Driving the Trans-Siberian: The Ultimate Road Trip Across Russia

Ever had the desire to jump in your car and keep driving, to wave goodbye to routine and commitment and to drive into the unknown hungry for adventure?

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Well, that is precisely what overland travel writers, Chris Raven and Simon Raven, decided to do whilst stacking boxes of frozen oven chips in a -30 degrees freezer. Not being petrol heads and having zero knowledge of the internal combustion engine, the brothers fired up their rusty Ford Sierra Sapphire and headed east. After clocking up over 11,000 miles from the UK, quite literally living in the car, they miraculously arrived in the Far Eastern city of Vladivostok in Siberia on the Sea of Japan.

What they had in fact done was to drive the entire length of the Trans-Siberian Highway before it was finished, which crosses Russia and the notorious Zilov Gap in a 6,200 mile swath of cracked tarmac and potholes. Along the way our trusty heroes drink vodka with Chechen criminals, escape highway robbery, trade banana flavoured condoms with Russian cops, meet the eccentric and plain weird at truck stops in darkest Siberia, endure torturous road conditions and have a race to the finish with the Germans. Surviving this insane journey by the skin of their teeth the brothers are forced to confront their worst fears in this toe-curling comedy of extreme road trip adventure.

About the Authors

Chris Raven (L) Simon Raven (R)

Simon Raven and Chris Raven were born in the United Kingdom. ‘Living the Linger’ was first published in 2005, and follows the brothers on a journey of lost love and search for the truth as they traverse Interstate 15 across backcountry USA. Simon and Chris became established as overland travel writers a year later with the publication of ‘Driving the Trans-Siberian’ in 2006 and ‘Carnival Express’ in 2007. The travel writing duo have since driven full circle around the Black Sea, traversed the Trans-oceanic highway from the Pacific to the Atlantic coast of South America and in 2007 travelled the road to Damascus. In addition to co-writing four travel books, they have documented and photographed multiple off the beaten track destinations across the globe including China’s deep south, tribal India and the Balkan peninsula.

Simon and Chris have been noted by Lonely Planet for their talent to portray an “accurate view of what to expect”.