Lisboa-Vilnius-Vladivostok 2010
VITOLDAS IN VLADIVOSTOK! in 11 days 16 hours!
In 2010 few trips are planned. The first, which starts on 15 April at the Portuguese capital Lisbon, and the finishes at Russian city of Vladivostok. This route is not new. It has been done by cars, trucks, motorcycles and even bicycles. This trip is unique, because only one person is going to drive. Travel mileage of 16 000 km is planned to be crossed in 15 days time.
The goal is going to be reached by car Dacia Sander Stepway with petrol engine capacity of 1.6 l.
Day 1 on the road
In a bid to dive from Lisbon to Vladivostok in 15 days, Lithuanian journalist Vitoldas Milius has started his quest in Portugal, the westernmost point of the continent Cabo da Roca, located near Lisbon. The traveler, who intends to break the world record, started seconds after midnight on 15 April. The first posting is about the first impressions after the start.
“I started right after midnight (2 am Lithuanian time – Ed.). The Ambassador of Lithuania to Portugal Algimantas Rimkūnas and his wife saw me off at Cabo da Roca. So far all is going according to plan, and currently I am in Saragosa, Spain, having covered 860 km (11 am Lithuanian time – Ed.).
Though these are what we call hot climes, now they are not hot at all, there is have no sunshine, showers and winds are raging all the time. Ignoring speed limits and exceeding them is typical in Portugal but this time everybody is driving with greater caution due to bad weather. Anyway, I am disregarding the weather conditions. Though I choose highways, they also happen to have traffic jams. For instance, I was stuck on the Madrid highway for about 45 minutes. Today I intend to drive till dusk but I am not going to torture myself for sure, as I need to have some sleep, given that I did not sleep last night. So far it is hard to say where I am going to stay.
Yesterday, before setting off I attended a service at one Lisbon church, where mass was celebrated at the request of the Polish Embassy to commemorate the victims of the Polish Presidential plane crash in Smolensk. Also, before starting off yesterday I managed to wade into the Atlantic Ocean and scoop some water which I plan to get to Vladivostok and pour into the Pacific. That’s it for now and I hope to have more impressions tomorrow. Ciao!”
Day 2 on the road
Vitoldas Milius, a Lithuanian journalist who set off on a drive from Lisbon to Vladivostok Thursday night, has already driven across Portugal, Spain and France.
“I am in Germany near Freiburg now (11 am Lithuanian time – Ed.). I intend to go to Lithuania without stopping. I have already covered a distance of 2,300 km. There are some 1,600 km left to drive to Lithuania. So I believe I will have covered a distance of some 4,000 km in the first two days of my drive, i.e. 15 and 16 April.
“I am driving on motorways so there is nothing interesting to tell about. There is no road tax in Germany. While driving in Portugal, Spain and France, I had to pay over EUR 100 in road taxes. Yesterday I made a few stops to fill up the tank and have a snack, some soup and coffee. Last night I stayed at a F1 hotel.
On Saturday, as soon as I get to Lithuania, I intend to prepare my car for the Russian roads: I will take some additional spare wheels, a tool box and extra fuel tanks. I am going to set off for Moscow Sunday morning. I wish all readers a good weekend. Read my next update on Monday!”
Day 5 on the road
On 15 April Lithuanian journalist Vitoldas has started a drive from Portugal, the westernmost point of the continent Cabo da Roca, located near Lisbon, to Vladivostok, the administrative center of Primorskiy Kray, the south-easternmost point of Russia. By now he has crossed Portugal, Spain, France, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia on the route, and left behind Moscow, the capital city of Russia.
Having reached the Lithuanian capital Vilnius early Saturday morning, Vitoldas indulged in a minor luxury of having a good sleep and rest at home, as he would have no other chance like this during the journey. Aiming to break the world record,Vitoldas Milius was happy to have covered in 2 days and 3 hrs which was a quarter of the total distance. He covered 1800 km on Day 1 and 2174 km on Day 2 of the trip.
However, the beginning was the easiest, as Vitoldas Milius cruised along European roads and highways where one usually faces no major traffic problems. Most of the hardships are ahead of him, especially in the vastness of Siberia, where the ground is only beginning to thaw now, and there are many segments of extremely poor road.
