Brief History

Magadan was founded in 1930 in the Magadan river valley, during the Stalin era, Magadan was a major transit centre for prisoners sent to labour camps. From 1932 to 1953, it was the administrative centre of the Dalstroy organization—a vast and brutal forced labour gold-mining operation and forced-labour camp system. The town later served as a port for exporting gold and other metals mined in the Kolyma region. (Wiki)

Long way from home

After 3 days in Magadan its time to leave, a quick check on Google maps reveals we are 13,000Km from home, and thats the direct route!

Now rested, I am excited about getting on Irene again, I have breakfast with Gary and Hannes and afterwards we head out of town……..you know I really liked Magadan, was it because this was the first big area of real civilisation after the Old Summer Road…..…..perhaps it was the great weather, or maybe the super friendly Russian people, anyway something about the place, but boy is it remote, the nearest city Yakutsk over 2000 Km away on a unpaved road.

The road building programme in Russia is vast, there can be no unemployment in Russia surely? ….since we left Vladivostok road teams have been working on sections of the roads for thousands of kilometers, incredible, give it 5 years guys and you really will be able to get to Magadan on a Harley or a Goldwing….

….but for now access is rough and its wild and the tourist numbers making the trip by road are small.

We head out of town north and will have covered over 6000km in total by the time we get back to the Federal Highway.

North of the city and for the first time in Russia we are stopped at a road block, a customs officer wants to check our paperwork, I guess this is because we are heading away from the port area. we hand him our Bike passports (a V5 from the UK) but to honest you get the feeling we could have handed him anything……..(I will not try this)

My name is Lola

After this the road changes, and is now a graded gravel highway, the Russians know how to build these roads that cope with the winter extremes, this one is in good condition and the scenery is spectacular, we press on and at 16:30 stop for fuel and a coffee in the heavy rain, Maps.Me shows a cafe here but this is nowhere to be seen, the garage attendant points to a shipping container with a hut behind…no way!!!I have come quite used to seeing shipping containers now, most look as you would expect, some have had doors and windows cut out, some have even been clad in wood!!

I am told you can buy these for $3000, however people get them they are everywhere!

Anyway we ride across and  sure enough you enter through a door cut into the container and wow ……quite a nice cafe behind. I really like  these slightly odd cafes in Russia, no franchised outlets here, everything home made….a bucket on the floor catching the water as it comes through the roof……we order some food, coffee and relax, the lady running the place says “my name is Lola” she speaks very little English but she is determined to communicate….…..she asks where we are sleeping, it all gets a bit confusing, suddenly her son is on the phone, he speaks English “My mum wants you to stay with her” Oh really, nice! I hand the phone back to her and she speaks to her son, then she looks straight at us “no money, you are my friends” crikey she has only known us 30 minutes! “come come” she goes outside and we follow, leaving the cafe unlocked she eyes up the most suitable bike (and maybe the youngest rider) she leaps on the back and is off with Hannes, we follow in the rain and are taken to a typical communist housing area a few kilometers down the road………..pre cast concrete tower blocks in every direction. We are shown into our very own flat, very simple but warm and dry….she shows us how to switch the water on, where to get food and we settle down for a simple evening, cook some food…and go to bed early so we can leave at 6am in the morning…..outside its raining hard….how kind is that……thank you Lola you really are a friend!

I have a great nights sleep, however next morning I discover that my snoring kept the guys awake, poor Hannes the nearest getting the full volume in his left ear…….”dont complain” says Gary….”I have been putting up with that for months”

…..we are off by 7am, we go to visit Lola and thank her…..but although the cafe is open she is not working today…..shame.
We head off, the rain is steady and building, I am so glad I have many layers on, the Klim Badlands motorcycle gear is excellent, keeps you dry even in the hardest rain and has enough vents to keep you cool in summer., expensive but worth every penny!

