Sochi dreams

The two-lane serpentine to Sochi is not so much painful as boring. One hundred kilometers in four hours. On one long and tedious stretch of the road, I dozed off for about 20 minutes. When I woke up, Misha said that in my dream I mumbled: “Kukisvumchorr ... Azimuth ...” (The first is the unofficial name that we gave to our car. The second is the name of the hotel. )

I almost believed him.

We arrived in Sochi at 6:12 pm, our VW Polo had 5651 kilometers on the meter.

Google Maps suggested that the distance between Kirkenes and Sochi was 4539 kilometers, which we had to cover in 59 hours. We, having made several stops along the way, traveled for more than 615 hours.

From the speakers in the car, Zemfira shouted: “Don’t let go!” We couldn't wait to get to the hotel and climb into the hot shower.

Text: Paul Richardson, Nadezhda Grebennikova Photo: Mikhail Mordasov, Nikon D810, 35/1.4

(Total 15 photos)

The next morning (and quite late) we set off towards Krasnaya Polyana. Halfway down we turned onto an unmarked, creviced cement road that climbed almost vertically uphill, past small villages with stunning views and boys selling some kind of bright orange fruit—but certainly not oranges.

We drove to Skypark (“Sky Park”) - an extreme entertainment attraction, it was built by a New Zealand company to scare Russians and foreigners who happened to be here. In the center of the park is a creepy Skybridge (“Heavenly Bridge”) 439 meters long. It is stretched over a gaping abyss, but there is no doubt about the strength of its design. I don't like heights and I was only able to walk forward on the bridge about five meters. Mikhail later swore that I walked no more than one and a half meters, but he, like all Russians, is prone to exaggeration. Strangely, I was the only one who felt the precariousness of the situation.

I crawled back onto the platform, dreaming of finding peace on the couch with a cup of coffee. Climbing the stairs, I noticed a couple who threw themselves into the abyss on the Sochi Swing attraction (“Sochi swing”). As I expected, they yelled piercingly.

I marveled at how different people are.

One extreme adventure a day was not enough for us. After Skybridge, we climbed into the “loaf” (the name Mountain Goat would have suited her better) to experience a 40-minute soul-shaking and gut-wrenching ride along a mountain, relatively speaking, road strewn with cobblestones the size of a human body.

We tried to get to Medoveevka, a village on the top of a mountain in the center of the Caucasian Reserve. There, Kristina Suderevskaya and her husband Dmitry Serov opened a wonderful family business - a soap factory. They've been doing this for seven years now. A year ago, they were joined by a friend who built a cool hotel and bar OLD Boys, which serves really good Caucasian burgers.

The ride down the mountain was made even more horrendous by the fact that it was all happening in total darkness.

Fortunately, the next day was calmer. We visited the monumental Olympic Park, a monument to Olympic abundance stretched along the valley. The park has impressively large areas overlooking the Black Sea, reminiscent of the grandeur of the architectural layout of the Stalin era. A spacious embankment stretches along the beach, it is protected by massive concrete structures - here, during a storm, waves several meters high rise. The waves rushed up and down the beach and made the smooth pebbles make a noise that sounded suspiciously like applause.

From a formal point of view, there were three reasons why a meeting with the PR director of the Sochi hockey club, Ksenia Tsukareva, should not have taken place.

First, Sochi is not the place where people should play hockey. It is a subtropical city of beaches, palm trees and outdoor cafes. Football or volleyball? Certainly! Hockey? Do not make me laugh.

Secondly, Tsukareva is a woman, and sports management is an area dominated by men. And in Russian sports, the situation is probably even tougher.

Thirdly, Tsukareva is a refugee from Ukraine.

Ksenia has achieved success thanks to her own willpower and hard work. And a bit of luck. Things are going pretty well for her, the team reached the playoffs of the Continental Hockey League this year, they are playing well this season, and Tsukareva is happy that she lives in Sochi.

On this optimistic note, we end our latest interview for the Spine of Russia project. We traveled 6,000 kilometers in 30 days, took serious interviews with four dozen Russian residents in 22 cities in 15 regions. We visited three geographical zones - in the tundra, taiga and steppes, saw five seas - the Barents, White, Baltic, Azov and Black, countless lakes and forests. And we were only stopped three times by the traffic police - and no incidents or fines!

Our journey was generously supported by about 400 crowdfunding sponsors, and their number is growing daily, as people are genuinely interested in Russia and how unusual we are about it. A book about our trip will be published in the spring, information about it and how to order it can be found at spineofrussia.org.

And in the end, we would like to especially mention our main sponsors. VW Russia, which provided us with a new reliable Polo car for our trips, which we will remember under the name Kukisvumchorr. The Russian chain of hotels "Azimut" in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Voronezh and Sochi, which warmly welcomed us and became our home. And Nikon Russia, who lent us some great photography equipment.

So what's next? Of course, Spine of America!