Tuesday 17th July 2018<\/p>\n
I woke up at stupid’o clock and at to wait till 7.30 for breakfast finally departing the Volga Volga hotel at 8.10 after strapping the bag on securely, a short downhill ride and I was at the river again but no boatman or anyone else around \ud83d\ude41 a van driver said the nearest crossing was 35km away! I decided to give Vladimir of RCTC a call and sure enough 5 mins later a power boat turned up! He is truly a miracle man \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
Once on the other side I at to push the laden bike up the embankment an action I at to repeat many times as the first 40km was a sandy\/stony track with many steep hills incredibly tiring in the heat with a full bike and the granny ring refusing to obey orders. I missed the RCTC truck and it’s table groaning with goodies & will definitely have to increase the bike weight even more carrying food as I didn’t pass a shop until finally arriving in Kineshma.<\/p>\n
I bought a large ginger beer and only after nearly finishing it did I notice it had 7% alcohol \ud83d\ude41 I eventually got the assistant to find me a Kvass<\/a> which is turning into my favourite drink here.<\/p>\n Kineshma is obviously a lower class holiday town than Ples both on the banks of the Volga. I quickly found the boat hotel on the Volga the receptionist spoke English so 800Rubles (\u00a323.20) later I had a room and promptly collapsed on the bed and slept for 3 hours! Later in their restaurant she helped me navigate their menu so hopefully I’m now better nourished than last night.<\/p>\n The most surprising thing so far is that all the shops take contactless payment even for things costing 15p in fact some insist on it as I suspect there is a shortage of change.<\/p>\n My Wahoo says there is 2,200km to go so today’s 63km implies I will need 35 days!
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