Road of Bones

We decide to take the old route to the west….…..this is section 8 on the above map, we are told it is more scenic and hugs the mountains and besides this (along with the Ust-Nera section 3) will mean we can travel along all eight sections of the “Road of Bones” actually Its not a hard decision as we are told the roads are OK and of course I will never be back here again!!!

150Km in and Gary gets a puncture…….his first, it is in the rear and it went down fast, the rain stops and the three of us work well as a team, we are back on the road in under an hour..It is coming towards the end of the day, we follow directions into this town, as we approach it looks so bleak, darn another abandoned town…..no wait there are some people here, walking through the rough roads covered in mud…we stop for some food, the cafe is closed so we try the local store, they have a fabulous selection of things to offer, its busy and we wait patiently, I am suprised to see the women using an abacus…….the speed they work out the amounts is impressive, it seems everything is paid on account as no money changes hands, figures are entered in a book! We ask if we can have a coffee? ….within minutes a makeshift table and chairs appear…………a table cloth is brought out and placed with care on the table, and then hot water and coffee, Italian style Sausage, fresh bread, noodles, apple turnover’s…the food and water just keeps coming….very nice…….Its only later when I look at the pictures I realise how dirty our faces are, like coal miners!

Well I am not sure if it is coincidence, but during our meal the store gets a lot busier, some maybe aware of us in town but others walk through the door and just for a moment stare wide-eyed at the three of us, what amazes me guys is how smart people are, regardless of the state of the town people are smartly dressed, its like they have made a real effort to “go shopping”

We go to pay and the lady in charge is not having this “Nyet Nyet” this was a gift from her to travellers ……quite incredible the kindness of the Russian people!

We stay in the town for the night, more phone calls, someone gives up there flat for the evening, we ride around, this does not look good, yikes, most of the building is abandoned…..but one section of the tower block has windows and power and for 6GBP the three of us are warm and dry again.

No fuel for 300Km

The next day we are off early by 7am….we have 500 Km to do today and the nearest fuel station is an incredible 300 Km away, can you imagine it, I have no idea what the locals do but assume a black market! For us, we know its going to be tight…very tight but we have no choice….there is no fuel station here and its been over a 130km since we last filled up.
We stop at the end of the Old Summer Road, the plan being to visit the last bridge and take a souvenir, however we are so tight with fuel we all decide not to waste the 8km required. As it turns out this was a good decision as the river levels were massively higher and we would have not got across. We will travel in to the first bridge when we get to the other end at Kyubyume.

As we travel north the weather starts to improve, Hannes is leading, I am pre-occupied with fuel calculations, I think we can do it just, I am coasting downs hills to conserve fuel, just in case….…..We stop at a police/army road block and blow me there is a face I recognise. Its our Polish friend Vladi….we hop off our bikes and all greet him….(hugs all round) Vladi with his excellent Russian organises tea and coffee, biscuits, cake, fruit, all sorts appear from the security teams office…with Vladi’s Russian we are treated like honoured guests……but best of all he arranges for us to buy 4 litres of fuel each…..our Rotapax containers are taken somewhere to one of the out buildings and returned full of fuel…..sorted, this would never have happened without Vladi. 

Turns out some of these guys are Russian Special Forces and they certainly look the part, walking around with there automatic rifles, I am not sure who they are expecting! At first no pictures but in the end they relax and we get some great shots with them…We now have fuel in the bikes and the weather is improving…. Vladi is a star, always laughing, offering food from his tank bag, he has problems with his heavy bike and his rear suspension but you would never know.

10 Km further on we meet some Romanian guys on the road…Zsolt has travelled from Transylvania, checking out the Gulag camps in Russia……they have stopped especially after seeing us earlier at the Police checkpoint….they have brewed some tea and we talk around their immaculately prepared Land Cruiser…we exchange contact details and we thank them for their hospitality.

