We leave Vladivostok, I was dreading this leap into the unknown, especially after the drama leaving Seoul.
As it turns out its not too bad, Gary’s MapsME navigation works OK, and the further away from the city we go the less traffic there is…..nice!
We stop early as its the big England game on tonight, after we lock the bikes up we are approached by the head of security “I am head of Security” he says, “please move your bikes, come with me” he wants me to move the bikes to an enormous garage at the back of the building, it has CCTV and he assures me they will keep an eye on the bikes all night.
This seems to be a genuine concern so we move as requested, it seems he sleeps in there too!

Needless to say I am rewarded for staying up all night by England leaving the world cup…missed opportunity England!!

The following day we are on the road, travelling north again…..We meet up with a fire crew from the nearby space site….unfortunately there is not another launch until November, we communicate using Google conversation and it works really quite well.

There is lots of road work today, the air pollution is really bad around the towns, what looks like power plants belching thick black smoke into the air, old trucks just as bad, its so bad you can taste it!!!Gary is starting to have a few issues with his clutch slave cylinder…..Its a quick fix to re-seat the seal and add some more fluid and we are soon on our way.

We check in to a very nice Hotel in Khabarovsk…..its super cheap, 2600 rouble including breakfast, thats about 30 GBP for the both of us.Its the norm now to pay on arrival, you are given a voucher for an evening meal or breakfast….all hand written, when you go into the dining area you hand this voucher to staff who enter details in a ledger, all seems so pointless in these days of email and e-commerce and is I guess a throwback to past Soviet times….in some ways there is a charm to it, no bar codes and bar code readers here. 

Road Toilets

Well what a day this turned out to be, we stopped in the morning for a coffee, our first road Cafe since we have been in Russia, the shop was like going back in time, shelves full of groceries, a lady serving us with a Captain Scarlet hat on….she refuses to let me take a picture…..we had a coffee and some kind of tasty pasty.I say we, but I had a more immediate problem…a little warning/rumble of things about to follow, then another…
I ask politely, is there a toilet, lots of hand pointing and I gather the toilets are around the back, off I walk gathering pace, as the urgency increases, where are those toilets…where are they………..all I can see is a green shed 50 meters away…I proceed to the shed, if there had been a queue I swear I would have fought any man that got in my way, I have seconds to save myself.
I open the door and shock….just a hole in the wooden floor, no time now, no alternative, motorcycle gear down in seconds, boots on, I try not to drop anything and I cling to the back of the door like Spiderman as I attempt to aim!!! 

Saved from humiliation, this is my first experience of Russian road toilets, and you know what as the weeks go on its funny how you get used to it, they become normal…..but I will never forget my first and at least there is a door on this one!

Nor will I forget my first puncture on this trip, on the same day…..I slow for the usual diversion around a bridge and as I pick up speed on the other side everything gets a little wobbly and I have a front end flat…my first in 9500 miles…Gary’s Husqvarna stands work a treat, the road workers drift over and offer help, its a two hour delay in the heat but we are soon on our way…..we end up at a small railway town and find a Railway workers hotel…the owner insisting we lock the bikes in his fathers garage…..its super secure……….and full of stuff, reminds me of my fathers cellar, nothing thrown away, nothing wasted….the actual garage being made from sheet metal from who knows where!….after releasing our bikes, we set off early, the weather today much, better and we were soon heading north again.I am amazed at the vastness of this country already, mile upon mile of wilderness stretching as far as the eye can see in all directions. We stop for a coffee and by coincidence meet up with Dan and Lola…..(from Denmark and Spain)these guys have been travelling for 12 years together, they are great fun and we have a longer than expected lunch….they are on their way to Vladivostok, I put Dan it touch with Yuri as they want their Bike stored whilst they stay at a friends house in Korea…..

When I tell him our plans Dan says “the road to Magadan, its rough man”Two more days of quite uneventful riding on the fast Federal Highway,  and with 1000km behind us we are at the junction where we turn for Magadan and our Hotel for the night, I am thinking as we ride, you know the roads are not perfect but you could ride on a Harley to Vladivostok, easy…..

