| Reaching out to clouds on the Petsenga mountains. |
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At around 10 o´clock a.m. two Volgas hit the streets of Murmansk. 100 rubels we loose in all and get a good look over the city during the two-hour roudtour. Of course, we celebrate the victory in the WW 2 against Germans and Finns. The town is decorated and proud of its heroic past; they have suffered a lot. |
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One can not feel deep joy gazing the huge statues. But the fjord of the Kola river makes one speechless. The schauffeur boasts in German: "Russia is a very rich country. We can afford to fill the river with submarines, merchant ships and other sea vehicles." The carrier Vladimir Kuznetsov and the atomic ice breaker Lenin are surrounded by two sank-down submarines and other vessels. As long as the eye reaches there are more abandoned ships. |
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We ask for special shops for cars and bikes. In the largest one for autos we find nothing to buy. The shop "Meteor" offers bikes, snowmobiles and "all terrain wehicles". Prizes: 3000-10000 rubels. Spare parts are are hard to find, even in a town with 450 000 inhabitatnts. |
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In Arktika we equip on conquering the Petsenga mountains; warm is the air down the fjord, but we need all we can get our hands on. The temperature will drop under zero on the ridge. Eino gets company. Ronni insists on a seat in the side car not in the van. That will be the ultimate test of the bike and Eino, the most talkative member of the team "Murmansk", but unfortunately not capable of speaking English. Having filled up at a Statoil station, the group proudly and loudly leaves the Murmansk town via Leningrad Sosse. | 
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After an hours search we find the way over the river Kola. The GAI stops the convoy for the third time in an ausual manner: three bikes awake the milis and they check Pekka´s papers only. Ronni got a bit afraid. She has not the right kind of stamps in her visa. No permssion to enter the Kola peninsula. |
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Seppo´s Dnepr has had it. The saddle breaks off. We find "spare parts for Ford". A fallen T-phone pole lends us copper wire. Even spare parts for Ford do not endure in Russia. The saddle must be tightened with binding belts after 10 or 20 kms. Nje proplema any more. |
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On the hills 4-5 APC-tanks thunder down the hill against us. After short warfare with fingers: one of the soldiers shows "V" and Eino his forefinger " Number One". No casualties this time. We reach the highest point of our journey. We fumble after sweaters, woollen mittens and commando caps. The missiles draw a broken line on the ridge in the horizon. A lone hound dog howls somewhere on the distant arctic hill. The wind blows calmly into the bones inside the grey clouds, where we have ended up. Hails spurt around us. Pictures! Of course! And Ronni keeps her appearences in the side car! |
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In 10 minutes we are in the green and warm Petsenga valley again. Pekka reminds us , that the area used to be a part of Finland . Again we have to admire the Russian way of honoring their wartime past. They lost a lot in WW2, and certainly they remember and show it. |
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Staraja Titov is the only checkpoint where we have to wait for for our papers to be examined in the guard with time. We presume that Ronni´s visa has caused the problem to the inspecting soldiers on the inland border of the military area. Maybe the soldiers preferred Roni leaving Russia with us to return back to Murmansk and Saint Petersburgh. Who knows, what the mighty Red Army has booked in this case! |
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Somewhat joyful we enjoy tasty salmon sandwiches and hot coffee in the Norwegian owned motel near the checkpoint, in a village with two houses and no peple living in it.
Two warnout APCs "protect" the motel. The older one has lost its iron bands; they lie on the ground rusting away from this earthly misery. The fence of the once guarded parking lot leans on itself to preserve the former dignity during the times of great changes. |
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For a reason we do not recognize in our hearts, we pass the Petsega town, once a Finnish winter harbour, just hitting the outkirts, where a Travellers' Church - a chapel for the random sinner on the way somewhere - shows the way to Zapoljarnyi.
Zapoljarnyi was fouded to serve as a habitation for the miners working in the open excaviation. In the slope to the town, someone wellcomes the tourists by a sign, that says: "WELLCOME TO HELL". In English. Petsenga Hotel is built by Norwegians for Norwegians searching for carnal pleasures in Russia. Therefore the prizes are high. 180 FM a night with sauna. The same trend was also easily noticed in Murmansk. |
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First time we take our bikes inside a guarded iron fencing.
Into the hot sauna. We repeat events of today and begin to feel at home. The heat and beer hound us tired. | What could be a better place than the bed! |
| And the night was refreshing without dance. | Norwegians must be happily wealthy and their moral internationally low! |