We make it to Ust-Nera, I am on reserve but have fuel to spare….we refuel ready for the final push around to the start of the Summer Road at Kyubyume the town we left just 10 days ago….
We eat a meal in the one and only Cafe and wait for Vladi to do some urgent repairs before leaving. We wait and wait and wait, 2 hours go by and still he does not return, Gary and Hannes suggest we push on….
we leave him a message and off we go, 200Km and its starting to getting dark when  Hannes notices oil on my front wheel, lots of oil….Oh no the front fork seal has gone… no wait both….craaaaap, I thought things felt odd and now its clear why, even worse the front brake is covered in oil, pads ruined, nothing much happening now when you pull on the lever…

I now have to plan my braking and the front suspension has no damping as the last of the oil escapes onto the disc….

…..the road is rough and my pace is much slower now, as darkness approaches Hannes speeds on ahead to make last orders at the cafe. we arrive, in the end there was no need to rush as we have slipped into another timezone, gained an extra hour, food is ordered….and with that Vladi bursts through the door, revealing a larger bottle of Vodka from inside his motorcycle jacket…result!!

A final Goodbye

Next day we  slowly get into gear, pack tents and have breakfast, its late morning before we leave, we head 16Km down the Old Summer Road until we find what we are looking for, one of the original bridges, now replaced it has been pushed into a field….…we have some pictures taken etc etc and then head south, Vladi will stay here and work on his bike and the three of us leave with me in the middle due to my braking situation, Vladi says “maybe I will see you in Mongolia”

I can make good speed when the road surface is good, in fact you would hardly know I had a problem, on the rough surfaces its a different story as the suspension struggles, all that vibration comes straight through to my arms, and who needs brakes anyway!

We know the last ferry is around 7:30pm and at this rate its clear we are not going to make it,  Hannes rides on ahead and arrives 10 minutes before us, we arrive and just (and I mean just) make it, the ferry full of passengers waits for us…..……as soon as we are onboard the ship is off across the river, phew!The crossing is quicker, less than an hour, it goes quickly, soon we are off the ferry and we camp on the beach, not such a good sunset tonight, tents are quickly up on the soft sand, so 360Km done today and on the right side of the river for the push down into Yakutsk, what an achievement with no front brakes…

There is a guy who runs a undercover shop in the back of a converted truck, orders are placed and before you know It kebabs are made along with beers. the temperature its cooler now so no annoying mosquitoes, some Vodka appears from our host…..perfect.

We leave for Yakutsk after an unexpected breakfast with the guy with the converted truck, he has his family around and invites us to join him….Russians just make stuff happen, there is a steel home made BBQ, wood is gathered, food appears and is cooking……….there is of course more alcohol, brandy this time  which we decline…”ah Moto” he says..and roars with laughter!

The road to Yakutsk starts off with about 60Km of soft sand…..

…….let me tell you officially sand is my least favourite surface, with these bikes and all our heavy luggage it is horrendous to ride on, my rucksack is pushing me forward and this causing the front tyre to dig in,  I stop and move the roll bag back…..what a difference, I can now sit further back and the front wheel starts to skim across the sand, however just when you think you have nailed the technique the whole bike slides, kind of gets your attention big time, you recover and you start again….after about 60Km an thread of hard mud is visible above the sand and our speed increases.

We end up making it to the Yakutsk ferry……..with perfect timing and leave at around 18:00 on a big ship this time, we cruise to Yakutsk.

I am on a high…you can see the lights of the city in the distance and it just feels like we are going back to civilisation again…leaving the harsh badlands behind us, that chapter closed, the hardest part of our journey around the world complete!

The ferry gets us across in under an hour, soon we are at our hotel base, a quick shower and out for a cold beer in a busy bar…. like I said it nice to be back in civilisation.

Thank you Kriega

My Kriega bag is shot, the zip beyond repair, this is where I carry all my documents, my passport, my temporary import paperwork the stuff you cannot afford to lose……I quickly realise that it is going to be difficult to get the zip replaced here so head out shopping for a replacement…..
After an hour with no luck I stumble across a children’s shop where you buy things for school and result I buy a Childrens rucksack….in almost Husqvarna colours….looks reasonable quality as well, its not a Kriega, but we are so remote even in the city and there is very limited choice. 

