Vladimir Chernetsky bet his football team wouldn’t win the Russian Football Championship. He was wrong, he’s been driving around the world for three years ever since.
As a Saint Petersburg businessman and long-term Zenit football club fanatic, Vladimir Chernetsky made a hefty wager with friends nearly five years ago.
He bet his friends that if Zenit won the Russian Football Championship for the fifth time in the 2014-15 season, he would set off driving on a round-the-world journey. Of course, Zenit won the title and Vladimir has been travelling for nearly three years since.
In fact, Zenit just won the 2018-19 season once more. That news reached Vladimir here in Australia, the 93rd country in his list of 225 destinations.
“I am not a car traveller,” Vladimir tells SBS Russian. “The longest distance which I had done before this trip was 1,500 kilometres from home.”
Now, with 160,000 more kilometres under his belt, Vladimir lives in the car emblazoned with Zenit club branding.
Making tracks
His initial goal was to get around the globe taking the quickest and easiest route, but Vladimir says the travel enthralled him and he decided to visit as many places as he could.
“I spent a whole year travelling across Africa,” he says. “In some countries I simply couldn’t get a visa in advance and could only apply for one only after arriving in the neighbouring state.”
Vladimir spent only a month organising his trip before leaving and he often has to rely on local people to conquer the language barrier.
“Actually, it’s enough just to learn 50 words in a foreign language to check in in a hotel, to eat at a restaurant and other necessities,” he says. “But African people are very hospitable and if they do not know your language, they will find someone who does.”
Indeed, the hospitality and warm-heartedness of the people he met in Africa is one of the brightest impressions of the whole trip.
“Even in the very wild countries with high rates of violence where tourists are afraid to go, it was unusually hospitable,” he says.
It’s impossible to be prepared for every hurdle on a global voyage and Vladimir is not always fully equipped to deal with it.
For example, when Vladimir was in Bolivia his car became bogged in snow at five kilometres of altitude in the mountains. He was 100 kilometres from the next village and didn’t have a shovel, but he found a plastic lemonade cup that he had bought in Panama.
“I dug out the snow with the plastic cup,” he laughs. “In general, you have to deal with and resolve a lot of issues on the spot. Withdrawing money for example. In Australia it’s very easy, but in some African countries it can be done only in one city and only one bank can give money.”
Home remains in Russia
Vladimir has a wife and two daughters waiting for him in Saint Petersburg. He has visited home three times in his journey, while his car was being transported between continents, and his family has also joined him three times.
In Australia, the family reunited almost for the whole month and together, as more conventional tourists, they explored the Land Down Under.
But Vladimir admits that sometimes the loneliness does get to be a bit much.
“It depresses you especially in ‘civil’ places where you have good beaches and where there is nothing to do. And when you have worries, like repairing the car, learning about safety in some country, then there is no time for strong thoughts and chagrin. That’s why I try not to rest for too long."
Financially Vladimir is fully reliant on his business in Russia, which is a sells construction and building materials. He emphasises that he has no sponsor. Zenit Football Club provides him with merchandise, which he gives away in places where no one has ever heard of the team.
The blue and white promotional items stay in isolated villages of Africa, the Northern Territory and wherever else Vladimir manages to find an audience for the story of his journey in the name of football.