„No problem so far, everything works perfectly, right as planned,“ Vitoldas Milius told PR agency Visus Bonus.
Vitoldas did more than just rest last Saturday: in the afternoon, together with the mechanics of sponsor companies, they serviced his Dacia Sandero Stepway to make it ready for Russian roads.
According to Milius, who is driving all alone and intends to cover the 16,000 km in 15 days to break the world record, standard car tyres were replaced by higher-profile ones with reinforced sides „Continental Vanco Winter 2“ (195/70R 15RF). These tyres ae excellent and problem-free. However, knowing Russian roads, Vitoldas added another spare tyre to his set, and took two extra fuel tanks of 20 and 5 litres, as well as a toolbox.
Early Sunday morning, Vitoldas Milius headed from Vilnius to Latvia where he crossed the Latvian-Russian border. The following are his impressions of Day 5 for DELFI readers:
“There was a queue of trucks extending for several kilometres at the border and it was about three times longer than that of cars. The cars queue at the border for about 8-12 hours. This is considered normal due to shuttle trading across the border. Enterprising Latvians go to Russia to buy petrol, which is twice as cheap there, so they cross the border and go back at once
Knowing that I was heading for Vladivostok, drivers in the queue demonstrated their goodwill and suggested that I skip the queue, but said that Latvian border guards might be against this. I had to talk to them and write a formal request. However the letter by Vilnius City Mayor which I am carrying to Vladivostok Mayor helped me speed up the border crossing exercise. Upon reading this letter, everybody understood what my final destination was and that I sure was not going to Russia for cheaper petrol. So I wasted just 2 hours at the border and crossed it around Sunday lunchtime. And Russian border guards could not understand why my car had two full fuel tanks, as everybody was going to Russia for fuel, not the other way round.
In the evening, I reached Moscow where I met some friends. As there were no traffic jams in the city, we still managed to go right next to Kremlin. I slept in a roadside motel about 60 km from Moscow. As I reached the motel around 2 am, the staff were already asleep but I managed to get a room anyway. We agreed that due to a very short stay I had to pay only one third of the regular room price, so I paid an amount equivalent to about 60 LTL. I had about six hours of sleep.
Currently I have just passed Nizhny Novgorod (11 am Lithuanian time). Since resuming my trip Sunday morning, after the short rest at home, I have covered 1,500 km, and a total of 5,400 km from my starting point in Portugal. If everything is OK I hope to reach Ufa today.
I have noticed lots of police on the roads. They have already stopped me three times. I had to open my wallet a couple times and it went thinner by about 100 LTL, though official fines are higher. Policemen have very good speed radars. Once I had to pay for exceeding speed limits in a city though this place did no longer resemble a city and my speed was 130 km/h, while the speed limit was 60 km/h. But everybody becomes friendly upon getting an equivalent of about 50 LTL in rubles. Then you don’t have to listen to reprimands or negotiate - they just wish me a safe trip, end of story.
I have noticed that Latvia had nearly the worst road segments so far, especially when going from Daugavpils to Rezekne and from Rezekne to the border. Some of these road segments were so poor that I have not seen such poor roads in Russia so far. Since entering Russia the road to Moscow was not bad, but I saw some very poor road segments. It is hard to understand why a 7 km road strip is full of potholes and is followed by a good stretch again. It feels as if last year the road was pretty much the same, and they seem to mend just separate road strips, leaving everything else as it is.”
Day 6
In a bid to break the world record of a solo drive from Lisbon to Vladivostok, Lithuanian journalist Vitoldas Milius is keeping to the plan. Having promised to reach Ufa on Day 5, he walked the talk and was on the way to Chelyabinsk on Tuesday 11 am Lithuanian time.
“I am going from Ufa to Chelyabinsk, so I am in the Urals now. However the weather is bad, it’s raining, no nice views from my window. The traffic is quite intensive, there are lots of trucks, which are not easy to overtake. The situation is similar to, albeit a little worse than, driving on the Moletai road (eastern Lithuania): there are lots of traffic signs and police, so I have to drive quite slowly.