I later hear from Kriega, they are keen to help and they send me a replacement R15 rucksack on photographic evidence, excellent service Kriega, really appreciate your support and understanding.

Jet wash

I stroll back to the hotel with my my new yellow rucksack and Gary is waiting….he has been shown were we can get our bikes cleaned, we put all our heavy Klim gear and head off across town. there is a small queue so we wait outside…….…….as we are waiting Gary notices that the bottom is missing on my main tool tube…..…..Nooooo, I have lost all my tools that were in there…my lovely Motion Pro set…..gone somewhere on the Road of Bones, my soldering iron, cable, the tools Gary made and my electrical tester that was only a few weeks old……the top is still there, lock intact protecting the now hollow tube, very annoying but also quite funny at the same time, another casualty of the harsh Road of Bones…..….our man gets to work on our bikes, mud falls of in great lumps, with the bikes clean its now our turn, the Klim suits are filthy but they are waterproof we ask our man to jet wash us……at first he thinks we are joking…………….there is a big smile on the jet wash guys face as he hoses us down, the queue of Russians look on bemused

Maintenance Day

So next day is our first maintenance day, fixing and repairing the many broken or damaged items from the Road of Bones, with the bikes clean, we set to with a long list of tasks. There are no dealers here, but we are well prepared, we have been carrying these spare parts around since North America and left them at the Hotel as we travelled north, so it will be good to get them fitted and shed some weight from our bikes.

New oil and filters, Gary checks our valve clearances which are spot on, I keep working down my list

Rear tyre change
Rear brake pads
Adjust and oil chain
Remove redundant and now hollow tool tube, plus melted tool tube
Remove roll map holder
Repair bark busters……we work in the sunshine, all in all a very productive day, by the time we are finished it is 9pm, I still have not looked at the front forks, kind of putting it off I guess

Permafrost

Next day a break from the bikes, we are tourists for the day, we visit the Kingdom of Permafrost, this is an kind of attraction on the edge of town, this turns out to be actually really good.This facility was used in Soviet times to store meat and fish for the town it  was formed simply by boring tunnels into a hill, into the Permafrost….……..there are two parallel tunnels connect at 45 degrees by four further tunnels, this was used to store meat up until 1980s and was abandoned for 18 years only used by a shooting club until it became a tourist attraction in 1998..you have to wear these heavy thermal coats, thermal shoes and hard hats as its really like being in a freezer….but a few seconds in the famous blue and white quarters wont do any harm….

Some background to Permafrost

Russian researchers warn that Western Siberia has begun to thaw as a result of global warming. The frozen peat bogs in this region may hold billions of tons of methane gas, which could be released into the atmosphere. Methane is a greenhouse gas 22 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.

David Viner, of the University of East Anglia told The Guardian: “When you start messing around with these natural systems, you can end up in situations where it’s unstoppable”. 

permafrost has been intact for 11,000 years and started melting 10 years ago…..Gulp!

New team head for the Old Summer Road

In the evening we meet with another group of motorcyclists planning to do the “Old Summer Road” strangely another Anglo German team, we have a meal with them and go through our recent experiances, what we would do differently, I tell them to plan for 5 days, we wish them the best of luck as they head north the following day, sarcastically I ask them to keep a look out for my lost tools and bike cover!

The Lonely Wolves

I still have not tackled my forks yet guys, been putting it off, but come on, today is the day!…..word is also out on social media across the city that two guys from the UK are travelling around the world on Motorcycles and need help….yes us, how cool is that!

I have been given some advice and suggestions from Mike Rensby International Motorsports a Husqvarna dealer in Vancouver, following his advice I use a mineral water bottle and cut the thin plastic into a scraper with a hook on the end, I spend the next two hours getting this plastic behind the fork seals, carefully scooping out the dirt and grit from behind each seal, I am shocked at the amount of hard grit that comes out. I keep going on each fork until the seals appear clean.

