Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
CNN
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Once I first got here up with the concept to drive from Tbilisi, Georgia to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia – a journey that may take me by Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia – the world was a unique place.

Nations have been simply starting to recuperate from the worldwide pandemic and, solely weeks after formally placing my plan into motion – beginning with the acquisition of a 1978 Toyota Land Cruiser – the warfare in Ukraine had simply began.

“No drawback,” I assumed. I wasn’t planning to drive by Ukraine.

Nonetheless, I must drive by Russia. And I’d be doing it solo, an American feminine, in a classic Land Cruiser that was something however inconspicuous.

It quickly turned clear this is able to not be the enjoyable overlanding expedition I initially envisioned.

With the warfare shortly escalating, I made a decision to delay my plans till the scenario calmed down. It wasn’t for an additional yr, in April 2023, that I lastly felt comfy sufficient to place my plans again in movement.

There was nonetheless one main hurdle to beat earlier than I may hit the highway: I needed to apply for a Russian visa – notoriously troublesome to get as an American citizen, warfare or not. (The US State Division has issued a Degree 4 “don’t journey” advisory for Russia.)

Making use of was easy sufficient. I discovered a Russian journey company to offer me with an invite letter and itinerary, bought Russian well being and medical insurance coverage and positioned a visa heart the place I may apply in individual in Tbilisi.

The whole lot submitted and out of my fingers, I used to be uncertain that my three-year vacationer visa could be authorized – particularly after having had a number of conversations with different vacationers who had all just lately been denied them.

Issues weren’t trying significantly optimistic, and the priority from associates and acquaintances was rising with every step I took with my planning.

A lot to my reduction, and shock, the visa was authorized. Whether or not it was as a result of I utilized in Tbilisi, or another unknown purpose, I nonetheless can’t say with any type of certainty. However at that second, my journey was formally set in movement and there was no going again.

Russian visa in hand, it was time to start out route planning, make my remaining automobile preparations, and pack.

This was no peculiar highway journey. I used to be shifting from Tbllisi to Ulaanbaatar, the place I might be primarily based as a contract journey author, so my life would want to slot in one automobile.

Sitting in entrance of my laptop and taking a look at Google Maps, I spotted the journey could be round 7,000 kilometers in whole – 90 hours if I have been to drive straight by with none stops or delays.

Instantly, I bumped into two issues. First, the land border between Georgia and Azerbaijan closed in the course of the pandemic and remains to be but to open. That left me with just one driving possibility.

I must take the route north of Tbilisi, crossing into Russia from the Georgian city of Kazbegi, a route that may go by a hall of Russia with the typically restive areas of Chechnya and Dagestan on one facet and Ukraine on the opposite. The Ukrainian cities of Mariupol and Donetsk, and a still-raging warfare, would solely be 600 kilometers (360 miles) away.

In the meantime, sanctions on Russia have been bringing a number of consideration to this precise route. Russian residents have been allegedly coming into Georgia, getting what they couldn’t get of their residence nation, and driving again. Quite a lot of these purchases have been automobiles, bringing elevated scrutiny to who was driving what, and the place.

With a automotive my measurement, bearing Georgian plates, pushed by an American who doesn’t communicate any Russian, I used to be more and more nervous.

And so, with per week left earlier than my deliberate departure from Tbilisi, I made the costly resolution to vary my plans. As an alternative of coming into Russia from Georgia, I might ship my automotive.

Lastly, I had a route and a plan I used to be comfy with. I packed my Land Cruiser onto a truck in Tbilisi and booked a flight to Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital and largest metropolis.

9 days later, in April, my transport agent picked me up from my lodge in Baku to assist expedite the customs course of. Then it was an hour’s drive to the port in Alat the place, after sleeping within the automotive in a loading lot, I boarded a ferry within the very early hours of the morning to cross the Caspian Sea.

The crossing solely takes about 24 hours, however port delays meant time onboard was nearer to 48 hours. Fortunately, I had a non-public cabin with a rest room, in addition to pleasant journey companions, together with a couple overlanding from Europe to Japan, who have been additionally transport their automobile.

The ship’s chef seen us uncommon passengers and made a particular effort to provide us dishes he was proud for us to strive. Meals have been included on the ship, and whereas the meals was modest, and never all elements of the boat have been heat and comforting, his kindness made the journey memorable. (Click on by the above Instagram put up for a have a look at the meals and lodging on the ferry.)

We unloaded on the Kazakhstan port city of Kuryk and I climbed into my Land Cruiser.

I might now need to drive the size of Kazakhstan, famed for its rugged, mountainous surroundings. This is able to restrict my time in Russia to simply 1,000 or so kilometers (about 600 miles) by the Altai area. From there, I may enter western Mongolia on the Tsagaannuur border in Bayan-Ölgii province and make the three-day drive to Ulaanbaatar.

(All through the highway journey, I relied closely on iOverlander and Caravanistan as up-to-date sources for border crossing recommendation, route planning suggestions and discovering camp and gas spots alongside the way in which.)

The journey introduced many challenges.

In Kazakhstan, I scrambled for a lodge in Astana as a world chess championship had your entire metropolis booked out. A burned-out rear brake mild repair put me not on time and unable to flee town earlier than dusk (I had a no driving at nighttime rule), and with temperatures shortly dropping to -14 C (7 F), I wanted a spot to remain.

