There’s something that massively appeals to me about One Steppe Beyond, Across Russia in a VW Camper Van by Thom Wheeler. I think it all stems from a fantasy I had when I was a teenager of travelling all over Europe in a lorry with a home inside and fast cars in the back. The final leg of the planned trip was right across Europe and over into Alaska. The truth is that I was thirteen at the time, so the main plan related to sleeping with a girl from every country in Europe, but I don’t think that taints the romantic On the Road sentimentality that was at the heart of the planned sojourn.
Though there is no mention of European lasses in the write up, One Steppe Beyond, Across Russia in a VW Camper Van still manages to sound pretty interesting. With vague shades of The Motorcycle Diaries, it’s a look at what life appears to be like in the heartlands of the former Soviet Union.
With a beat up VW van at his mercy, Thom Wheeler takes to the open road with his friend Jo with the promise of work from his Uncle Tony. With Vladivostok their location for the job, theirs is a road trip of monumental proportions taking in all of Russia, right the way over to its eastern shores looking out on Japan.
Fundamentally a travel book, One Steppe Beyond also has an eye on the social and economic evolution of Russia post communism. With only a limited knowledge of the Russian language and not knowing the sheer magnitude of the challenge they’d set themselves they are forced to face corrupt officials and wayward Russian mafiosa alike.
One Steppe Beyond, Across Russia in a VW Camper Van by Thom Wheeler is released on the 1st August 2011 on paperback by Summersdale Publishers. Thom Wheeler has already started to work on his second book taking in his experiences in Georgia before and after the 2008 conflict.