Wow….the facebook broadcast works, I get a call from Max from the “Lonely  Wolves Bike Club”…..……the biking community in Russia is very tight and they will do all they can to help travellers, Max says “I will be with you in 7 minutes”

Max turns up and takes me off to get some fork oil, we drive to the edge of town, Max translating, we get the oil, Max then takes me off to his bike club house….……this place is cool, better than some hotels we have stayed in….…..they can sleep up to four visiting bikers…….……and have a workshop, this is a proper set up.

I have a quick coffee with Max at the clubhouse and we head back to the hotel  in the rain, a local man Cergy lets us use his lock up garage and to save removing the forks I use a small medical syringe to carefully refill each fork leg, then loosen the pinch bolts to make sure the forks are running true…the forks feel much better but how long will thi last!

We leave Yakutsk in the morning, so frantic packing, an early night, alarm set for 4:30am.next morning we are outside the Hotel at 5am, Hannes is punctual and we head off to the ferry, we are all on the 6am Ferry an hours crossing for 150 Roubles ( under  2GBP)we leave the ferry and head south… ….compared with heading north the road is wonderful………….stopping at a glacier….which is melting rapidly  in the summer heat, not much left really but it was just off the Highway so not much time wasted.

By mid morning the sun is out, we ride and eat and ride and it good to be actually enjoying the ride rather than avoiding the constant hazards of the rougher roads, it is not perfect, but we cover 450 km before we stop for food at a Cafe and start making noises about somewhere to sleep, but first big news people, the front forks are holding, feel good on the road, no oil leaking, so far so good.
We draw a blank around the Cafe but there is a suggestion that we try down by the river, really…we head off with a few supplies down a muddy track on the edge of town….as it turns out the location is a magical spot…..…….a perfect place to camp by a wide river with forest on the far river bank, There is another family who look to be staying for the night, typical Russian style though, these guys go camping complete with chainsaw, soon they have an impressive fire, as their chainsaw makes easy work of cutting up fallen trees, now who in the UK takes a chainsaw on a picnic………our few  twigs are OK!!

We wake from our riverside camp, at first there is almost zero visibility due to a thick morning mist, an hour later this has been burnt away by the sun and there is a scene of beauty at our campsite………the river is calm, there is absolute quite and its totally unspoilt and undeveloped, we should have stopped for the day really but we press on south regretting it later.

I think to myself, all you need is a shower block here and you would have a goldmine, but arguing with myself as you do on a motorcycle  “who would come, only a tiny number of people stray this far from the city, even those who live here let alone tourist”….its a kind of Chicken and Egg syndrome. Something needs to happen to bring people here in the first place and most of the worlds population is a long way away it seems to me, unless China takes an interest.

We head off expecting the worse of the roads…and actually they are not to bad, frequent roadworks but long sections of paved roads, in fact the transformation in a month since we last came up this road is staggering…….…….I would say that of the 428Km we covered today 150km of brand new road! Incredible and what is driving that….perhaps a new gold rush, whatever the reason Russia is working on its infrastructure big time!

We end the day climbing a mountain and at 1300 meters you are within the raining cloud, I am struggling to see, I think we all are but I do struggle riding at night, so we call it a day, the supermarket we are heading for has been closed for some time, maybe years, all boarded up and the search is on for somewhere to sleep, we do think briefly about breaking in to the abandoned shop, but only briefly, I want to be squeaky clean in this country, I want to leave here with no issues, give the authorities no excuse to stop me!!!
Forks still holding out, small signs of smearing but no leak as such, that’s 850Km so far, fingers crossed this situation stays and we are less than 300Km from smooth federal roads.
A man comes to the road after hearing our bike engines, we ask if we can pitch our tents anywhere here, is clear that we can not….….and he beckons me to follow him, we must walk 300m along the road and down a lane, and we are presented with a small cottage, now its rough, there is no power, but its dry….….with some very smelly heavily stained beds inside, we plan to use our  airbeds to distance us from the bed bugs!