As we pull in to the Hotel we meet some guys from Switzerland who are on their way to Vladivostok and Yuri…..on American Victory motorcycle…..they made it here in 15 days…..see I was right, now doubting Dans words…We leave the roadside hotel next day and are soon at the junction, the sign says Magadan 3177 Km……See what I mean, vast…we head off and the road is a work of engineering art, carving its way around hills as we gain height, the forest sometimes way below, after about 30km of feeling more confident about this distance the road stops, just ends, the signs stop, there are lots of road building machines around but where the heck do we go…Gary finds the route and the reality for the rest of the day sinks in, its gravel and pot holes and thick mud, our speed drops to below 20 mph sometimes much less as we navigate around trucks and machinery, often the best path is on the other side of the road, then you have to get back across to avoid oncoming traffic, you eat dust and can hear the grit between your teeth….Dans words echo in my crash helmet “it’s rough man” 

The Baker

We enter a small town late due to the roads and head for the cheap Motel on MapsMe, turns out it does not exist, or rather it did once, seems that once stuff is added to this great App it stays there…we circle around and then this guy comes out, he beckons us into his gated building, Gary explains that we are looking for a hotel, for somewhere to sleep….after a small exchange he says “you can stay with me, leave your bike here and come with me I show you”…..Hang on, this feels a little dodgy, “what do you think” says Gary, there is another Hotel in town….I say “well what choice do we have we thought there was one here”…..despite our hosts assurances that the bikes will be OK we lock them and then we are off to his flat in his car, ….he shows us to a room in his flat and we are left there musing our situation, not before he shows Gary a very large knife with something engraved in the blade,  we look out of the 2nd floor window and he has gone…..steel door locked……what the heck have we got ourselves into…….after 20 minutes he returns……..”come we eat” we leave his flat and drive to another part of town, now we have bike in one location, luggage in another and us heading who know where…..we drive for about 5 minutes….I am in the back, Gary talking in the front….we have a broken English conversation, we are both wary, is this guy just a nice bloke or a ruddy people trafficker!!!
We enter the flat in a run down building, smaller than the last flat and there is a nice smell of cooked food “this is my second wife’s house” he announces then puts his finger to his lips….”shhhhhhh” he serves up Eastern that I am well used to and our host suggests we watch TV, we watch some subtitled programme for a while, no indication of clearing up the dishes….
“We sleep now” he says…
we leave and there are a few phone calls, I assume with the second wife, anyway we get back to his flat and prepare for bed.
Our host is now in his pants, I take the bed and Gary takes the reclining Japanese massage chair….I assure you I am not making any of this up!!! Dmitri shows Gary how to operate the controls and the chair fires into life giving Gary a rather nice massage.
We fall into a deep sleep Gary fully reclined like he is at the dentist, I so wish i had taken a photo!

We awake at 5am so we are ready for Demitri as this is the time he starts work.
He has been out and got some food and we all have breakfast together, we are more relaxed now after not being sold the night before!!
Demitri is clearly a proud man and so wants to show us his achievements, his life I guess, Then I am shown some local costume and he offers me to put it on, full fur hat and everything, feels very much an honour and what a photograph!!!We return to the bikes and say our farewells,  I have mixed emotions, a little ashamed that we were so suspicious at what turns out to be a very kind gesture. I give him a proper man hug and from his reaction I don’t think he gets those two often!!!

Push on to Yakutsk

Today is a massive push to Yakutsk, its 800km miles and the roads start just as bad as the day before, the rain comes down and we are soon covered in a chalk/cement like substance from the gravel road……..both us and the bikes turn white and we are constantly wiping the white mud from our visors, thankfully the road returns for the last 180km miles, and we stop to book a hotel around 18:00, under the cover of a fuel station canopy as the rain comes down. We find a great deal for a hotel and discover the route to Yakutsk is by a ferry. its an ice road on the maps and that will not exist until October/November. I use my Russian phone to guide us and there is a ferry waiting….what luck!…..not really, actually the way it works it that the ferry leaves when it is full, great idea on busy days and we are off after an hour……..we have a few issues with the Hotel and I spend most of the crossing trying to sort things out.Gary is talking with fellow motorcyclists’ and I finally get a solution to the hotel, we have a name…..its nearly 10pm….a 17 hour day and the crossing takes an hour!……the ship loads and unloads via a sandbank, as we approach Gary’s new Yakutsk friend comes across to talk with us and soooo kind, offers to escort us to the Hotel, we follow them through the streets of Yakutsk like Police outriders, thanks guys..……we have some pictures with our lovely Yakutsk  friends…we lock the bikes and have a coffee its 11pm but we have come 800km, quite a lot of that on mud and gravel…what an achievement,
sleep comes quickly…..

