17th day Mon 28th April
Information
City and administrative centre of Astrakhan oblast (province), southwestern Russia. Astrakhan city is situated in the delta of the Volga River, 60 miles (100 km) from the Caspian Sea. It lies on several islands on the left bank of the main, westernmost channel of the Volga. Situated on caravan and water routes, it developed from a village into a large trading centre.

Russian state Tsar Ivan the Terrible conquered Astrakhan Khanate and its capital city Astrakhan in 1556. The city became the main Russian gate to Orient in the 17th century. It was the place where merchants from Armenia, Persia, India and other counties of the East met.

We left Volgograd for Astrakhan at 9.15am distance of 265 miles reached 4.45pm
Pretty good journey with no stopping for lunch.Roads were pretty good,again long but on this occasion we hardly came across any towns
Two stops to fill diesel at petrol station took over an hour.At every petrol station so far ,money has to be paid up front at the counter
Can see a distinct change in peoples appearances and ethnicity.Russian,…… And Muslim women with hijabs
Interesting fact ,Astrakhan lies 70 feet below sea level – our GPS on the land cruiser seemed to confirm this- never travelled this depth below sea level – good thing I can swim!! (Manvir ‘s comment)
Still in Russia but now only about an hour from Kazakhstan border

Now the adventure really begins ,we are planning to travel about a 1,000 miles to Kazakhstan and into some very mountainous terrain – so time to stock up on fuel,food and a lot of water and a lot of luck!!