Blog
World Record Run: From Magadan to Lisbon (1st July - 7th July)
Lisbon. The final day.
At our final day of our staying in Lisbon we once again visited the police department close to Lisbon EXPO center, where we stopped our time at early morning. Read more about Lisbon. The final day.
We set a New World Record!
After great support from Kuehne + Nagel and the German Embassies at the Belarus – Poland border we reached Germany at 7 o`clock in the morning, which we crossed until 14:15. After that we crossed France in a little bit more than 9 hours to get to Spain. In Germany we filled our engine with a little off oil Lukoil Genesis VN SAE 5W-30, because there we made our the 7th oil samples checking. Read more about We set a New World Record!
Goodbye, Russia and Hello, Europe!
At the morning of the 5th of July we passed through the Ural mountains and came to European part of Russia. Our way led through Ufa, Kazan, Cheboksary, Nizhny Novgorod and Vladimir. It was much worse, than the other days, because there were a lot of traffic and road reconstruction. Read more about Goodbye, Russia and Hello, Europe!
From Siberia over the Ural
After Krasnoyarsk the traffic became more and more intensive. The section between Omsk, Tyumen and Kurgan cities has awful roads. There is a lot of dirt, mess and repairment on the road. And also here we saw a lot of broken cars and trucks. We met one of them - the truck driver, who stucked for one week, because of broken engine. Read more about From Siberia over the Ural
Around Baikal Lake
After coming to Amour highway and passing through Tchita city, we came to Buryatiya. The landscapes here are quite similar to Mongolia And the driving here is a pleasure – there is not so much cars on the road. Here we met a lovely couple from Magadan who gave us so nice coffee in national cups and tasty home-maid pies. Read more about Around Baikal Lake
Back on asphalt!
The highway between ferry and Yakutsk was difficult and time to time flooded. It`s a dirt road with big bumps. But we managed to do this and came to east side of Yakutsk at 07:00 o`clock a.m. There we met our tyre dealer Oleg Shumilov from Goodyear who made great job for us. So we changed our Wrangler AT with Kevlar tyres to Wrangler HP model. Read more about Back on asphalt!
We made Kolyma highway!
Kolyma highway – is a hardest part of our World Record Driving – It`s also called “The Road of Bones”. It`s unpredicted for weather and road conditions. During driving on this road everything can happen or nothing. We spent about 25 hours to pass it and we were very happy of our time. The performance of Goodyear Wrangler AT tyres with Kevlar was excellent. Read more about We made Kolyma highway!
We started!
After calculating the whole route we decided to start at Friday morning on 1 st July. Also we hired another car which put our Goodyear Wrangler HP tyres to Yakutsk, where we will install them to our car and put off our current Goodyear Wrangler AT with Kevlar tyres. Read more about We started!
Scout Tour: From Lisbon to Magadan (9th - 29th June)
Rest in Magadan
Magadan is the end of russian roads and it is a final point before our start. And we were very glad to see how people were interested in our car and project – on every crossroad drivers were turning heads, passangers made pictures, people talked to us and tried to help with everything just like our friend and fixer Konstantin. Read more about Rest in Magadan
Finally we made it to Magadan
It's interesting to see, how many motorbike groups are on "Kolyma" highway. We met two groups from Poland and Russia. And all of them told us about their fueling range problems. We drove through several road construction areas, where VW Touareg went through deep mud surfaces. Also we crossed two small rivers. Read more about Finally we made it to Magadan
Road of Bones
After a short stop in Yakutsk we finally reached the start of the real adventure: the Kolymar Highway, or also known as the Road of Bones. A ot of stories are woven around this road, which is always plagued by flooding and landslides. Especially the extremely sharp rocks are hard on us, these little granite blocks easily cut your skin open. Read more about Road of Bones
Around Yakutsk with a famous walker
It was wonderful and very interesting to meet a great hero: Karl Bushby - a british ex-soldier, who has been walking around the world since 16 years, leaving Punta Arenas and Chile in 2000. Shortly before Yakutsk we met him, when he was pushing his trailer on "Lena" highway. We spoked with him about an hour a got great inspiration for our own challenge. Read more about Around Yakutsk with a famous walker
Irkutsk and the loneliness of Siberia
We have now reached Irkutsk, where we directly drove to the Volkswagen dealer out here. He gave the VW Touareg a last check up - great work, thank you very much. Afterwards we went to beautiful lake Baikal the oldest an deepest freshwater lake of the world by the way. Read more about Irkutsk and the loneliness of Siberia
Krasnojarsk in Russia
The streets out here are often in repair and in spite of the loneliness, we have to face longer traffic jams because of the main roads, which are under construction during every summer time. The quality of the diesel is decreasing, so we are very happy to have the extra tanks to reach good quality fuel stations always.