I have covered more than 6,400 km by now and around 1,100 km in the last 24 hrs (11 am Monday to 11 am Tuesday – Ed.). The time changes going East, and every day it gets dark earlier so I have to adapt. For instance, I came to a small hotel in Ufa to get some sleep, and the staff asked me when I intended to leave. I said early in the morning, around 7 am, and the staff looked quite surprised as I had just a few hours left until this time.
About hotel prices: it is usual to negotiate room prices in case of late arrivals. Regular accommodation costs 2,000 rubles here, but if it is a short stay, the price drops to 1,000 rubles, which is below 100 litas.
Roads are no miracle here, however driveable, sometimes full of potholes, sometimes covered with gravel, but at no greater risk to the tyres. In short, everything works fine, no surprises so far. Talk to you tomorrow!“
Day 7
16 000 km in 15 days, approaching halfway
Aiming to drive 16,000 km from Lisbon to Vladivostok in 15 days, Lithuanian journalist Vitoldas Milius has reached halfway on Day 7. However, he says it is still early to rejoice as the most complicated part of the trip is still ahead.
“I am in Omsk now and have managed to drive more than 7,500 km since starting off (until 11 am Lithuanian time – Ed.). I plan to reach Novosibirsk by the evening. Though I am almost halfway, I have crossed the area which was denser populated, had more settlements and towns, and now the sadder part lies ahead of me, just roads and fields, so I have to plan my trip in order to drive to some settlement. The radio I have is a great help, as truck drivers provide lots of valuable information about roads and police posts.
Crossing the Urals yesterday was hard, the weather was bad, it rained the whole day and the road was also not good: many potholes, lots of lorries and cars. It was hard to overtake slower cars, there were lots of police around, however, I managed to avoid any closer contact with them.
Beside this, local people confirmed what I have heard previously: that the mountain road to Chelyabinsk was frequented by criminals of all sorts; however, I could not see any sign of them while looking around. It is hard to imagine those bandits could do something bad on the road with such intense traffic, with cars following each other.
Some stretches of road are ridden with potholes. For instance, the road may be fine for 70 km, followed by a piece of 20 m full of potholes. Other than that, everything is fine, I am happy with my car, especially the chassis and the tyres. Potholes are many, but they do not feel that much.
The weather is also interesting: the temperature reaches 20 degrees centigrade during the daytime, but lakes are still frozen. Therefore evenings and nights are shrouded in the thickest fog I have ever seen, which makes driving practically impossible as I can barely see beyond the bonnet. It seems that local drivers also find this unusual as roadside ditches are full of offroaded trucks. True, such road accidents may not be considered very dangerous, as 10-20 km/h speed is prevalent; even so, seeing the road is a problem. Drivers are helping each other: one truck is helped out of the roadside ditch by five drivers, two of whom also end up in a ditch soon. This is the way they help each other out of this mess. Upon seeing this, driving in the darkness makes no sense any more.
As I mentioned yesterday, it gets dark very early now, so I have “switched” to the time zone I am in now. I am using the local rather than Lithuanian time to drive, as much as possible in daylight. Usually I start driving at 3 am Lithuanian time and my body has no problem with this.
Of course, one needs a rest to feel good. So every evening I have a challenge of finding decent budget accommodation. “Small” local cities counting populations in millions have quite good hotels available, but a night stay there costs about 300 litas, while I make my best to fit into 100 litas. Most often, upon entering a city I would ask local taxi drivers where to find a better but inexpensive hotel. This tactic usually works.
I stopped at the new Renault representative office in Chelyabinsk, which has a European-standard service. I talked to the showroom management and local journalists. It seemed that the crisis was over in Russia. To buy the same car I drive now (named "Renault Sandero“ in Russia) I would be put in a queue until September. The locals say that the car market starts growing, however expensive cars are less and less popular, while many people go for cheaper models.
Day 8
16,000 km, no change in scenery for hundreds of kilometres over 15 days
Lithuanian journalist Vitoldas Milius has already covered half of his 16,000 km journey from Lisbon to Vladivostok in a bid to set a new world record. He has been on the road for a week now, says he is not yet exhausted and keeps driving at well over 1,000 km per day.
