There are few places in the World where you can stop in the middle of the road and brew up a Kelly Kettle and have the time to enjoy a cup of tea! In the remoteness of the forest between Oktyabrsky and Umba on The Kola Peninsula it is possible. The track in question is the summer road that snakes its way from one river crossing to another before climbing over some high land with stunning views across the lakes and ubiquitous forest to some distant mountains near Kandalaksha. We spent an hour relaxing and enjoying our tea and (I seem to remember) biscuits before we wandered off once more.

The track itself runs for about 200km and takes two days to complete. On the way we drive for a while on an emergency airstrip, keeping a weather eye on the possibility of a landing by an unannounced Russian Military jet which, as yet has not happened so we have always been able to plunge back into the forest unscathed. Further along we skirt a lake that looks more like an inland sea as the only shore that is visible is the one that we are driving along.

Eventually we emerge out of the forest and onto a coast road that is heaving with traffic. I say heaving, but only in the context of the two day’s driving before we joined the road so the five cars in sight “is” positively heaving.