Keep up with us! Read more about Krasnojarsk in Russia
Ural Mountains of Russia
We’ve passed the Ural mountains and reached the Asian part of Russia. For far ranges of kilometers we see now birches left and right on the streets - a great view. It is also the more rural area that we are turning to now, with more acres of field every mile we are going east. With the good weather there are many picture stops of the wonderful countryside of Russia.
Keep up with us! Read more about Ural Mountains of Russia
Checking the Touareg in Ufa
In Ufa we passed by a Volkswagen workshop to check on the Touareg before we got into Siberia, direction Novosibirsk.. No problem occurs. It is now that we are surely looking for the right weather to make sure that we are passing Russia in the right circumstances. However, the Volkswagen Touareg is a great partner, as it always is - and, the continental weather is being quite
Read more about Checking the Touareg in Ufa
Moscow by night
In such a big city like Moscow, it is best to do your car pictures at night. So we really used this time to shoot in the city center around the Kreml, also having the third driver for the world record drive, Peter Bakarov, with us. The next morning, we took the M7 to the East and got immideatly stuck into the typical traffic jam situation around Moscow. Read more about Moscow by night
Moscow, sponsor visits and photo shooting
We reached our first big milestone - Moscow. We planned to stay two days in the Russian capital to meet up with some sponsors and Volkswagen Russia.
Read more about Moscow, sponsor visits and photo shooting
Minsk to Moscow
After our sleepover in Pinsk, we got on our way to Moscow. We drove along the main traverse, a long and lonely road without villages or people around. A nice distraction brought this young man on his bicycle, driving from Murmansk to Lake Baikal. With his extra high handlebar, he outdares the loneliness and the giant trucks out there. A great performance and a real motivation for us.
Read more about Minsk to Moscow
From Minsk to Pinsk
After our day in the SOS Children’s Village, we came back to Minsk, the capital of Belarus. We were invited to visit the German embassy, where we had the honor to introduce our World Record Drive to Peter Dettmar, the German ambassador in Belarus.
Read more about From Minsk to Pinsk
SOS Children's Village in Marina Gorka
Yesterday, we have been to the SOS Children’s village in Marina Gorka, 60km south-eastern of Minsk. We have been welcomed very warmly in the village and Dmitry guided us through the Anlag which has been founded in 2003. It is always an honour for us to be invited to one of the SOS Children villages all over the world. More than 70 children live there, who were excited about our new world record Read more about SOS Children's Village in Marina Gorka
Through Spain, France, Germany, Poland to Belarus
We have left Lisbon after a great day with sunny weather. Through the night, we drove through Spain to France, the next day through Germany and Poland. It was good, smooth driving on mostly empty highways and we were able to test the best route for the world record run through Europe. Read more about Through Spain, France, Germany, Poland to Belarus
A new world record project is on!
Great news everyone!! We are excited to announce, that a new world record project is on! Rainer Zietlow, and his team, again including Marius Biela, and a Russian Blogger are an the road again. Read more about A new world record project is on!