room for a few hours. They explained: you need at least a night.

Everyone at the reception nodded respectfully...

Later they found out that they live in a hotel for love dates: almost a brothel. Laughed to tears.

America: forward, into the past

A complete surprise - the border between Mexico and the United States. We walked along the highway Ciudad Juarez - Carlsbad - Roswell. At the entrance from the Mexican side, we were struck by beautiful well-groomed fields, a ranch, handsome machos prancing on horseback. The cities are clean, the people are smart. We entered America - abandoned fields, some unprepossessing farm houses.

In cinema, it's the other way around.

But the biggest shock is the border. We expected to see crowds of Mexicans, American rangers with machine guns. Nothing like this. Empty. There are two women: a Mexican and an African American. We saw Russian numbers, were amazed, but they didn’t even ask us to get out of the car.

Chemodurovs:

We drove through 30 countries, it’s like everywhere: get out of the car, open the trunk, show that you are carrying ... Here they just knocked on the wheels with a hammer (they often carry drugs in tires) - drive on.

We say: "Yes, how to get through, first you put a mark in your passport for us." They waved it off, advised to look for an immigration officer on their own: maybe he will put a stamp. Found, somehow convinced - put.

We walked back to Mexico. But they also refused to do insurance there: they say that in Mexico we provide insurance only for Mexican cars.

What to do, again stomped on foot in the USA ...

Interestingly, during walks from the USA to Mexico, no one paid attention to them and did not ask for passports.

In general, America left an ambiguous impression, - Alexander Anatolyevich argues. - At gas stations and in shops, people, having learned that we are from Russia, began to say nasty things about their president and admire Russia. I am not kidding. But - quietly, as if furtively. So it was with us in the 60s, under the USSR, when bad things were said about the rulers and in a whisper. I did not expect this from the Americans, they are somehow notorious, intimidated. I expected to see proud and free.

And in Arizona National Park, a bear came up to our car and put its paws on the trunk. By the way, having traveled from Vladivostok to Moscow, we did not meet a single clubfoot. Here they are, the stereotypes: so we still need to figure out who actually has bears roaming the streets.

Alexander Anatolyevich Chemodurov - retired from the post of head of the department of the Ministry of Culture. His wife Tatyana Anatolyevna graduated from the Moscow State Technical University. Bauman, individual entrepreneur. V total the spouses have 27 foreign and six Russian road trips. They want to write a book about them. During the round-the-world trip, they conducted a public examination of UNESCO sites, met with compatriots and helped create children's libraries.

Route:

visited Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador , Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, Mexico and USA.

Issue price

We traveled 53,700 km by land and 17,000 km by sea. Sponsors were not found, they went for their own. It cost 1.85 million rubles.

We saved up a million for a dream trip. The remaining amount was obtained by renting an apartment, a summer house and a garage in the Moscow region.

We drove a crossover Hyundai Tucson 2007 release. The mileage at the start of the circumnavigation was 52,000 km. The car was not specially prepared, but every 15 thousand km, maintenance was carried out as expected: in Cape Town (South Africa), in Lima (Peru) and on the way back to Russia.