06-08-2006
Amur-Trassa 06-08-2006
It rained again last night. No thunderstorm though. Again the tent goes into the bag still wet. The road gets a bit better during the day. The occasional bad spot still jerking me and my rig badly. The detours over local existing roads start here. I am around Skovorodino. I gave up keeping track of which town I am in exactly. I just watch for the signs indicating the direction and distance to Habarovsk. Anyway, if anybody happens to pass through Skovorodino again, keep an eye out for the cap of my jerry can. I forgot to put it back on after I emptied it into my gas tank and only noticed this minor problem 40kms further down the road. The detours are good. Small stretches of bad asphalt, longer stretches of good gravel road. Nice wide winding roads. I ride alongside the railroad for hours, through small villages. If road signs are absent, just look for Japanese cars coming from the other direction. As long as you see these, you’re on the right track.There are more signs of civilisation here. More small towns. The previous stretch of road was straight through the wilderness. They just bulldozed their way through forests and blasted their way through hills. The scenery is beautiful. Building this road is an amazing feat. The wilderness is very dense and inhospitable. I always try to picture the first people that came through this area: the problems and discomfort they experienced make my trip look like a walk in the park. Russia has a famous pioneer and discoverer; I will have to look up his name again because I have forgotten it. He was the founder of a lot of cities all along the route he travelled. The major reason for exploration back then was fur. It was a very lucrative resource and demand was high. Later came mineral and ore exploitation: the Russian gold rush. Anyway, the “discovery” of this region is not that long ago. Tomsk is 400 years old, Vladivostok 145. Some cities are even younger, but these were designed and founded by the omnipotent communist party. I passed through a rather big city that was celebrating it’s 40th anniversary.
Have I mentioned the dust yet? Well, there is a lot of it here. It is nice to make a dust trail, it is not so nice to be in someone else’s. In any case opposing traffic makes a lot of dust to. You sometimes get to hate the endless stream of Jap cars going the other way. Riding with the headlight on is advisable, especially when the dust cloud is so thick you cannot see the road in front of you anymore. Vehicles on this road, well actually this goes for the entire Russian Federation, don’t necessarily stay in their lane. They follow the route with the least potholes and dips. So if you do not want to be scraped of the hood of a Toyota, ride with your headlight on. The dust gets everywhere. You even eat it.
There is dust despite of the rain. Ever since Ulan-Ude it has been hot. The rain just raises the humidity level and makes it even more uncomfortable. Only big puddles take a little longer to dry out. Russia is cold in the winter, but hot in the summer.
It was getting late and dusk was setting in. I stop at a café for a drink, a rest and a Zen-moment: my lights are out again … very, very, very frustrating. I check out the speedometer light I taped previously. Of course the multiple layers of tape have worn out completely from the vibrations on this “highway to hell”. Taping it up again is just a temporary solution. Luckily the clamp of the light brakes off while trying to get it out. I just ‘delete’ the option and tape the end of the cable. This will be OK until I am back in Belgium. Back in Belgium … I’m not even halfway … I could really go for ‘een fris pintje en ne frut mee majonijs’ … mmmmmm.
While investigating the headlight problem, I also have a look at the high beam switch. For some reason it seems to be stuck. After opening up the housing, I immediately see and smell the problem: the bad road has somehow managed to create a short in there and the switch has just melted together. I clean it up a bit and call it good. I don’t really need high beams I guess.
I hurry to find a camping spot. I choose high ground just in case it starts raining again. Guess what … not only did it rain, I had a second near death experience: yes, another night of thunderstorms. Again lightning struck real close to my tent. Chances of being hit by lightning are slim, but the more thunderstorms you encounter, the higher the chance I guess. Anyway, I have had enough of this. I’m getting a hotel this evening. I cannot go through this anymore. I am not kidding, I am really scared. There was additional danger this time: lightning could strike one of the trees nearby. In itself that would be acceptable. It would even be good if it just fell to the ground. It would not be good if the tree crushed either my motorcycle or my tent (with me in it). Another thing about these thunderstorms: you can actually smell lightning. You know that smell of static electricity when you take of a woollen sweater, well I smelled the same smell during both of these thunderstorms.
