Stefan - Ladoga (RUSSIA)

[Стефан]

До: Ладога 2008

Nope 146Mhz is for the Emergency unit at Russian Federation's the Red Cross. They make good money compared to our criteria, but they seem passionate enough to do it for free. Great professionals.
I'm pissed we didn't move our butts about these amateur radio operator trainings we planned. I would have been able to give you more information now.

[Стефан]

До: Ладога 2008

Another nice day. We realize all the team members who have a "C" permit (truck) are together. Which leaves the Dodge with the vodka, the brazier and the dry clothes, 200km away, with nobody to bring it in. Andrey takes off right away, but it will be at least five hours before his return. The rain is scarce now, and the temperature is around 0C. Not exactly fun, but Moussa helps us. Moussa, the guy we just met:



(He made this pictures and the few next ones)

Moussa is actually Kolia, from Piter. We know each other from several years, we just never met till now. A Man with a capital M, and an electricity guru. Usually he rides with his wife, but she's not here now. He pulls me towards his camp. I want to stay, but Helicopter, with a salesman voice, almost forces me to go - I should warm myself up, I'd be useless with a pneumonia. So me and Moussa run a hundred metters to his camp, and the secret unveils:



Here they are, the guys from outer space, team number 732, the crew with the blue Toyota We all laugh. They give me a dry jumpsuit, and pour me a big drink. It's useless, my hands shake so bad, they have to give me the whole bottle to hold. According to them, in such conditions, one shouldn't drink that slowly - the thermal shock will take you away. Or the swamp will eat you. Or a bear will come from the wodds, will drink your vodka and will eat you for snacks. Or... In any event, I rush. My hands stop shaking. Then starts the slow, joyful drinking, all by the rules - with toasts, wishes, and everything else. We talk about everything, jeeps, riding, mountains, life... Then Helicopter joins us, and it gets better.



There's no need to rush. This is the Vidlitsa camp. On the next day we will have two races which are four minutes each - on the beach and on the dunes. If our broken front right leaf spring holds till then, of course.













People take the best viewing spots



Then I meet FSA for the first time - same here, we know each other from years, but haven't met so far.



The beach race consists in a few turns with two mandatory entries in the water.



The sand is very hard and stable









We finish, and go to the waiting line for the dune race.













Tires are left at 0.8 - 1.0 bars, then you ride on 2nd or 3rd gear with a light throttle. Looks pretty similar to our races. Here, very few pilots seem to be able to handle the slopes, some of them obviously panic. Not Helicopter.

Then we start looking for a leaf spring to buy. While we raced, all the shops closed. Shops closing at 5pm seem to make guys from the large cities wonder. Active live from 9am to 5pm doesn't make sense to them. I prefer not to tell them what our village stores look like, with their supermarkets smaller than a russian village's deli. Not to mention the products available: I have indeed a larger choice of french cheeses. Just not in a little wooden deli in the middle of the forest.
A local offroader yawns, then gives as a brand new UAZ leaf spring as a gift, asking us what we'll do with it. Ours are shorter and with less leafs. We thank him, and take just the leafs we need.
Back in the camp, we hang the beast's vertebra to dry:



Ten steps further, I notice someone dug shooting pits. While I lie in one, I think - a shooting platoon, the lake was in their backs. At the middle of the link - a large round trench, like a collapsed dugout. I wonder who on earth made it all the way to here for military training ?!?

Then it hits me. There were no trainings. And no dugout collapsed here last year. This thing is way older. I have nobody to ask - what platoon was trapped here, their backs to the water when the bomb hit, all these years ago...
I stay there, silent, with my mind empty. The Winter War. The Talvisota. This is in part where it happened...

Then I get up and go get the bottle of Rakia for my friends. After all, today is my birthday.

[Стефан]

До: Ладога 2008

The two Andreys are here. Sasha and Volodia have a tradition. Come the evening, they stay on the bank for half an hour, listening to the silence. They invite me as well. I take my chair, and the bottle.







The apricot rakia goes down in seconds with smacks and slaps. They toast, ask for more, think a bit, then decide that once all this is over, there's no point in running to Siberia, if God already made Bulgaria. Then some troublemakers come, and the silence is over.





It's not the first time they fly over the camp, I guess they are filming for somebody. Then two Defenders fly by. We throw a beam on their path, they go through it and disapear. We guess they'll come back with e vengeance. We wait for them. I tie my shoes, hide me glasses and prepare myself for the short wait before they come back in numbers. They don't. Either they were not sure who's gonna have who's neck, either they realised they'll be thrown away from the race anyway - driving on the beach is strictly prohibited.
We go. We declare that all types of rakia are a gift from higher лежел. Later, space foods will be declared such as well. They make me a gift - the knife I was looking for everywhere. When did they find the time to turn Moscow upside down to find it ? That's not all. They also give me a pair of real tank crew's goggles, and a толстовка, or "tolstoy shirt", with an official Ladoga Trophy shoulder patch. The best stuff ever, all chicks will be mine now
Then Helikopter gives me a sleeve patch from where he made his military service. A black shield with a sword, and a single letter on top. I immediately sober up, tear away tha national flag patch from my sleeve, and we exchange them. Most of the people looking wonder what all this is about, they've never served in the army I guess. We let them wonder. We haave nothing to add. Then more guests come, and the party goes till the morning. We stay with Helicopter, talking about a different time and a different life.
The next day, Sasha and Volodia go to the track, while we stay there to move the camp.