“I am getting close to Krasnoyarsk, I still have some 200 km to go (at 11 a.m. Lithuanian time – ed.). I have covered almost 8,800 km since I set off. It is hard to say how far I will go today yet. The nearest city on my route is Irkutsk, but it is still a long way to go, and seeing that it’s already 3 pm down here, I will most likely not make it that far.
I made some good progress yesterday, did some 1,200 – 1,300 km. The weather has changed since yesterday, when it was warm, with temperatures of around 20 degrees, and now I can see snow on the curb, and it’s just 3 degrees Centigrade.
What’s interesting is that yesterday I could only see marshland, birches and nothing else around, with distances between villages becoming increasingly longer. You can cover as much as 300 km and the scenery will be the same. Of course, I sometimes pass villages, service stations, cafes, other cars and trucks. Meanwhile, police are a considerably rarer sight; apparently, there’s not much for them to do here.
Last night I made a stop in Novosibirsk where I was faced with some unforeseen difficulties. As always, as soon as I entered the city I asked the first taxi driver I met what was the best place to stay for the night, but he started preaching about how all the hotels are too expensive and renting an apartment would be so much better. Of course, I did not buy that, however after I popped into several hotels I found out that the city was playing host to some sort of a fair and every hotel had been booked out.
After I failed to find an accommodation, a security guy at one hotel suggested he would help me find an apartment for the night. A lady soon presented herself, and after a spot of haggling I got a two-room apartment for roughly 150 litas for the night. Even thought I took off very early the next morning, I still got caught up in huge traffic and was a bit delayed.
I have been travelling for a week now, but I don’t feel exhausted, there are no problems, everything’s fine. The thing is that I need to sleep in any case, since I don’t have anyone to swap with, so I cannot afford to skimp on sleep. Plus driving at night is a hazard, the visibility is poor, you can hit a pothole that will bust a tyre and you’ll have to make a forced stop for repairs.”
Day 9
16,000 km in 15 days. Toughest part of the trip
“Currently, my watch shows 4 p.m. (11 a.m. Lithuanian time) and I’ve been driving for more than 8 hours. I am approaching the city of Zima and will be in Irkutsk in a couple of hours. Yesterday I thought that I wouldn’t reach Irkutsk and it’s a good thing I did not try to go that far because now I can say that this has been the hardest part of the trip so far.I’ve been driving on gravel roads mostly, but even they differ. Some can easily accommodate speeds of about 80–90 km/h, yet there are stretches where you have to stay under 5–10 km/h. At times, the water level went up to the bonnet. While faced with this kind of a challenge, I hesitated and then decided to give it a go and drive on. Everything was fine, I passed through every tight spot, there was no flooding or stalling of the engine. So, the road tends to be pretty savage in places.Besides, it was snowing the whole afternoon yesterday, and the visibility was low. But the road was not slippery, my winter tyres have performed well, and I’ve had no problems with the car itself either. So far, I’ve had no need to reach for the toolbox I packed back in Lithuania.And although this is the most difficult leg because of the bad road, there are no police around, the traffic is light, so everything is smooth otherwise. I was apprehended by the police at one post, but since there are not many cars passing by, they’re just stopping everyone. We had a friendly chat and they asked me jokingly how I was finding their roads. I said I sometimes wished I had an amphicar to dive through.I’ve noticed that the tarmac is totally ruined in small towns. It is weird to be welcomed by even deeper potholes and puddles as you leave the country and enter a town. I’ve seen children being taken to school by 6x6 Ural trucks.I spent the night at this town Kamsk, where I stayed at a true “Soviet” hotel. But it’s OK, it was comfy and cheap (about 1,000 roubles). I got a “suite”, but the only piece of luxury was that I could boil a cup of water myself in my room.There is some discrepancy in the distance travelled. Currently, the odometer of the car shows that I have done 9,711 km since Lisbon, and the Altas system points that the distance I have covered is now 10,696 km. I think the difference was caused by the thick tyres, so the Altas reading should be the correct one.Best regards to the readers and expect to read more on Monday. Bye!”
Day 12
16 000 km in 15 days. The target is close
Lithuanian journalist Vitoldas Milius is persistently getting close to his destination, which is about 500 km away. He had the goal of making the road trip from Lisbon to Vladivostok in 15 days, but unless anything comes in his way, the journey will be over sooner.