We discover later, that large bears have ben seen in the area, so its far safer in the cottage than tents…..I have now got to the stage when I have had enough of this ferkin wildlife…..give me good old hedgehogs and foxes any day!!!

We set up our airbeds inside the cottage, honestly there would be a frenzy for this property on “Homes under the Hammer” in the UK, but here buildings are abandoned everywhere, more reminders of a different time, before Soviet rule collapsed.
We use the last of our dried food and go to bed early, we have travelled far enough south now that it does actually get dark, a proper night again.

I wake up first, ……I look around, where the hell…ahh yes I remember where I am……in an abandoned cottage….still it was dry and warm and safe…

We load the bikes….oddly both Husqvarnas struggle to start, like the starter motor wont kick in properly, eventually mine starts, Gary needs a tow start or a “snatch” as he likes to call it, all bikes running and we are off…

We head south the roads are not too bad….…as we stop for breakfast as Hannes is having a pee, he notices two guys slaughtering a pig just 20 meters from the open toilet….no control, no refrigeration, I go for a pee and witness the scene, two guys in shorts butchering the animal in the open, a propane tank nearby……it is honestly like going back in time…..with a smart phone in your hand the only modern reference, its like time travel……when I see this honestly I could easily go vegetarian.

We continue south….again its amazing the progress that has been made with the new roads in just one month, almost unrecognisable.
When we get to the junction, the last of the gravel behind us for a while,  am elated, actually euphoric, I whoop whoop I stand on the pegs and and punch the air….. the thought of leaving the gravel, mud and sand roads behind for a while a fantastic feeling but also the fact that we are now heading West, really great to have the sun setting in front of me again….we are heading West, back towards Europe.

As we get towards the end of the day our evening stop comes at  7:30pm, just an hour before dark. We get a nice room for 800 Roubles each (about 9.80 GBP) there is no bathroom at this price, at one point Gary is in one room and Hannes in the other so I  go to the porch area to change my pants….no drama….I give the 5 day old pants a sniff and yep they really really need a wash…
Later Garys says…Dave did you change out here…..yes totally naked I say (proudly) why? he beckons Hannes and there there is much laughter….OK guys what’s up….I walk out to the porch and see the issue…a ruddy live CCTV camera has caught it all…..later I wander into the cafe  expecting a round of applause, luckily looks like nobody was monitoring us….

And the forks are still holding and that is now 1000 miles since the repair in Yakutsk, We leave our little road house, oil checked and filled, forks cleaned looking good, we head ride for just 50 km before breakfast….and boy the cost has come down compared with the north of Russia, we buy breakfast for two and its around 5 GBP including coffee, fuel is 25% less here also, after breakfast we are off again and we are making great progress on the Federal Highway, I am getting splatted buy huge insects and can hardly see, I signal to pull over and we stop at a layby to clean our visors and glasses.
As we ride in I notice a bus stop like structure and think, that would be handy to sleep in, then see a cardboard box with something poking out…

what is that…a snout…is it a dog? I say to Hannes, “did you see that”, “yes” he says, he gets there before me…there are puppies in the box, this has been put in the shade with a little door at the front and the lid left slightly open.
We open the lid and the 7 dogs don’t look in bad shape but are clearly nervous…..

…..what a tragedy, how could someone do this…how long have they been there…..is this normal in Russia I wonder! We approach a truck driver and explain the situation asking if he will take them to the next town, we show him the dogs, he seems sympathetic but what can he do…we walks off and we are unclear of his intentions. We give the dogs some water and then think about carrying the box to the Cafe 1Km away…we decide to discuss with the truck driver, we walk to the truck,  the driver is busy preparing some food and water, he hands it to us point at his watch and says “good luck” in broken English. he has prepared some food for the dogs but cannot take them, I do have sympathy for him, he did not create the problem.
We made sure the puppies had eaten all the food and drank some water and were back in their box. We ride off, I am last to leave with a heavy heart, but I think we all feel it, if I were in the UK I would have taken them to the local animal rescue centre, probably kept one for myself, but I am not, I am on a Motorcycle and the distances here mean that type of facility is probably 600 km away.