It rained again last night. No thunderstorm though. Again the tent goes into the bag still wet. The road gets a bit better during the day. The occasional bad spot still jerking me and my rig badly. The detours over local existing roads start here. I am around Skovorodino. I gave up keeping track of which town I am in exactly. I just watch for the signs indicating the direction and distance to Habarovsk. Anyway, if anybody happens to pass through Skovorodino again, keep an eye out for the cap of my jerry can. I forgot to put it back on after I emptied it into my gas tank and only noticed this minor problem 40kms further down the road. The detours are good. Small stretches of bad asphalt, longer stretches of good gravel road. Nice wide winding roads. I ride alongside the railroad for hours, through small villages. If road signs are absent, just look for Japanese cars coming from the other direction. As long as you see these, you’re on the right track.There are more signs of civilisation here. More small towns. The previous stretch of road was straight through the wilderness. They just bulldozed their way through forests and blasted their way through hills. The scenery is beautiful. Building this road is an amazing feat. The wilderness is very dense and inhospitable. I always try to picture the first people that came through this area: the problems and discomfort they experienced make my trip look like a walk in the park. Russia has a famous pioneer and discoverer; I will have to look up his name again because I have forgotten it. He was the founder of a lot of cities all along the route he travelled. The major reason for exploration back then was fur. It was a very lucrative resource and demand was high. Later came mineral and ore exploitation: the Russian gold rush. Anyway, the “discovery” of this region is not that long ago. Tomsk is 400 years old, Vladivostok 145. Some cities are even younger, but these were designed and founded by the omnipotent communist party. I passed through a rather big city that was celebrating it’s 40th anniversary.
Have I mentioned the dust yet? Well, there is a lot of it here. It is nice to make a dust trail, it is not so nice to be in someone else’s. In any case opposing traffic makes a lot of dust to. You sometimes get to hate the endless stream of Jap cars going the other way. Riding with the headlight on is advisable, especially when the dust cloud is so thick you cannot see the road in front of you anymore. Vehicles on this road, well actually this goes for the entire Russian Federation, don’t necessarily stay in their lane. They follow the route with the least potholes and dips. So if you do not want to be scraped of the hood of a Toyota, ride with your headlight on. The dust gets everywhere. You even eat it.
There is dust despite of the rain. Ever since Ulan-Ude it has been hot. The rain just raises the humidity level and makes it even more uncomfortable. Only big puddles take a little longer to dry out. Russia is cold in the winter, but hot in the summer.
It was getting late and dusk was setting in. I stop at a café for a drink, a rest and a Zen-moment: my lights are out again … very, very, very frustrating. I check out the speedometer light I taped previously. Of course the multiple layers of tape have worn out completely from the vibrations on this “highway to hell”. Taping it up again is just a temporary solution. Luckily the clamp of the light brakes off while trying to get it out. I just ‘delete’ the option and tape the end of the cable. This will be OK until I am back in Belgium. Back in Belgium … I’m not even halfway … I could really go for ‘een fris pintje en ne frut mee majonijs’ … mmmmmm.
While investigating the headlight problem, I also have a look at the high beam switch. For some reason it seems to be stuck. After opening up the housing, I immediately see and smell the problem: the bad road has somehow managed to create a short in there and the switch has just melted together. I clean it up a bit and call it good. I don’t really need high beams I guess.
I hurry to find a camping spot. I choose high ground just in case it starts raining again. Guess what … not only did it rain, I had a second near death experience: yes, another night of thunderstorms. Again lightning struck real close to my tent. Chances of being hit by lightning are slim, but the more thunderstorms you encounter, the higher the chance I guess. Anyway, I have had enough of this. I’m getting a hotel this evening. I cannot go through this anymore. I am not kidding, I am really scared. There was additional danger this time: lightning could strike one of the trees nearby. In itself that would be acceptable. It would even be good if it just fell to the ground. It would not be good if the tree crushed either my motorcycle or my tent (with me in it). Another thing about these thunderstorms: you can actually smell lightning. You know that smell of static electricity when you take of a woollen sweater, well I smelled the same smell during both of these thunderstorms.
posted by Anonymous | 9:30 am
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