22-23-24-25-26 - 07 - 2006
Krasnoyarsk - Kansk - Alzamay- Tuygun - Irkutsk
I am running a little behind on my writings. All the books I have with me remain untouched. There is not as much free time as I thought while on the road. After a day of riding you enjoy each moment you have to relax. Just doing nothing is actually good enough and recharges my batteries. There is no boring moment that makes you grab a book to kill some time. I am even neglecting my diary.
22-07-2006
We got up too early. After a quick breakfast we went to collect our bikes. It's Nadia's birthday today. Nikolai escorted us to the city limits. We start our journey to Irkutsk. The info we have received reports some very bad road ahead. A couple of bad stretches, each about 30km. As we are very tired from the last couple of days in Krasnoyarsk we stop for the day in Kansk. We have not done a lot of kms but we just want to relax and do nothing. No tours of the city, no trips to the dam, no visits to other bikers ... just do nothing. Maybe it was the overdose of wodka the last couple of days, maybe it was me missing Nadia, maybe I ate something that wasn't kosher, but I felt sick. I was falling asleep on the bike. I had to get some rest. And that is what we did.
23-07-2006
We leave Kansk rested and I feel much better. The bad spots are now ahead of us. Although we meet a lot japanese car convoys going in the other direction, the road is very bad. Nevertheless, trucks, busses and all sorts of cars make it through. Doug has no rear shock and his front shock broke down today thanks to a particularly bad spot. The road is dusty. I can taste the sand and we stop frequently to rest. It is hard on Doug's Indian. I could probably go a bit faster, but not really fast. It is a dirt road with a lot of potholes that makes my suspension bottom out. The drive shaft to the side car hits the guard and sidecar boat a couple of times. Everything is covered in dust. Luckily there is no rain as it would be even more difficult to drive this road if it were muddy and the deep potholes filled with water. We stop at a truckstop in Alzamai. This is a true oasis in the middle of nowhere. A nice hotel, a great cafe, a shop, guarded parking. We meet a German heading west from Mongolia. He was unable to exchange money and we happily help him out with what he needs to get to the next city. He doesn't want to stay at the hotel, but we talk a bit before he heads off. He told us there are two more bad spots up ahead. We go to sleep hoping we will clear this bad bad bad bad road tomorrow.
All the bad roads I had up to now seem to pale in comparison. It is taking its toll on moral, but luckilly we have eachother to complain to and after a couple of jokes about the situation and region we are good to go.
24-07-2006
I admire Doug for going through with this. No suspension in the back, only springs in the front, his clutch is not performing as it should, ... On these bad roads a sidecar is nice, but a dualsports bike would be better. Doug's Indian looks a bit out of place here.
There is not a lot more to say about the day. It was just crap. I would love to use some more strong words to describe the situation, but that is not helping anybody.
We clear the really bad spots and make it to regular Russian roads by the evening. We stop in Kuytun. Only one hotel but the price is a bit too high so we get ready to start the bikes to look for a camping spot. The lady from the hotel comes outside and lets us make a counter offer for the room. We settle on 300 rubles a person. Good price for a clean room. The guests from across the hall invite us to share the banya they booked and we talk about our travels.
There is still no Beeline coverage. Doug has MTS and he gets a good signal. I need to get a different phone company too. It has been since Krasnoyarsk since I last sent news to Nadia. I call her on Doug's telephone and she was worried about us as she had not received any news. She was really happy to hear me. I was really happy to hear her. If only I was in Kemerovo...
25-07-2006
We leave the hotel around noon. We slept in, enjoyed breakfast and didn't really feel like driving in the rain. We are standing outside the hotel next to the main road through town, getting ready to go. We have seen a lot of bizar things on Russian roads, but this was slightly different. There is a truck parked partly on the road, partly on the shoulder. A lada comes from the opposite direction. Next to the hotel there is a tire changing place with a police car in front of it. A little boy of about 7 or 8 runs across the road from behind the truck. The lada slams his brakes but a collision is inevitable. The road is wet and the car slides forward of the road onto the shoulder in front of a store. The little boy is underneath the car. I run to the scene, but the passenger from the car has already dragged the boy from underneath the car. I have a quick look at the boy, but besides him crying, there is apparently nothing wrong. No blood, no broken bones. They rush the boy of to somewhere (I hope a doctor or a hospital) in the car that hit him. The police were probably to busy with changing there tires. They never even moved. I guess they just take bribes, harass people and walk around with machine guns. Assholes. "To serve and protect" is not their moto here in Russia. Anyway, I was a bit shaken by what had happened. Thank God the boy was alright. This could have been a deadly incident. I have an even more disrespect for uniforms now.
Doug get's a new battery as the one he has now broke down. The road to Irkutsk is good, but 50km before Irkutsk, Doug's clutch will not go any further. We stop and start calling our contacts in Krasnojarsk and Irkutsk. A local biker, Sasha, shows up and we make it to his garage. Doug does not want to be stuck here and arranges for someone from Irkutsk to pick him and the bike up. It is late in the night when Alexey (Ljosha) arrives from Irkutsk. Sasha has already showed us his entire photo collection. The Toyota LandCruiser is to be the towtruck. He will not actually tow, we will put the bike in the back. This is Russia. I follow Alexey and Doug to Irkutsk where we spend the night at Alexey's. It is a bit crowdy as the appartment is small, but it works.
26-07-2006
We sleep in. My Ural's lights went out yesterday evening in Irkutsk. While Doug takes his machine appart, I have time to check my problem out. It ends up to be a bad connection at the connectors behind the headlight. I redo a couple of wires and everything works again. I spend the night in a hotel as I need to register again. It has been too long without a stamp and the appartment was a bit overcrowded too. I get some laundry done.
I am running a little behind on my writings. All the books I have with me remain untouched. There is not as much free time as I thought while on the road. After a day of riding you enjoy each moment you have to relax. Just doing nothing is actually good enough and recharges my batteries. There is no boring moment that makes you grab a book to kill some time. I am even neglecting my diary.
22-07-2006
We got up too early. After a quick breakfast we went to collect our bikes. It's Nadia's birthday today. Nikolai escorted us to the city limits. We start our journey to Irkutsk. The info we have received reports some very bad road ahead. A couple of bad stretches, each about 30km. As we are very tired from the last couple of days in Krasnoyarsk we stop for the day in Kansk. We have not done a lot of kms but we just want to relax and do nothing. No tours of the city, no trips to the dam, no visits to other bikers ... just do nothing. Maybe it was the overdose of wodka the last couple of days, maybe it was me missing Nadia, maybe I ate something that wasn't kosher, but I felt sick. I was falling asleep on the bike. I had to get some rest. And that is what we did.
23-07-2006
We leave Kansk rested and I feel much better. The bad spots are now ahead of us. Although we meet a lot japanese car convoys going in the other direction, the road is very bad. Nevertheless, trucks, busses and all sorts of cars make it through. Doug has no rear shock and his front shock broke down today thanks to a particularly bad spot. The road is dusty. I can taste the sand and we stop frequently to rest. It is hard on Doug's Indian. I could probably go a bit faster, but not really fast. It is a dirt road with a lot of potholes that makes my suspension bottom out. The drive shaft to the side car hits the guard and sidecar boat a couple of times. Everything is covered in dust. Luckily there is no rain as it would be even more difficult to drive this road if it were muddy and the deep potholes filled with water. We stop at a truckstop in Alzamai. This is a true oasis in the middle of nowhere. A nice hotel, a great cafe, a shop, guarded parking. We meet a German heading west from Mongolia. He was unable to exchange money and we happily help him out with what he needs to get to the next city. He doesn't want to stay at the hotel, but we talk a bit before he heads off. He told us there are two more bad spots up ahead. We go to sleep hoping we will clear this bad bad bad bad road tomorrow.
All the bad roads I had up to now seem to pale in comparison. It is taking its toll on moral, but luckilly we have eachother to complain to and after a couple of jokes about the situation and region we are good to go.
24-07-2006
I admire Doug for going through with this. No suspension in the back, only springs in the front, his clutch is not performing as it should, ... On these bad roads a sidecar is nice, but a dualsports bike would be better. Doug's Indian looks a bit out of place here.
There is not a lot more to say about the day. It was just crap. I would love to use some more strong words to describe the situation, but that is not helping anybody.
We clear the really bad spots and make it to regular Russian roads by the evening. We stop in Kuytun. Only one hotel but the price is a bit too high so we get ready to start the bikes to look for a camping spot. The lady from the hotel comes outside and lets us make a counter offer for the room. We settle on 300 rubles a person. Good price for a clean room. The guests from across the hall invite us to share the banya they booked and we talk about our travels.
There is still no Beeline coverage. Doug has MTS and he gets a good signal. I need to get a different phone company too. It has been since Krasnoyarsk since I last sent news to Nadia. I call her on Doug's telephone and she was worried about us as she had not received any news. She was really happy to hear me. I was really happy to hear her. If only I was in Kemerovo...
25-07-2006
We leave the hotel around noon. We slept in, enjoyed breakfast and didn't really feel like driving in the rain. We are standing outside the hotel next to the main road through town, getting ready to go. We have seen a lot of bizar things on Russian roads, but this was slightly different. There is a truck parked partly on the road, partly on the shoulder. A lada comes from the opposite direction. Next to the hotel there is a tire changing place with a police car in front of it. A little boy of about 7 or 8 runs across the road from behind the truck. The lada slams his brakes but a collision is inevitable. The road is wet and the car slides forward of the road onto the shoulder in front of a store. The little boy is underneath the car. I run to the scene, but the passenger from the car has already dragged the boy from underneath the car. I have a quick look at the boy, but besides him crying, there is apparently nothing wrong. No blood, no broken bones. They rush the boy of to somewhere (I hope a doctor or a hospital) in the car that hit him. The police were probably to busy with changing there tires. They never even moved. I guess they just take bribes, harass people and walk around with machine guns. Assholes. "To serve and protect" is not their moto here in Russia. Anyway, I was a bit shaken by what had happened. Thank God the boy was alright. This could have been a deadly incident. I have an even more disrespect for uniforms now.
Doug get's a new battery as the one he has now broke down. The road to Irkutsk is good, but 50km before Irkutsk, Doug's clutch will not go any further. We stop and start calling our contacts in Krasnojarsk and Irkutsk. A local biker, Sasha, shows up and we make it to his garage. Doug does not want to be stuck here and arranges for someone from Irkutsk to pick him and the bike up. It is late in the night when Alexey (Ljosha) arrives from Irkutsk. Sasha has already showed us his entire photo collection. The Toyota LandCruiser is to be the towtruck. He will not actually tow, we will put the bike in the back. This is Russia. I follow Alexey and Doug to Irkutsk where we spend the night at Alexey's. It is a bit crowdy as the appartment is small, but it works.
26-07-2006
We sleep in. My Ural's lights went out yesterday evening in Irkutsk. While Doug takes his machine appart, I have time to check my problem out. It ends up to be a bad connection at the connectors behind the headlight. I redo a couple of wires and everything works again. I spend the night in a hotel as I need to register again. It has been too long without a stamp and the appartment was a bit overcrowded too. I get some laundry done.
posted by Anonymous | 8:34 am
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