We got up relatively early and, to start the day off right, we went for a good little walk around the neighbourhood. Upon returning, Dad Edu left me resting in the camper; he planned to visit the Astrakhan Kremlin and imagined that we dogs weren't exactly welcome in the historic site.

He walked for about twenty minutes, crossing Lenin Square, where he saw them rehearsing military parades in a big way. It turns out that in a few days it will be Victory Day, one of the most important holidays in Russia, commemorating the surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945 with a display of flags, weapons, and pride that brings the country to a standstill.

Then Edu went into the Kremlin, which is basically a very pretty historic walled fortress that now functions as a large park. He explored every corner and went into the cathedral, which has the peculiarity of having two floors. On the lower one, he found a live mass, and upstairs he was blown away by all the "bling" of the Orthodox church: gold, icons, and lamps that sparkle so much they’d make you blink. On the way back, the parades had already started in the square, and he was able to see soldiers of all kinds, brass bands giving it their all, and important commanders saluting from atop immaculate Russian SUVs.

Upon returning to the camper, he placed me on my throne right behind the passenger seat, and we set off towards the border with Kazakhstan, about sixty kilometres away. But before the border, the road gifted us a couple of crazy things. First, we crossed the *Pontonnyy Most* in Zabuzan, a floating bridge made of metal pontoons that crosses the Buzan River. We had to pay a toll of a couple of euros to pass over the creaky steel plates. After crossing to the other side, we took the opportunity to take a drive through the town of Krasnyi Yar. It’s a super authentic place, the kind where it feels like time has stood still: completely unpaved streets, devoured by mud and sand, and a lot of traditional Russian wooden houses that were a real postcard.

Then we stopped to eat in the countryside, because once you head into the lion's den of the border, eating becomes an impossible mission due to the queues. While we were getting through our meal in the camper, we saw a hilarious scene: horses bathing and cows swimming! Since the Volga and its distributaries are so swollen, many fields are flooded and the poor critters have to show off their swimming skills to get to the dry grazing areas.

When we arrived at the Russian border, we found a queue of cars, but luckily it was nothing compared to the horror of entering from Georgia. The paperwork to leave Russia was quite quick, although it involved the usual routine of opening the car and showing the drawers. The only real hold-up was waiting for the final clearance, but the wait was most pleasant. We met Stefan and Diana, a couple from Kufstein (Austria) who are travelling by motorcycle with the crazy and wonderful idea of reaching New Zealand.

Time flew by chatting with them. Even the soldier who searched the car joined in the conversation in decent enough English. The guy was quite a character: he told us he used to be a psychologist, but became a soldier to be able to retire early and dedicate himself to travelling the world. Finally, with all our papers in order, we left Russia.

We covered a few kilometres through no-man's-land, crossed the bridge over the Kigach River, and hello, Kazakhstan! Entering here was super easy, with hardly any bureaucracy and a blink-and-you'll-miss-it passport control. The only mandatory thing when crossing was to take out car insurance. We had to do it in a filthy shack that didn't inspire any confidence at all—one of those that looks like it will fall down if you sneeze hard—but hey, they gave us the mandatory official paper and that’s what counts. Since we didn't have local currency, an older woman appeared who acted as a mobile currency exchange; after negotiating the price a little, the exchange rate wasn't entirely bad, and Dad Edu swapped a hundred euros with her. There we bumped into the Austrian bikers again, took some souvenir selfies, and said goodbye with a "see you soon somewhere on the map."

We looked for a spot to nest quickly and found one in a green field next to the river. While Dad Edu gets things ready, I can't help but puff out my chest: Kazakhstan is officially the 7th country of this trip (after Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Georgia, and Russia) and... the 40th country my four paws have stepped on in my life! Not bad for an eleven-year-old Bodeguero.

Right now we are completely alone in the countryside, listening to the water of the river. We are turning off the lights, as tomorrow we have to start discovering the Kazakh steppes.