The last day on The Rossiya. Up at 0130 train time (0830 outside) just as we pulled into the city of Khabarovsk. Looks a very prosperous place.
We pass a what I think is a cattle train going west. It seems that the Trans Siberian
still handles cattle, post and parcels as well as hump shunting wagons, types of activity long since done away with in the UK. I have not seen any international wagons in Russia. In fact some of the wagons from the Soviet era look, well, very basic and would not come up to latest international standards I think.
We are only a couple of miles from the Chinese border here and parallel it all the way to
Vladivostock (or so says my map from Stanford's (Explore, Discover, Inspire)) in fact this section of
track was built later than the rest of the Trans Siberian. Originally the line cut a corner through Manchuria to get to Vladivostock but after the Japanese War with Russia in 1904 which went badly for Russia (in part due to the inadequacies of the Trans Siberian. A troup train of reinforcements from Moscow got as far as Lake Baikel where a ship was being used to get across the lake, as the line around the lake was not finished, only to find the ship frozen in. Undaunted the soldiers laid a track across the ice. Unfortunately the loco was too heavy and went through the ice. The next train they dismantled the loco and took it across in pieces. That worked) an "all Russia" route was built that didn't need to cross into Manchuria but was quite a bit longer.
I note when a lone passenger gets off the train, a son on leave from the army, a daughter from uni, a mother from a shopping trip, not just one person turns out to greet them at the station but the whole family-usually with a bunch of tulips.
Travelling on this train has similarities to our other hobby of travelling the Waterways with similar questions and concerns; you see parts of the land you can not get to by road; you are in your own little bubble; where is the next meal is coming from ; you travel all day and do not necessarily get anywhere; are the locals going to be friendly?
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Our food provisions are now nearly exhausted. We have left, a couple of saches of coffee, some dehydrated potato (Russian) a Russian loaf (Which I can now just about cut with my trusty penknife from Weston super Mare) two ministrone pasta things from Waitrose Portishead, no cheese but plenty of tea (oh and some
sugar lumps). Not only are provisions nearly exhausted but so is my book Imperium, about the final days of the Soviet Union.
Also I have a small box of Chocolates, Thorntons, which I want to give to the Provinistas. Joanne thinks "why, they are just doing their job" I agree their focus is the train and keeping that together rather than the customer but it feels like we have just spent a week in their house even though we have hardly exchanged a word. For all we know they may have been trying to fight of marauding rampaging hordes trying to break into our compartment all night-we just do not know the answer to these things. Besides it's one less thing to carry. We will see.
The communion Wine has done its job and The Rossiya rolls in bang on time in heavy rain showers rolling in off the Pacific. We have dodged freight trains in the Urals from going "up" to "down" line back to "up" and repeat , we have had broken air pipe , we have had rain and hail, but The Rossiya is running on time, nothing must stop it. Linking east and the west of the country with 6,000 miles of national pride. We leave it here and move on. The ferry to Japan leaves from by the station but, sadly, that's not for us this time. The ferry goes once a week on Wednesday takes 48 hours and is a days train ride from Tokyo so that would seriously cut down Joanne's time in Tokyo to one day so we have to compromise and take a plane tomorrow. Still this is not just the Trans Siberian this is about, it is also about a " Rural ride to Iida"
Taiga is beginning to recede and be replaced by more conventional forest. All along the line there is a black area between the Taiga and the track where presumably controlled burns take place to keep it away from the railway.
We pass a what I think is a cattle train going west. It seems that the Trans Siberian
still handles cattle, post and parcels as well as hump shunting wagons, types of activity long since done away with in the UK. I have not seen any international wagons in Russia. In fact some of the wagons from the Soviet era look, well, very basic and would not come up to latest international standards I think.
We are only a couple of miles from the Chinese border here and parallel it all the way to
Vladivostock (or so says my map from Stanford's (Explore, Discover, Inspire)) in fact this section of
track was built later than the rest of the Trans Siberian. Originally the line cut a corner through Manchuria to get to Vladivostock but after the Japanese War with Russia in 1904 which went badly for Russia (in part due to the inadequacies of the Trans Siberian. A troup train of reinforcements from Moscow got as far as Lake Baikel where a ship was being used to get across the lake, as the line around the lake was not finished, only to find the ship frozen in. Undaunted the soldiers laid a track across the ice. Unfortunately the loco was too heavy and went through the ice. The next train they dismantled the loco and took it across in pieces. That worked) an "all Russia" route was built that didn't need to cross into Manchuria but was quite a bit longer.
.jpg) |
| Cemetery by the side of the tracks |
I note when a lone passenger gets off the train, a son on leave from the army, a daughter from uni, a mother from a shopping trip, not just one person turns out to greet them at the station but the whole family-usually with a bunch of tulips.
Travelling on this train has similarities to our other hobby of travelling the Waterways with similar questions and concerns; you see parts of the land you can not get to by road; you are in your own little bubble; where is the next meal is coming from ; you travel all day and do not necessarily get anywhere; are the locals going to be friendly?
Our food provisions are now nearly exhausted. We have left, a couple of saches of coffee, some dehydrated potato (Russian) a Russian loaf (Which I can now just about cut with my trusty penknife from Weston super Mare) two ministrone pasta things from Waitrose Portishead, no cheese but plenty of tea (oh and some
sugar lumps). Not only are provisions nearly exhausted but so is my book Imperium, about the final days of the Soviet Union.
Also I have a small box of Chocolates, Thorntons, which I want to give to the Provinistas. Joanne thinks "why, they are just doing their job" I agree their focus is the train and keeping that together rather than the customer but it feels like we have just spent a week in their house even though we have hardly exchanged a word. For all we know they may have been trying to fight of marauding rampaging hordes trying to break into our compartment all night-we just do not know the answer to these things. Besides it's one less thing to carry. We will see.
The communion Wine has done its job and The Rossiya rolls in bang on time in heavy rain showers rolling in off the Pacific. We have dodged freight trains in the Urals from going "up" to "down" line back to "up" and repeat , we have had broken air pipe , we have had rain and hail, but The Rossiya is running on time, nothing must stop it. Linking east and the west of the country with 6,000 miles of national pride. We leave it here and move on. The ferry to Japan leaves from by the station but, sadly, that's not for us this time. The ferry goes once a week on Wednesday takes 48 hours and is a days train ride from Tokyo so that would seriously cut down Joanne's time in Tokyo to one day so we have to compromise and take a plane tomorrow. Still this is not just the Trans Siberian this is about, it is also about a " Rural ride to Iida"
.jpg) |
| Sun goes down in Vladivostock on Sea of Japan. 8000 miles from Yatton! |
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