....Just had two wonderfully exhilarating days getting to St Peterburg.....Set off from Petrozavodsk yesterday in the rain....But it was hot which made the daily game of "dodge the pothole in the town" even more scary as my goggles were steamed up even before we set off!....After 20 miles on the highway, we turned off to follow the 260 mile road around Lake Ladoga.....Much of the road yesterday was new highway and a simple pleasure to ride....Soon it was sunny and remained like that nearly all the day....At one point we followed a sign to a memorial.....

....It was a very sad place, My Russian was not good enough to understand but I had the feeling that it was a mass grave and the site of a wartime massacre....There were old relics of life and war on the graves including horseshoes, helmets, bullets and gasmasks....It rained while we were there.....Afterwards we rode into the town of Sortavala, not far from the Finnish Border. There we met two Russian guys on 250 Honda XR's. We'd heard about a beautiful canyon close by so we rode upto the canyon with them and hired a rowing boat....One of the Russians rowed.....It was very beautiful.....an old granite quarry, now filled with water and hosting bungee jumps etc.....

Afterwards, we headed back to town, had a meal and searched for somewhere to make camp.....We found a lovely village by a lake where we pitche the tent....Lots of village kids visited us as did the local dogs!....

Todays road was not so luxurious....It started with nearly 40k of corrugated gravel....Because of the discomfort 2-up with all the luggage, we rode on the muddy hard shoulder whenever possible....I was wishing for a new T63 at this point instead of my new Dunlop racing tyre which does a good job on the road but not so good off road!....Whenever there was a town or village, there would be a little bit of tarmac.....At one of these I got so excited, went yippeee!, opened the throttle and was then promptly stopped by the local Police for speeding....59kmh in a 40 kmh area.....He looked over the bike for a few moments then let us on our way....Wow!
The road got better and busier as we approached St Petersburg....Once again we were chased by a pack of dogs....It happens almost daily!..... 
....Riding into St Petersburg was great.....We rode right into the centre before looking for our appartment....We're renting a room from a family member of our Russian teacher....We've landed and it's going to be great spending a few days here now....