World's Smallest Grande Armee reached Belarus!!! We are now in Orsha and very happy to be here, for our dearest beloved girlfriend and wife and belgian supporters have joined us for a few days. In the meantime, REN TV in Smolensk made another reportage about us, this time an interview on the road between Smolensk and Krasnii, almost on the exact spot where Marshall Ney's army was blasted away, leaving Ney only about 800 valiant soldiers after his heroic action towards the Dnjepr. 

So far for history... If you want to enjoy the reportage: here it is! Sorry... no subtitles provided.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nC9cfMoixJU#!

Our last day in Russia! Belarus, we hope you will be as exciting and fantastic as Russia!!!

And while we still have the luxury of a computer and internet (not quite so sure to be found in Belarus) we'd like to thank our one and only sponsor, a fantastic outdoor gear shop in Antwerp: K2 (De Kampeerder). Good stuff, excellent service, negociable prices!

For those of you who understand Russian, here's two articles about our passage in Smolensk. Can't read it? Like the pictures...

http://www.smol.aif.ru/culture/article/29767

http://www.xn--h1aahdkqdj.xn--p1ai/city/people.php?ELEMENT_ID=247271

Дорогие друзья!
Завтра закачивается наше прекрасное путешествие по России. 
Мы хотим поблагодарить, ВСЕХ жителей, этой замечательной страны, за теплый и радушный приём! За приятные и незабываемые встречи! За песни у костра, и, нескончаемые тосты! 
Спасибо, что ВЫ есть!  

Мы надеемся, что наше путешествие по Беларуси, будет не менее увлекательным и душевным. )

Немного фото на память ........ 

You don't have to understand Russian to like this small reportage, made by Smolensk television Ren TV. World's Smallest Grande Armee and Freya getting slowly all the attention they don't need.

http://rentv-smolensk.ru/item_video.php?id=1451

We don't understand all of it ourselves, but I should be able to translate at least my own words. When asked where my interest in Napoleon and 1812 started and why I'm doing this trip, I talk of my wife's great-great-great-great-granduncle who came to Russia with Napoleon and actually survived the whole campaign. Sorry Tine for not mentioning your name nor that of your ancestor's brother (Joseph Van de Vel).
Then I tell the reporter that our carriage is far from ordinary, since we found it in the woods and actually believe it is Napoleon's Golden Carriage (the one generations of Russian treasure hunters have been looking after in Semlevo region, where we found it). This time I do mention the name we gave to the carriage, which is Freya. 
The man helping us to load Freya in his car is Yevgueni, at who'se house in Smolensk we are staying.

Dear friends, World's smallest Grande Armee is very happy to tell that they have safely reached Smolensk! We are now no longer a duo, we've been joined by Freya, a nice four wheel drive, sadly without a motor.

After 30 minutes in the centre of Smolensk we were already spotted by the local TV

Dimi gave his first interview in Russian! Karsten corrected where necessary...

At this moment we're staying in Yevgueni's house in Smolensk. The floor is heated and we immediately threw ourselves onto it. Imagine the indian Krishna music in the background. Thanks again to all the people of Smolbattle.ru, which is really a wonderful society!

Here's a great joke. While we were entering Smolensk in the exact fashion that you can see in the photograph above, a white car stopped, a man stepped out and asked us very seriously if we knew where the psychiatric hospital was! You won't believe it... we knew exactly where it was. We passed it half an hour earlier and even wondered if we shouldn't pay a visit to the local Napoleon.

Friday 2d of November: we're in Vyaz'ma, the biggest city we encountered since we left Moscou on foot two and a half weeks ago. 

Following the footsteps of Napoleon's Grande Armee isn't an easy task. The old Smolensk road runs through forests and fields, and with rain, frost, snow, thaw and overnight rain & frost again, it's often an impossible task. The heavy muddy soil won't quickly absorb the water of all this melting snow, turning the most innocent field into a swamp. Imagine Nappy's light artillery pushing a 200kg heavy canon through this mess. Oh you poor old boys with your empty stomachs, how doth we pity you!! The very mud we trod on is your grave, for real graves you lacked. 
Anyway... we often choose existing asphalt alternatives, heavy enough we think. But this hole in the asphalt almost became OUR grave though!

We're in good physical and mental condition, gaining forces for the real thing: the way between Vyaz'ma and Smolensk isn't exactly littered with cities and warm hotels. But we found some friends through the internetsite smolbattle.ru
We've been told they can help us realize the walk to Smolensk. We do hope so. We already met some of them at a crazy barbecue near Mozjaisk. Thanks to Alexei & wife, Igor, Igir, Ignat, Maxim & Bamks and Monsieur Jan & Sacha for your taxi services. Here's some pictures of the event. Maybe more are to be found on smolbattle.ru

And since there seems to be more pictures of Dimi than of Kartsen, here's one for his fans. Eating a horsemeat sandwich!