Сергей (Sergej) said he was going to go back to the city today, and since I wasn’t feeling very well, I decided it was best to go with him.

So I said good-bye to the bay, which had turned into multiple shades of grey again:

Then we were on our way.

We stopped to take a picture of a place that had an interesting sign in the driveway:

Look close – “дискотека” (discoteka) is what it says.

We didn’t have time to drink, dance and be merry though, so I just snapped another picture of the esplanade and got back in the car:

Sometimes we would come across interesting Soviet artifacts on the way:

But mostly it was just a long dusty road that – again – reminded me of Africa (or my imagination of it).

We took a little detour in order to visit one of Сергей’s friends – Анатолий (Anatoly):

He is a mine worker turned ornithologist, and he showed us some very interesting pictures from his many years in the freezing shafts of Чуко́тка (Chukotka) in the extreme Northeast of the country.

His home had a huge backyard with an amazing view:

On our way back, something interesting happened though.

Take a look at the GPS-track of our way to Анатолий’s house and back:

“Shortcut” on larger map

Here’s the situation: we are coming from the northwest, and his home is in the easternmost region of the map, where the trail ends. You can see that there are two ways that possibly lead to Анатолий’s house. The important factor is that there is a certain white line that divides the map diagonally – this is a small creek that we have to cross if we take the longer road that goes around:

“Shortcut” on larger map

Of course we opted for the longer road:

This worked well on our way to Анатолий, but when we tried it again on our way back, disaster struck:

After we managed to pull the car out, it wouldn’t start anymore. Сергей stayed absolutely cool though. He made a few phone calls, then opened and cleaned some parts of the engine while I laid out all the stuff that had gotten wet:

Once some dudes arrived in a tiny car and asked if it was safe to cross the water. We laughed and pointed at our dead truck. They decided to take the other way.

Finally, after a few hours of patient work, Сергей was able to start the car again, smiled, and off we were, this time on the short road that led home without having to cross the creek again.

The landscapes were breathtaking:

“Hey, you know what day it is today?” I asked Се́ргей.

“Saturday?”

“Nope.”

We both laughed very hard when I told him what day it was.

Soundtrack: Wiley – “Wot Do U Call It?”