[Стефан]

До: Ладога 2008

I never thought that moving the camp will be a full time job for several people for half a day. Then we're on our way - asphalt, villages, rivers, forests... It's all here.













From there on, the area used to be Finn territory.



It stays all the same, the villages and the people, it's just that the names of the villages become difficult to pronounce.





100m after the crossroad, the road stays the same, with road signs.







It's just that there's no longer asphalt on the road. Simple grader road. Millions of kilometers throughout Russia.















I can't help but think about all the people I've seen condescending to Russia, and about our own Bulgarian 200km highway which is still not finished after 30 years. It makes me laugh. This is the real deal, endless grader roads through impossible terrain, not the inter village alleys of the microscopic Europe.
Then I stop laughing.









The anti tank fences on the front side of the Mannerheim line. The line Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim built to stop the Russian army's advance during the Winter War. They are here, just like they were the first day. Endless. No way to cross them easily even today. What it must be like when you cross them with bullets and shrapnel flying over your head...

Camp is ready in a few hours, with the main interesting thing - our antenna.



And then the buzzers come back. Bzzzttt...



After the third pass, somebody in the next camp is fed up with it, and lites their asses up.



And they disappear, never to come back.
The Mega Drive is on the next day. This is a stage with all types of offroad. Last year it was too easy, so we don't even read what's in it for this year. Big mistake... This lack of attention will let us leave Phil almost alone, with three "navigators" who never saw anything else but pavement, and with a dead winch.
He'll still manage to build a ramp, and jack the engine out of the water. Evacuation takes hours, and with exhaustion, we start making more and more mistakes. Kukushka hits two small birches and leaves her rear cardan shaft there, while the winch'es rollers joyfull fall appart. While the left hub dies, Helicopter, with a pervert smile, holds in his hand a the cups from a GAZ cardan, and slowly transforms them in Chevrolet one with a grinder. We do have a spare one, brand new, but of course it doesn't fit.

This is what the sky looks like at 1.30am



And this is what the landscape looks like in the morning.













There's no point in going for the last SS. We would kill both vehicles, with no result. We decide to head directly to the last camp. This is the end of the race for us.

There are more antitank fences right behind the tents. This is where they breached the line.
The metal detector doesn't stop beeping for a second. There are no stones in the ground, only metal. You can see to where the companies made it alive, and then to where made it the ones running behind them. There were way more deads than living. And then they made it, and passed the tanks through. A useless war.

The last camp is small, and all are stuffed together.











We stay for one more day. We make a fire, there are fireplaces left. We nail bolts and screw in nails We wipe the mud out. Somehow we bring the cars to an almost civilian look. It starts raining, this rain will obviously be a long one. Thirty more kilometers through the forest, then the paved road. We get heavyhearted as Civilization catches us back. Ladoga 2008 is over.

[Стефан]

До: Ладога 2008

I have never written that much in my life. Not something like this, at least. I am unpleasantly surprised with my own emotional reactions. It's too much for me. And I don't want this to turn into a soap opera. I will be re-thinking and re-writing stuff soon. But I have to thank all those who helped me right away.

Those who helped with money without even knowing me. Those who gave me expensive equipment, with no warranty to ever see it back. Those who believed I am the right person for this job.

My greatest thanks to colonel Moralez, him and Igor Platohin, for the help and cheering up, and for the work which otherwise would have needed several communications platoons. To Helicopter - not the Mi-24, but Andrey Beresnev, Volodia Moiseenko, the chief of the rescuers, and to Mango, also known as Mihail Natey - Golenko from Piter, without which even my stay at Moscow or Piter would have been impossible. I can't even imagine what I have cost them. To the whole team, for being together, for doing what we did, and for teaching me what I learned, and for showing me all I saw. To all the people I met at Ladoga.
To all - for being here.

[Венцислав Петров]

До: Ладога 2008 - Официален репортаж от Стефан

Stefan's participation to Ladoga 2008 and this article wouldn't have been possible without:



OFFRoad-Bulgaria.com
OFFROAD BG Magazine

General sponsor: T.T + Т.Т. Младши


Тони Илиев
Spas55
rumbata
Иван Алексиев
Станко Вълчанов
Pursie
Александър Василев Димитров
Евгении Кукурешков
vladi333
iiiopo
Павлена Николова
Tramp
Веско
sabin
МИШО/ELEKTRIK
zzlatev
Yaro
peppy
Ivich
BatGeorgeone
Явор(dorzi)

The pictures were made with dust and water proof gear from Olympus, some of it provided by the official importer of Olympus Cameras for Bulgaria

Thanks to all the others which we might have missed here