“Right now I am on my way to Vladivostok and still have some 500 km o travel (at 11 am Lithuanian time). It’s 7 pm by my watch, so far we’re having enough light and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be dark soon. I am planning to end the journey this very day Lithuanian time. The changes since yesterday have been that not only it is getting dark later, but the weather is different too. It was only yesterday that the temperature outside was around 2-3 degrees below zero Centigrade, and now we have 21 degrees above.
My progress during the weekend was quite good. I spent one of the nights in Chita. I had heard that there’d be no more proper road to follow after this town. I found out on Saturday that there is actually a road, but it is currently still under construction. Where there is road, driving is really good, but the 20-30 km sections that have not been resurfaced yet are abysmal, I had to drive over horrible gravel. Those sections were full of potholes and sharp stones.
At first it appeared that the car can handle this quite easily even at a speed of 100 km per hour, yet after some time I had to stop and change a punctured tyre, which I just had to leave there for good as it had been torn beyond repair. I have to admit that I had underestimated the road, although on the bright side, it was only one tyre that got punctured, it could have been worse. Later on I could see a lot of cars and trucks on the roadside, their drivers busy replacing wheels. After that I had to slow down to 50 kmph.
And the view on both sides of the road was creepy with no villages or gas stations or proper lodging around. So last night I made a stop at a service station and spent the night in the car. There were many cars and trucks parked around. That was the place they bring second-hand cars from Japan to Russia, so one really would have a hard time finding a car with the driving wheel on the left.
By the way, it was good I had packed some fuel to boost octane count as I was leaving Lithuania, as by the end of the journey I could not have done without it, since gas stations are only serving A80- or A92-grade petrol.
And I am feeling great, thinking of how to end the journey, this set of mind really keeps me going.“
16 000 km in 15 days. Challenge completed!
The drive from Lisbon to Vladivostok is over! Lithuanian journalist Vitoldas Milius had planned to cover this distance in 15 days in a bid to set a new world record, yet the end result exceeded the expectations, with the journey finished in 11 days and almost 16 hours. Milius departed from Cabo da Roca in Portugal on April 15 at 2 am Lithuanian time and reached Vladivostok, the capital of the Primory’e region and the south-eastern-most point of Russia on April 26, at 5:45 pm Lithuanian time.
The following are Milius’s first impressions upon reaching his final destination for DELFI readers:
“The trip has been really interesting in every respect, yet I still need a bit of time to realise what I have managed to pull off. One part of the journey was Europe, which can hardly impress anyone, but crossing Russia is something unique. Still, I can now say that there’s nothing terrible about it, the roads are passable. I had heard a lot of stuff from other travellers and knew what I should expect, more or less, but no one was there to tell me what I would be in for beyond Chita. And so before I set off I only knew the approximate number of kilometres I’d have to travel, as there were different ways to plan the route. So instead of the 16,000 kilometres planned I covered slightly less, about 15,200 km.
“I think this distance can be done even faster. Because at the start of the drive I stopped over in Lithuania for a day. What’s more, I could have saved time by being less picky about overnight stays, but I did not want to take any chances and so I made time allowances to make the journey comfortable too; otherwise, I might have never crossed the finishing line at all. And should anyone wish to repeat this journey, to make it faster or to just use the same route for travels, I could give them some advice and help them choose the right roads. I am really not afraid of someone becoming prepared to beat my achievement in the future.
I am feeling slightly tired, it is 2 am (6 pm Lithuanian time) in Vladivostok already. I have been driving for the last two days without proper rest and therefore I want to sleep at least till noon tomorrow. And then I plan to meet Vladivostoks mayor, to whom I will pass on a letter from the mayor of Vilnius.
“I have booked plane tickets to Lithuania in advance and I am planning to get back home on May 3, which is when the world record of driving from Lisbon to Vladivostok will be registered. Unless I can exchange the tickets and return sooner, I will have to think of something that I can do around here, but it is a large city, there are things to see. Besides, I am bringing some water from the Atlantic that I am going to spill into the Pacific Ocean.
Best regards to the readers and I’ll see you in Lithuania!”
VITOLDAS IN VLADIVOSTOK! in 11 days 16 hours!
Write comments:
