17-07-2006

Tomsk 17-07-2006

We are staying at the professor’s house. He is very friendly and I am sure he is an interesting man to talk to. Unfortunately, his German is not so good to go beyond basic communication.

We visited a parts market today. Small stalls sell anything from tools, paint and oil to frames, tires and car windshields. I was able to get 5 litres of oil for 400 Rubel. I also got 2 oil filters for 30 Rubel and an Uralshina knobby tire with tube for 800 Rubel.

Doug has a problem with his aluminium saddlebags and we needed to get some steel for reinforcing them. Doug would have been happy with scrap yard steel, but the professor had some new steel for him. The only problem is this steel was in Seversk. Until recently Seversk did not appear on any map. It is a forbidden city just northwest of Tomsk. The professor, whose name is Sergey by the way, has access to the city, but no visitors are allowed. We get out before the checkpoint that is heavily guarded by military personnel. Cameras are not allowed. We wait at the bus stop for Sergey to return. Seversk does some nuclear military space rocket stuff. I’m sure the CIA knows everything about it and most probably a Google search for Seversk will return much info. Nevertheless, everybody we talked to about Seversk and what they are doing there, refused to talk about it for fear of going to jail. It is top secret.

Although I still have not reached 20000 km I repack my bearings and change all the oil and put in a new filter.

Tomsk has two roads leading to Mariinsk. One is shorter but very bad, the other is longer but very good. The longer road also passes through Kemerovo. Thank you Doug for pointing this out. The decision was made to go via Kemerovo, so I could say hi to Nadia. I call her and arrangements are made.