The Expedition - Day 1

Our Journey to Russia was about to begin and I think we met our first challenge pretty soon... packing!

Later on once we miraculously fit all our gear into the bags we arrived at Heathrow airport ready for our flight to Moscow and later a connecting flight to Mineralnye Vody where we would meet our guide Katia. The flights were long and draining and on finding out the van that would take us to the hostel was parked a country mile away and the journey itself would take a painstaking 4 hours, we prayed the day could only get better...

The journey was one I had never experienced before. lets just say driving in Russia is more like completing an obstacle race as fast as possible, trying not to hit other cars, or worse cows. Although worrying, it gave the group a joke to laugh about and everyone seemed to be well acqainted by the time we arrived.

The hostel was interesting, to say the least.