Yakutsk

Yakutsk is much bigger than I expected…. ….it’ s expanding, driven perhaps by the new techniques to extract Gold and Diamonds.  ….many cranes can seen seen across the city as new apartment blocks spring up, there is growth and wealth here,  the City is  quite trendy, with lots of young people, nice Restaurants and Cafes, smartly dressed Women making their way through the uneven streets in impossibly high heeled shoes, there is definitley a Yakutsk look, we wonder around…….what a surprise this place is!

The summer in Yakutsk is a proper summer, but it only lasts for 3 months before this City start to descend into winter, in the middle of winter there is only 3 hours of daylight and the temperature easily reaches -45 – 50 degrees C, “but its a dry cold” we are told, “not really that cold”…really, well they have special oil, cars need to be protected from the worst, if they freeze they are toast until spring.

Its extreme, but they seem to embrace it, celebrate it almost. Permafrost covers this region, it is also on the move, this means that all service are above the ground, buildings are on above ground stilts, and there are blisters in the paved roads like mole hills where movement below ground appears to burst through.. 

We visit a small museum….. 

…..with examples of buildings and life from the past…..  ….and giant fossils….    I can not imagine how tough life was back then..    

Time to Chill

The bikes are checked over and they are fine, the weather is so different from the last few days with blue sky’s and 25 degrees. We use our smart phones to find a great coffee shop, and look at the plans for for the Road of Bones, there is time to chill out in this cool city for a few days.

Walking back to the Hotel there is a street character, he has a big BR on his chest, we walk past and I think ah well, but on this trip you cant think ah well, you may never come back, so I seize the moment and dash back with Gary in tow….we get some good fun pictures……if Captain Gas ever retires…..

Preparing for the Road of Bones

Gary suggests we leave some of our luggage with the hotel, this is to keep the bikes as light as possible for the tough off road routes ahead, great idea but how on earth are we going to communicate that, Gary prepares a translation and we approach the hotel office….what luck the lady speaks a tiny amount of English…..….actually as we get to know her and her confidence builds she speaks quite a lot of English. She makes things happen, we can leave some luggage and the tyres we have brought from Canada in the store room, we will book two nights in early August so we can pick this up on our return. great result, 

The rest of the days disappear as usual,  I cannot deny to being totally apprehsive about what is ahead of us….but there is still time to enjoy this City……….something wakes me at 3am, I am amazed it is light, I will understand why later, but for now this is good as we plan to start the Summer Road at first light, to maximise our chances of ending back in civilisation……soon its time to leave for the Road of Bones, we struggle to find the ferry, this ship is much bigger, being on Motorcycles we are at the front, filtering ahead of a massive queue of dusty vehicles waiting to board, whilst we are waiting we get the usual interested looks then suddenly a lady leaves her car, speaking in Russian I am handed her baby, like some visiting president…I gently take this tiny child and have a super cool picture, why anyone would trust a dusty bedraggled motorcyclist with their child god only knows, but this sort of thing happens and it happens a lot, could it be we stand out as Europeans, people seem very pleased that we are tourists and here… why I don’t know…

Its all relaxed on the quayside people laughing and joking, smoking and eating, then as soon as we are hailed to board all hell breaks out and the queue is no more, cars and trucks drive around us from all directions as this great wedge forms, we quickly gather our things and navigate through the chaos and we are on-board.
The ferry chugs down the river back parallel with Yakutsk its takes an hour before we dock….…well I say dock, what I really mean is before the ramp is lowered onto a sand jetty, I kid you not the larger ferry’s seem to all have earth movers on them to make repairs to their landing points….it seems to work OK but again a shock to our health and safety highly regulated life back in the UK.

Farwell Yakutsk for now

And we are off, the road north is not difficult to find and we are on the first section of the Road of Bones…