At 6:00 am we drive the very last stretch of the Georgian Military Highway to the Russian border: we have heard many horror stories about this border crossing (once again 😉)… some overlanders apparently needed over 12 hours to cross. As the closure of many other Russian border crossings due to the Ukraine conflict has led to a dramatic increase in freight traffic at this border, the infrastructure is consequently completely overloaded. Once again, we’re lucky, and it’s not as bad as it seems: we are done in 2.5 hours. This all sounds a bit unlikely with all the stories on social media and the like, but in our opinion with the right preparation and appropriate behavior at borders, you can save a lot of time – if that’s even what you want…
The Metro wholesale market not far across the border in Vladikavkaz is well-stocked… there’s nothing you can’t find, and all at reasonable prices! At least the consumer doesn’t notice any Western sanctions. Many of the cars, including those of European origin, are brand new… after all the truck traffic on the Georgian Military Highway, we now know where they’re coming from… circumventing Western sanctions. We drive through various autonomous regions with somewhat dubious reputations: North Ossetia, Ingushetia, Chechnya, and Dagestan. We’re particularly curious about Chechnya and its capital, Grozny, and make a short, but very intense and, above all, surprising stopover.
After being almost completely destroyed in the two civil wars in the 1990s, Grozny has been rebuilt with great modernity and effort. The Grozny Mall can absolutely be compared with its counterparts in Dubai and the like. Almost everyone is Muslim: women with very chic headscarves, naturally by renowned designers, and long skirts, mostly made of silk, extremely well-dressed and mostly very attractive, smelling good, wearing makeup, walking upright with designer handbags at their elbows. The men, with their beards, look more like they’re from Afghanistan. The mosque is the largest in all of Russia! But finally comes the absolute highlight: We’re just walking back to Shujaa’s parking lot when a convoy of at least 20 black armored Mercedes GLSs arrives, with two armored white Rolls Royces in the middle. Always doubled up so you don’t know where the relevant person is sitting. Everyone turns into an access road near our parking space, and we learn that the infamous President Kadyrow has just driven past us, and we’ve practically parked Shujaa in front of his government headquarters. He’s considered a dictator, extremely brutal. That’s why, in addition to his presidential job in Chechnya, he was given supreme command of all Russian troops in the Ukraine war after the “special operation” initially didn’t go as planned. I just manage to stop Karin from pointing the camera at it. I’m not keen on getting arrested in this part of the world.
The onward journey to the city of Astrakhan, on the sprawling Volga Delta on the Caspian Sea, is much more relaxing. We buy some cheap caviar, explore the Kremlin (yes, there’s one in Astrakhan too… it translates as “castle city”), and have a good meal. The next day, leaving Russia took 3.5 hours longer than entering the country… mainly because we waited forever for the person responsible for the Russian exit interview, who was apparently on his lunch break. Eventually, he arrived, and we were actually allowed to leave without answering questions like “what is our opinion on the war in Ukraine?” etc. We don’t quite understand why these political questions are asked upon exit and not upon entry… but never mind. After three days, we’re leaving Russia again.
As soon as we have entered Kazakhstan (after all, the ninth-largest country in the world) and left the Volga Delta, we see nothing but steppe, camels, steppe, wild horses, and more steppe. Things only get a little more varied when, after many monotonous kilometers, we reach the Mangystau Peninsula. In addition to the presence of vast oil deposits on the Caspian Sea shelf and the associated wealth for the entire country, it is above all the chalk-white cliffs of the Ustyurt Plateau with its picturesque Akmyshtau Mountains, the spectacular canyons and escarpments, the enormous necropolises and Sufi caves that define this region. The roads leading to the sprawling sights are no less spectacular, and Shujaa is finally getting the chance again to show off its true potential. As long as it’s dry, this is really fun but beware if it starts to rain… in a moment, everything turns into a giant mud hole, and you’re moving more vertically than horizontally. We were lucky this time, though, and were in the right place at the right time 😉… other overlanders had their own experiences! For a while, we shared our rides with Daphne and Koos, a Dutch overlander couple who were traveling in a Mercedes Sprinter.
We really enjoyed the vast expanses of the virtually uninhabited Mangystau with its truly spectacular landscape and are glad we made this approximately 1,000 km detour. Although we’ve traveled a lot, we haven’t seen anything comparable.
Exceptionnel…bravo
🙏