I used to be drained and anxious to get a lodge room. Once I lastly did discover one, I did not do not forget that diesel freezes till I awoke panicked midway by the evening. I set free a sigh of reduction within the morning when the automotive began, but it surely solely made it a mile earlier than shutting down totally as I reached a gasoline station. My gas had certainly frozen the evening earlier than.

After manually pumping new diesel into the engine, I used to be capable of get again on the highway shortly. Disaster averted, I set my coordinates to Semey, the place I might spend two nights and take a full day of relaxation earlier than “the massive” border crossing.

At this level, driver fatigue was setting in. Driving a 2.5-ton, absolutely loaded stick-shift automobile for 12 hours a day is inevitably exhausting, irrespective of how exhilarating the journey is.

Once I arrived in Semey that evening, far not on time after the morning’s mishaps, I assumed it was like another metropolis on this a part of the world.

Little did I do know, throughout Soviet instances, Semipalatinsk, or Semey because it’s known as immediately, was a “closed metropolis.” Particular clearance was required to reside there, it didn’t seem on maps, and what was occurring inside was a thriller to most.

After the autumn of the Soviet Union, the rationale for this was revealed – it was the closest metropolis to the first Soviet nuclear take a look at website. Between 1949 and 1989 officers reportedly carried out 456 nuclear checks there, together with 340 underground and 116 atmospheric explosions.

The results on the native inhabitants are exhausting to overlook. Even immediately – there’s nothing inviting and even comfy in regards to the metropolis.

After a short relaxation, the day I had been most anxious to face my total journey was lastly right here: crossing the border into Russia.

With a pal on the cellphone giving me the pep discuss I wanted, I left Kazakhstan with none issues.

The second I handed my passport over to the immigration agent on the Russian border, the questions started.

I see why they have been suspicious. An American woman, touring alone, saying she’s shifting to Mongolia, driving a automotive with Georgian plates. This, solely weeks after just-released American journalist Evan Gershkovich was arrested and charged with espionage.

They didn’t seem to know what to do with me. With every of us talking our personal languages, I finally was informed to go sit down and wait. It might be one other 45 minutes earlier than an agent got here to get me, strolling me to a different constructing, the place I then needed to wait once more. A tactic to make me much more unnerved, I suspected.

Ultimately, an English-speaking agent pulled me right into a again room.

I believe anybody on this scenario could be nervous, and I used to be no exception. Remaining as calm as attainable, the agent and I spoke for nicely over an hour. We talked about every little thing; the place I lived in Georgia, why I used to be going to Mongolia, my relationship standing (it was a baffling factor to the brokers for a girl to be 37 and never married), the place I went to school, who my relations have been, what I did for work – all whereas he typed up my solutions.

The agent, wearing plain garments, was stern however affected person all through the entire course of. I realized he was additionally a pictures fanatic (as soon as it turned clear that he had totally examined my Instagram, that’s) and we began speaking in regards to the unbelievable surroundings in his residence nation, which fortunately lightened the temper.

In the long run, my passport was stamped, my automotive was as soon as once more totally searched, and I used to be on my approach by Siberia. Your complete course of took round six hours. I used to be already dreading going by the identical factor over again in two days.

Seems I used to be proper to be concerned about my exit. Following a protracted drive alongside Chuyskiy Trakt – one of many most lovely roads I’ve ever traveled on – I spotted I’d misplaced a vital paper for the automotive, inflicting all kinds of confusion and pointless consideration as I tried to exit the nation.

I used to be once more pulled right into a again room for an interrogation – this one not almost as nice, the formally dressed agent analyzing my solutions in way more element.

Once more, there have been many questions on my relationship standing and the way it’s “bizarre” for somebody “my age” to not be married with youngsters, together with remarks about how unsafe it was to journey alone (however not in Russia, after all), and the way he couldn’t perceive why anybody wished to reside in Mongolia.

Flipping by the pages of my passport repeatedly, ultimately he ran out of questions and I used to be free to go. He even walked me to my automotive – I believe it was extra out of curiosity to see the Land Cruiser than anything. I wouldn’t go as far as to say he was impressed when he lastly noticed it, however he was definitely curious.

With Russia in my rearview mirror, it was time to go residence. I had made it to Mongolia.

Lastly crossing into Mongolia at Tsagaannuur in Bayan-Ölgii, Mongolia’s westernmost province, the reduction and pleasure of getting simply made it throughout three nations – Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia – was overwhelming.

I did run into just a few extra points, together with a two-day snow delay in Ölgii, in addition to a tough lesson on the results of filling the automotive with soiled diesel in Kazakhstan. (I packed spare gas filters for simply this purpose, fortunately.)

But it surely was experiences like this on the highway that proved I used to be extra succesful than I assumed.

Am I an skilled mechanic, no. Did I’ve intensive overlanding expertise? Heck no.

However did my intensive trip-prep, “every little thing is figureoutable” mentality and type and respectful interactions with strangers get me by every day of the journey? Sure.

Ultimately, precisely three weeks after leaving Georgia, I limped into Ulaanbaatar, battered however not damaged, and was capable of get the automotive into my native Toyota High Motors store for a much-needed service after working the Land Cruiser so exhausting.

I might quickly have to get again on the highway, in spite of everything. I had a summer season of overlanding and adventuring throughout Mongolia, and a brand new life in Ulaanbaatar, to get underway.

You may observe Breanna’s Mongolia adventures on Instagram at @breannajwilson.