From the west, we travelled along the Volga via Sviyazhsk to Kazan, from where the Volga branches off to the south… We, that’s Oleg and me – Oleg, who welcomed me in Murmansk last year, with reunions in Solovky and Belomorsk, and was now ready to accompany me from St. Petersburg to here as a pilot. What luck to have such an experienced traveller on board to explore the world around the Great Lakes and the northern Volga.
Now he will be leaving me and the ArgoFram, returning to Moscow before setting off again for the White Sea. Oleg, once a physicist, now a freelance travel journalist, has become a true friend. We have travelled several thousand kilometres together, explored towns and villages, visited markets and restaurants, met up with his friends, who soon became mine, and literally talked about God and the world. You don’t meet someone like Oleg every day! – I bow my head and say thank you.