I feel like leading for a while, clear my head of the puppy situation, the sun is shining, the roads are great, the scenery is amazing, I push on hard until its time to refuel, the Husqvarna amazingly capable on these fast A roads.
As we are about to leave Hannes notices a little pool of water by my side-stand, what is that….Noooooo not more problems what now….we remove the radiator cover and there is a small hole, a stone must have come up from the road well I was enjoying myself and pierced the radiator, we refill the radiator it seems to hold some of the water and we press on, the fuel station staff tell us there is a mechanic 120km away, we stop after 20km to top up the header tank but the bike seems to be running just fine.

After the promised 120Km we find the mechanic at a small garage and use Google translate the guys seems very helpful, making phone calls, I can fix he says…”radiator must come out”…..
really, I use sign language and the translate tool we dont have time for this, suddenly two tubes of “Stop Leak” appear. 
The guy reads the instructions in Russian into his phone and these are instantly translated into English text, not bad too, in essence you fill the radiator, warm the water, add the powder and then put the cap on to pressurise, it seems to be holding, we remove an air lock and add more water. Looking good…
Fixed in less than 3 hours, we are not going to make Chita today but then on this sort of trip “stuff happens” the bikes are in constant use and are starting to creak a little, we are only half way through the predicted mileage and I pray that the wear rate will decrease for a little now we are on better roads.

We had heard of a number of fatalities around Chita and to me its clear why, the traffic levels have increased 10 fold, and overtakes are more risky….we need to take less chances and keep safe….there are a few dodgy overtakes by me, and I criticise myself, I have nothing to prove, hang back and over take only when its safe and clear.

We camp at a cafe on some rough ground no choice tonight, it smells of pee, in the morning its beautiful and sunny…Gary finds a used Condom under his tent…….we can do better than this….we have fuel and after quick breakfast we are off, the road are great the sun is shinning, my radiator and forks are looking good as we head further West.

Hannes has been sent tracker information from the other group attempting the Old Summer Road, the are taking a little longer than us but seem to be past the worst but not moving much…we follow with interest!

We ride on 100…200 km with ease, the scenery is changing, less forest more wide open plains,  its absolutely stunning
At lunchtime we set a target for the day and that will bring out total distance up to 430Km not bad. We estimate a slightly bigger distance tomorrow but with a decent hotel at the end of it and a shower…..
We stop at the planned town and find a wonderful spot down by the river, we return to the cafe for food and beer… then make camp….….we light a fire and talk about all sorts………not quite the meaning of life but everything else……..the night is clear, the stars are amazing as your eyes adjust, no light pollution here, its our last night together and we toast Hannes when he brings out three miniature bottles of Vodka.

I take a quick peek at the tracker the other group have not moved, we assume they are resting and I pray they are OK as I turn off the battery light and go to sleep…….well that was a good nights sleep, I wake to a beautiful misty view out across the river….…..what a location and free, nobody around

I thought Hannes was going to head straight off before us, but looks like he is waiting for us, we get packed quite quickly and are ready to go when Gary’s bike refuses to start , not sure why the starter seems sluggish, could it be the oil is too thick…that would explain why it only happens in the morning!
Using my Bike we start the bike by towing the 1Km out to the paved road across soft sand and then tow start it, his bikes starts almost instantly, we ride the 4km to the Cafe and get his bike nice and hot before breakfast.

Farwell for now

We will ride with Hannes to Ulan Ude…..…..there he will head south and we will continue west to Lake Baikal, the scenery continues to amaze me with massive planes surrounded by mountain ranges….We get to the juntion Uan Ude and say farewell to Hannes as he heads south for the border and Mongolia.

We are heading west, heading for Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal