1 month at Nadya’s
1 month at Nadya’s
September may have been a break on my roundtrip from Westerlo to Vladivostok, but I am sure it is the beginning of a new chapter: Nadya and me.
Nadyushka, words can not describe how much I love you. I hate to go, but sadly enough the cold reality of the world we live in compels me to head back to Belgium. Not using the word ‘home’ is done deliberately. There is an English saying that says: home is where the heart is. Nadya has captured my heart and it belongs to her. Plans are already being made for us (Nadya, Tonya and me) to be reunited indefinitely, be it in Russia or Belgium or wherever.
Anyway, Nadya had to go to work during the day and I kept myself busy with whatever until she got home. I was not bored for one second as a lot of things could be done: the dishes, laundry, vacuuming, shopping, studying Russian, going for a walk or to the internet café or just relaxing while listening to music.
The first weekend in Kemerovo was already fully booked with the sooner than expected arrival of my motorcycle in Novosibirsk. The train was to arrive at 2am and would stay for an hour. We decided to go to a Thay boxing show at the tsirk (permanent circus). I was nice to see although I prefer MMA (mixed martial arts). We decided to see the whole show and thus missed the last bus to Novosibirsk. No problem, taxis are happy to take you on the 3 to 4 hour ride to there although the fare is higher than the bus. As you may remember the trains work on Moscow time. Novosibirsk is 1 hour ahead of Kemerovo. Needless to say that I was a bit worried and triple checked our time calculations. We arrived in Novosibirsk on time, even after a small detour thanks to an orientation error of our driver. Nadya had contacted some bikers in Novosibirsk to give us a hand with unloading and assembling the motorcycle. In my view this was not really necessary as I was planning to do everything myself, it would just take a bit longer and I hate to disrupt their evening. It turned out I was once again underestimating the whole operation. The train floor was about 1.5 metres higher than the platform. The only help you get from the railroad staff is that they point out your cargo and where to sign on the release form. My sidecar was not crated and the crate around my motorcycle was not more than a wooden frame. The help from the Novosibirsk bikers turned out to be a necessity and I am of course forever grateful. Beside handing some tools all I had to do was watch as they unloaded and reassembled my Ural. My sidecar spotlight was removed and stored in my sidecar. My horn and binoculars were nowhere to be found. I hope they make somebody happy as I am not going to give it a second thought. I am just happy that is all that went missing. These are expendable items … although I really liked my horn and it was a very good pair of binoculars. :-( The train was actually stuffed with motorcycles and the platform was stuffed with people waiting to unload their cargo. I greeted some bikers from Tomsk I met during my trip. After my motorcycle was assembled our plan to return to Kemerovo the same night was quickly altered as we were invited to spend the night at the garage/hangout of the Novosibirsk bikers. Once at the location, which was quietly located in the middle of a garage block, beer and snacks were produced and we talked and drank until the sun came up. The next day we said our goodbyes and headed back to Kemerovo sometime in the afternoon. It was late when we opened the door to Nadya’s apartment. Poor Nadya was cold and exhausted and had to go to work in the morning.
The next weekend we went to a concert of Okean Elzie, an Ukrainian band, again in the tsirk. It was very good. They sang in Ukrainian, but it is not so different from Russian I guess since Nadya understood what they were singing.
The first week of September, via Nadya I got into contact with Albert, a professor of English at the Kemerovo University of Arts and Culture. He invited me to his classes were I talked to the students about my adventures in Russia … in English. Some did not understand English, some got the gist and most asked me questions in Russian. It was fun and interesting for the students and I enjoyed it too. I was introduced to the other professors, had tea with deans from several departments and was shown around the university. Very interesting. Albert is a great guy. He is a Russian and has lived in the States for many years. He is now back in Russia to take care of his mother because his father passed away last year. He likes talking to me and I like talking to him. His English is perfect.
The second weekend of September Nadya and me went to the bike show in Novosibirsk. Nadya’s cousin Sasha and his girlfriend Tanya joined us. We left Kemerovo around 4pm which is a bit late, but we can make it there by dusk if all goes well. Guess what … all did not go well. About 40 kilometres out of Kemerovo Nadya’s Ural breaks down. After a quick inspection it looks like the coil is broken. Nadya is keen on getting to the bike show and we decide to tow her to the next big town to find a replacement coil. Our advance is slow. There are many hills on the road to Novosibirsk and my Ural has a lot of work towing Nadya’s machine, luggage and 4 people. We make it into Yurga, but the local parts store has already closed. We stop for a while to observe the Russian army as they cross the newly constructed asphalt road with their APC’s. They have the brains to put down some sort of wooden covering to keep the caterpillartracks (rupsband) from eating the road. I don’t know if it worked, but the tracks were splintering the wood like crazy and there was still a long line of vehicles waiting to cross. I did not take pictures because I do not want to spend the rest of my life in some Russian labour camp as a convicted spy. We left Yurga again after a cup of coffee and bundling up for what was to be a long cold ride into Novosibirsk. Kemerovo – bike show is about 280kms. The good thing about a bike show is that you do not have to worry about waking people up if you arrive in the middle of the night. We were all exhausted and wanted to hit the sack ASAP. We found a good spot, set up our tent and … were invited for vodka and beer around the campfire. Somebody had brought a banjo and everybody was singing. It was fun. I met Nikolai (my host from Krasnoyarsk). He was glad to see me and I was glad to see him. He is a cool guy and plays the banjo like the guys from “Deliverance”. He insisted I sing a sea chanty in Dutch. I do not know the full text of “Als de klok van Arnemuiden” so I decided to sing “Piet Hein”. They loved it.
The next day set out to find replacement parts. A local biker showed us to the Ural parts store which also featured a nice motorcycle parts market right on the sidewalk. I probably parked my motorcycle too close to this market as some people asked me how much I wanted for my machine. The vendors came over to inspect my Ural and were very interested. Needless to say they had never seen one before and did not have any of the special parts.
Back at our campsite Nadya’s bike was the center of attention. After the initial work by a local Novosibirsk biker, a professional Ural repair guy showed up and helped out. This guy is Suchov from Barnaul. A man we will meet again later on. He did not finish before dusk and would continue the next day, but he said it looked promising. Campfire time again, but I took it easy this time.
The next day I had to get out my tools again for Suchov to finish his work on the motorcycle. It ran for a while, but eventually started to stall all the time and the gears were making a terrible whining noise. Nadya was not happy. Everybody was heading home. The machine was in need of a major overhaul. Suchov has a masterskaya (professional motorcycle repair) in Barnaul. He will be happy to look at the bike there. We were planning to go to the Altay anyway, so we can drop off the bike when we pass through Barnaul. Troubles for later, now we had to get back to Kemerovo. After towing a motorcycle for 200kms you can say that you have the hang of it. On the way back to Kemerovo we broke 1 towing rope and almost froze to death. Thank God that it was not raining. We got to bed after midnight.
Nadya went to work the next day to arrange her leave for the next two weeks. We are going to the Altay mountains. We rested a couple of days and spent some long overdue time with Tonya. It took us two days to get Barnaul. We spent the night in an old trailer converted to a dwelling behind a café situated on the border of the Kemerovskaya Oblast and Altayski Kray for 150 rubles. It was rainy and cold. Yet another 300 something kms of towing an Ural. I am now a towing expert.
We reached Suchov’s masterskaya without any problems and spent the night in Suchov’s apartment. The next day Nadya had to shop for new shoes and we paid a visit to a friend of Nadya’s, Mila, we also met at the Novosibirsk bike show. In the late afternoon we went back to the masterskaya to learn what needed to be done to make the old Ural run again. The price is high if you know what the average wage is here. But the repairs are required. Suchov will have the work finished by the time we get back. I buy and install a new battery. My current battery is almost dead and does not have enough power to run the starter. In the evening Suchov invites us to the local biker bar. A very nicely decorated bar. We spent the night again at Suchov’s and left for Gorno-Altaisk the next day. The weather was good. We are not in a hurry, it is a holiday an we spend the night in Gorno-Altaisk. Looking for a gastinitsa in Russia is a challenge most of the time. Gorno is not different. We had signs indicating the direction on the main road, but after that you are required to ask people for directions. We are eventually directed to the right place and find it. I still cannot understand how because the sign on the fence of the gastinitsa is about 5 by 20 cm. Try spotting that at dusk. The door of the gastinitsa is locked. We push the button (that hopefully makes a bell ring somewhere) several times. Nothing happens. We go into the café on the other side of the building and they inform us that the gastinitsa is indeed open for business and that we should push the button if the door is locked. The offitsiant of the café goes away for a while and when she comes back she tells us she just talked to the administrator of the gastinitsa: the button does not work properly and one needs to push hard and upwards a bit. My blood pressure is already rising slightly. We go to the other side of the building again. Of course the door is still locked. The administrator knows guests are coming, but she is probably programmed to only respond to the bell. My blood pressure goes up some more. We push the button hard, soft, fast, slow, up, down and sideways … and yes indeed the administrator shows up. It is good that I do not speak Russian. Judging from the tone of her voice and the expression on the administrator’s face and the response of Nadya I get the idea that it is apparently our fault and that we should have pushed the button properly. My blood pressure is now high and if my knowledge of Russian would have been better I would have told her my two cents and where to shove her gastinitsa. Anyway, we have a bed and can take a shower. All is well.
We are on our way to Kuray, 30kms after Aktash. After Gorno the landscape slowly but surely gets more mountainous and we make our way over a couple of passes. The altitude is high. I don’t know exactly how high, but maybe 1500, 2000 metres or more. My carbs are having problems with this and my speed gradually decreases as I near the top. I know this can be a problem with carbs, but have no clue what to adjust. They need to be serviced anyway because they cause my engine to sputter a couple of times when I kill the contact. Anyway, in Kuray we leave the main road to head for the Aktru Glacier over local roads. The info on where to go to was provided by Suchov. He used to live in Gorno and knows the region very well. He is a hiking and rafting guide. I am a bit apprehensive of local roads: the quality is very bad and road signs are non-existent. Suchov said not to worry, there is only one road leading to the glacier. He gave me a map of the area as a present. Nadya double checks the directions and road conditions at the local road services office. After asking for some more directions in the town we are directed towards the only bridge over the river. They also say, you cannot go wrong, there is only one road and one bridge. 100 metres out of town the ‘one’ road starts to split in a multitude of tracks. We just sort of chose the one that led us as straight as possible in the direction we needed to go. We reach the bridge that will hopefully stay intact until we return from the glacier. Once across the bridge the ‘one’ road again splits in multiple tracks and I choose the one leading us as best as possible in the direction we need to go. The road, well it is more like a track actually, constantly splits and has other roads joining it. The area we are passing through here is called the Altay Steppe. You actually do not need roads, you can just drive over the steppe and I end up just orienting with the topographical map. Nadya and I have the classical disagreement on where we are on the map and whereto we should go. We have to wade through a couple of creeks. The track gets very rough and the altitude is making my engine stall, I have no power. We are forced to continue on foot. I don’t really like it. I am wearing my motorcycle clothes, rather uncomfortable for hiking uphill. All we take with us is a flashlight, some candy and our coats. I am not in the mood for hiking, but carry on because Nadya wants to go. Anyway, I estimate it is about 8 kms to the glacier. We need to get back so that makes 16kms in total. It is late in the afternoon and I figure we will be returning when the sun has already set. I am really not in the mood for the hike, but Nadya wants to go. We eventually reach the lake near the glacier at dusk. We learnt from another hiker we met that the glacier is another 4kms from here. I think it would be crazy to go on and after enjoying the view we head back. The lake is very wide and because of the low water level now it is mostly a lake of glacier sediment. The wind stirs up the dust. The view is breathtaking and I am grateful to Nadya for dragging me up here. We head back and along the way we meet the same hiker again. He is the administrator of a turbaza near the lake. He invites us to stay there and explore the glacier in the morning, but I am already stressing out for leaving my motorcycle behind for the hike. I absolutely do not want to leave it there unattended overnight. We reach the bottom of the mountain and stay in the cabin of an abandoned turbaza. My motorcycle is a little further down the road. I want it near the cabin and rev the heck out of the engine to make it reach the cabin. We make a campfire outside and have a stove inside. It is a good thing that we stocked up on food before leaving town. The night is cold so we cuddle close together. In the morning we continue our Altay trip and head back to Aktash. In Aktash we again leave the main road and head into the mountains to Ulagan. The new batteries we bought for the camera are not up to specs (but are the only ones we could find) and we can only make pictures with the cell phone, a shame since the scenery was very beautiful. As we got closer to Ulagan it started raining. Nadya and I were cold and craved a warm cup of coffee or tea. Upon entering Ulagan we stop at the first magasin we see and ask for directions to a kafe. The sad reality of these remote villages in the Altay is a major alcohol problem. Everybody around the magasin was drunk and instead of pointing us to a kafe they just mumbled some remarks they thought were funny. We eventually find a kafe and to our surprise none of the kafes in the Altay sell vodka, instead they have a huge selection of beers in bottles ranging from 0.5 to 3 litres. For vodka you need to go to a magasin. Needless to say they have a lot of magasins in Ulagan. We sip our coffee and try to get warm again. Our destination is Teletskoye Lake about 130 kms out of Ulagan, but probably a bit more. This is off-road driving. The ‘one’ road to Teletskoye Lake of course splits into multiple tracks again … I still have no clue why they cannot just follow the main road, it seems to me that everybody has a different idea on what the best track is as all are well used and not just the result of one idiot trying to find a shortcut. Anyway, it is raining, foggy, slippery roads winding along mountain sides … we are cold and it will be dark soon. In the last settlement we passed through we learned that there is no gas station at our destination. Gas will probably be available from a local, but will they have 92??? What if there is no gas for a couple of days? With the fog and the rain there is noting much to see anyway. We still had a dangerous descend ahead of us to the river which we needed to follow to the lake. Along the river we would have to cross some streams as there are no bridges here. To make a long story short, I was not in the mood to go to the lake. Maybe the rain and the cold got to me, but I just wanted to be back in Kemerovo. I could only see the negative sides no matter how much Nadya try to lift my spirits. We decided to head back and find a warm gastinitsa with shower. A pretty tall order here in the Altay. We reach Ulagan and see signs for a gastinitsa. Of course the signs lead nowhere and all the people we ask have no clue of a gastinitsa or give us all different directions. It is getting late. When we stop for a while to discuss what we will do now I notice my tent is missing. I am sure I put it back on the luggage rack this morning and secured it properly. The fastening hooks are also not as I would normally attach them. It is possible that it did fall out, but all through my journey across Russia it has never budged. We figure it was probably stolen when we stopped at the last kafe. A pitty … I sort of liked that tent but there is no use crying over spilt milk. We have been all over Ulagan, dodging drunks lying on or zigzagging across the road, we are fed up with this town and decide to head for Aktash where we now for sure there is a gastinitsa. 20kms out of Aktash we stop for a cup of coffee at a turbaza. It is very cold. Nadya asks if they can maybe put us up for the night. They have a cabin, no heating and power here is provided by a generator. We decide to call it a day and take the cabin. It is freezing cold, but we have a lot of warm blankets to cuddle up under. When we wake up the next morning the condensation on the window is frozen. My Ural is white from the ice. The small waterfall a little further down the road has icicles. I am not an expert, but it must have been very cold last night for this to happen overnight. To us it is an affirmation of the fact that we have to head back to Kemerovo. The Altay is very beautiful, but July and August are the only good months for touring it. On the way back we are spared from rain, but sun as well. The wind is blowing fiercely. We check out some prehistoric rock carvings, very interesting. Anyway, we make it back to Barnaul two days later. It was fun and the scenery was breathtaking, but the weather was not with us. We will have to come back next summer as the Altay has even more to offer.
We reach Barnaul rather late and spend the night at Mila’s who is so kind as to arrange a banya for us at one of her friends. The next day we go to Suchov’s masterskaya to find Nadya’s Ural working like a charm. I change my oil and filter and tighten some nuts and bolts. I also purchase a windscreen. Suchov assembles and installs it free of charge and also gives me the Ural grip protectors. It is in the afternoon and I don’t feel like taking off now, we will leave in the morning. Suchov puts us up for the night. The next morning we pick up Nadya’s bike and get going. Just after the Barnaul DPS checkpoint, Nadya’s Ural again brakes down. It runs, but bad and slow. We go back to the masterskaya and Suchov takes the whole machine apart again. He replaces some parts and it runs OK again. It is again late and we spend the night at Suchov’s again. The next day he, his girlfriend and another biker are going to Leninsk-Kuznetsk to attend the birthday party of a biker there. This city is along our way so we decide to go together. 30kms out of Barnaul Nadya’s machine breaks down again. Suchov takes it apart to find a bad valve. Spare parts for old Urals are abound in Russia, so they just head in to the nearest town and find the required part. Once back together again all is OK. We have lost a lot of time here, Nadya and I have a lot of kms to cover still. For some reason it is rather warm that evening and it is easy riding all the way until they stop us at the Kemerovo DPS checkpoint. Just a routine check I guess and we can carry on, but it starts raining. It is still about 10kms, so enough to get soaking wet. It is once more late in the night before we get to bed. Poor Nadya is exhausted and has to go to work the next day. We were on the road for about a week and a half.
My last week in Kemerovo has started. I relaxed the first two days and caught up on my emails. I planned my route back to Belgium. It will be a 7000km trip to reach Westerlo again. I will stop in Irbit again to get some repairs done.
During my ‘lectures’ at the university I learned of another Flemish guy staying in Kemerovo. Some fancy searching on my part leads me to his email address and I contact him. We decide to meet for a talk. Tom Verlinden is a translator (Russian-English) from Mechelen that lives in Kemerovo with his Russian wife. He works at home. They are expecting their first baby in November. Thank you Tom for finding the time to leave your wife and have a beer with me. It was a very nice conversation. The topic does not matter, I was an incredible feeling for me to speak Flemish again in the middle of Siberia. We generally just talked about Russia and Russians and how it all compares to Belgium. It was interesting. Thank you.
That evening we were invited to the local biker hangout to meet some Kemerovo bikers and a guy, Sam, from New Zealand. He is traveling to France and bought an old Ural in Irkutsk. He has had a lot of adventures so far and is traveling on a very tight budget. He is a cool guy and I wish him the best. Maybe we will meet up again on the road and he might even drop by in Belgium.
The next day Nadya takes me to the movies. We go to the “KOCMOC” kinotheater. Besides the movies being dubbed in Russian, they have numbered seats and you can choose seats in different price ranges, like in a theatre or stadium. How different things can be in other countries. One more thing, you can bring whatever food or beverages you want into the cinema. So we went shopping before we entered the cinema to watch “Perfume” or “Parfyumer” as they call it here. It is a relaxed movie, not a fast action movie, so they spoke slow and clear enough for me to understand the gist. It was a very good movie … Dustin Hoffman can speak excellent Russian.
On Friday we met the Professor (Sergey from Tomsk) again. He and a friend were passing through to go to the Krasnojarsk end-of-season bike show. He also invited us, but we had other things planned. Anyway, it was good to see the Professor again. He did not bring the disc with my interview, but will ship it once he gets back home.
On Saturday we went to see the Tomskii pisanitsa. These are prehistoric rock carvings along the river Tom. Nadya’s cousin Sasha joined us. The carvings are interesting but sadly enough vandalism and normal natural decay of the rock have damaged it badly. The camera they have installed now to observe the visitors is too late. In the evening we went to Nadya’s uncle to have a banya and spend the night. A lot of beer was consumed…
On Monday the Professor passed through Kemerovo again on his way back to Tomsk. I gave him a disc with my pictures, he also gave me a ride to the garage and his friend insisted I sing a part of “Piet Hein” again. They had met Nikolai in Krasnoyarsk who was curious to learn how I was and who told them about my performance in Novosibirsk. What a small world we live in. Once at the garage I had to go to the local TV station for and interview. A friend of Albert is an anchorman for Rambler Kemerovo and he wanted to interview me. It was quick but very good, his English was very good.
September may have been a break on my roundtrip from Westerlo to Vladivostok, but I am sure it is the beginning of a new chapter: Nadya and me.
Nadyushka, words can not describe how much I love you. I hate to go, but sadly enough the cold reality of the world we live in compels me to head back to Belgium. Not using the word ‘home’ is done deliberately. There is an English saying that says: home is where the heart is. Nadya has captured my heart and it belongs to her. Plans are already being made for us (Nadya, Tonya and me) to be reunited indefinitely, be it in Russia or Belgium or wherever.
Anyway, Nadya had to go to work during the day and I kept myself busy with whatever until she got home. I was not bored for one second as a lot of things could be done: the dishes, laundry, vacuuming, shopping, studying Russian, going for a walk or to the internet café or just relaxing while listening to music.
The first weekend in Kemerovo was already fully booked with the sooner than expected arrival of my motorcycle in Novosibirsk. The train was to arrive at 2am and would stay for an hour. We decided to go to a Thay boxing show at the tsirk (permanent circus). I was nice to see although I prefer MMA (mixed martial arts). We decided to see the whole show and thus missed the last bus to Novosibirsk. No problem, taxis are happy to take you on the 3 to 4 hour ride to there although the fare is higher than the bus. As you may remember the trains work on Moscow time. Novosibirsk is 1 hour ahead of Kemerovo. Needless to say that I was a bit worried and triple checked our time calculations. We arrived in Novosibirsk on time, even after a small detour thanks to an orientation error of our driver. Nadya had contacted some bikers in Novosibirsk to give us a hand with unloading and assembling the motorcycle. In my view this was not really necessary as I was planning to do everything myself, it would just take a bit longer and I hate to disrupt their evening. It turned out I was once again underestimating the whole operation. The train floor was about 1.5 metres higher than the platform. The only help you get from the railroad staff is that they point out your cargo and where to sign on the release form. My sidecar was not crated and the crate around my motorcycle was not more than a wooden frame. The help from the Novosibirsk bikers turned out to be a necessity and I am of course forever grateful. Beside handing some tools all I had to do was watch as they unloaded and reassembled my Ural. My sidecar spotlight was removed and stored in my sidecar. My horn and binoculars were nowhere to be found. I hope they make somebody happy as I am not going to give it a second thought. I am just happy that is all that went missing. These are expendable items … although I really liked my horn and it was a very good pair of binoculars. :-( The train was actually stuffed with motorcycles and the platform was stuffed with people waiting to unload their cargo. I greeted some bikers from Tomsk I met during my trip. After my motorcycle was assembled our plan to return to Kemerovo the same night was quickly altered as we were invited to spend the night at the garage/hangout of the Novosibirsk bikers. Once at the location, which was quietly located in the middle of a garage block, beer and snacks were produced and we talked and drank until the sun came up. The next day we said our goodbyes and headed back to Kemerovo sometime in the afternoon. It was late when we opened the door to Nadya’s apartment. Poor Nadya was cold and exhausted and had to go to work in the morning.
The next weekend we went to a concert of Okean Elzie, an Ukrainian band, again in the tsirk. It was very good. They sang in Ukrainian, but it is not so different from Russian I guess since Nadya understood what they were singing.
The first week of September, via Nadya I got into contact with Albert, a professor of English at the Kemerovo University of Arts and Culture. He invited me to his classes were I talked to the students about my adventures in Russia … in English. Some did not understand English, some got the gist and most asked me questions in Russian. It was fun and interesting for the students and I enjoyed it too. I was introduced to the other professors, had tea with deans from several departments and was shown around the university. Very interesting. Albert is a great guy. He is a Russian and has lived in the States for many years. He is now back in Russia to take care of his mother because his father passed away last year. He likes talking to me and I like talking to him. His English is perfect.
The second weekend of September Nadya and me went to the bike show in Novosibirsk. Nadya’s cousin Sasha and his girlfriend Tanya joined us. We left Kemerovo around 4pm which is a bit late, but we can make it there by dusk if all goes well. Guess what … all did not go well. About 40 kilometres out of Kemerovo Nadya’s Ural breaks down. After a quick inspection it looks like the coil is broken. Nadya is keen on getting to the bike show and we decide to tow her to the next big town to find a replacement coil. Our advance is slow. There are many hills on the road to Novosibirsk and my Ural has a lot of work towing Nadya’s machine, luggage and 4 people. We make it into Yurga, but the local parts store has already closed. We stop for a while to observe the Russian army as they cross the newly constructed asphalt road with their APC’s. They have the brains to put down some sort of wooden covering to keep the caterpillartracks (rupsband) from eating the road. I don’t know if it worked, but the tracks were splintering the wood like crazy and there was still a long line of vehicles waiting to cross. I did not take pictures because I do not want to spend the rest of my life in some Russian labour camp as a convicted spy. We left Yurga again after a cup of coffee and bundling up for what was to be a long cold ride into Novosibirsk. Kemerovo – bike show is about 280kms. The good thing about a bike show is that you do not have to worry about waking people up if you arrive in the middle of the night. We were all exhausted and wanted to hit the sack ASAP. We found a good spot, set up our tent and … were invited for vodka and beer around the campfire. Somebody had brought a banjo and everybody was singing. It was fun. I met Nikolai (my host from Krasnoyarsk). He was glad to see me and I was glad to see him. He is a cool guy and plays the banjo like the guys from “Deliverance”. He insisted I sing a sea chanty in Dutch. I do not know the full text of “Als de klok van Arnemuiden” so I decided to sing “Piet Hein”. They loved it.
The next day set out to find replacement parts. A local biker showed us to the Ural parts store which also featured a nice motorcycle parts market right on the sidewalk. I probably parked my motorcycle too close to this market as some people asked me how much I wanted for my machine. The vendors came over to inspect my Ural and were very interested. Needless to say they had never seen one before and did not have any of the special parts.
Back at our campsite Nadya’s bike was the center of attention. After the initial work by a local Novosibirsk biker, a professional Ural repair guy showed up and helped out. This guy is Suchov from Barnaul. A man we will meet again later on. He did not finish before dusk and would continue the next day, but he said it looked promising. Campfire time again, but I took it easy this time.
The next day I had to get out my tools again for Suchov to finish his work on the motorcycle. It ran for a while, but eventually started to stall all the time and the gears were making a terrible whining noise. Nadya was not happy. Everybody was heading home. The machine was in need of a major overhaul. Suchov has a masterskaya (professional motorcycle repair) in Barnaul. He will be happy to look at the bike there. We were planning to go to the Altay anyway, so we can drop off the bike when we pass through Barnaul. Troubles for later, now we had to get back to Kemerovo. After towing a motorcycle for 200kms you can say that you have the hang of it. On the way back to Kemerovo we broke 1 towing rope and almost froze to death. Thank God that it was not raining. We got to bed after midnight.
Nadya went to work the next day to arrange her leave for the next two weeks. We are going to the Altay mountains. We rested a couple of days and spent some long overdue time with Tonya. It took us two days to get Barnaul. We spent the night in an old trailer converted to a dwelling behind a café situated on the border of the Kemerovskaya Oblast and Altayski Kray for 150 rubles. It was rainy and cold. Yet another 300 something kms of towing an Ural. I am now a towing expert.
We reached Suchov’s masterskaya without any problems and spent the night in Suchov’s apartment. The next day Nadya had to shop for new shoes and we paid a visit to a friend of Nadya’s, Mila, we also met at the Novosibirsk bike show. In the late afternoon we went back to the masterskaya to learn what needed to be done to make the old Ural run again. The price is high if you know what the average wage is here. But the repairs are required. Suchov will have the work finished by the time we get back. I buy and install a new battery. My current battery is almost dead and does not have enough power to run the starter. In the evening Suchov invites us to the local biker bar. A very nicely decorated bar. We spent the night again at Suchov’s and left for Gorno-Altaisk the next day. The weather was good. We are not in a hurry, it is a holiday an we spend the night in Gorno-Altaisk. Looking for a gastinitsa in Russia is a challenge most of the time. Gorno is not different. We had signs indicating the direction on the main road, but after that you are required to ask people for directions. We are eventually directed to the right place and find it. I still cannot understand how because the sign on the fence of the gastinitsa is about 5 by 20 cm. Try spotting that at dusk. The door of the gastinitsa is locked. We push the button (that hopefully makes a bell ring somewhere) several times. Nothing happens. We go into the café on the other side of the building and they inform us that the gastinitsa is indeed open for business and that we should push the button if the door is locked. The offitsiant of the café goes away for a while and when she comes back she tells us she just talked to the administrator of the gastinitsa: the button does not work properly and one needs to push hard and upwards a bit. My blood pressure is already rising slightly. We go to the other side of the building again. Of course the door is still locked. The administrator knows guests are coming, but she is probably programmed to only respond to the bell. My blood pressure goes up some more. We push the button hard, soft, fast, slow, up, down and sideways … and yes indeed the administrator shows up. It is good that I do not speak Russian. Judging from the tone of her voice and the expression on the administrator’s face and the response of Nadya I get the idea that it is apparently our fault and that we should have pushed the button properly. My blood pressure is now high and if my knowledge of Russian would have been better I would have told her my two cents and where to shove her gastinitsa. Anyway, we have a bed and can take a shower. All is well.
We are on our way to Kuray, 30kms after Aktash. After Gorno the landscape slowly but surely gets more mountainous and we make our way over a couple of passes. The altitude is high. I don’t know exactly how high, but maybe 1500, 2000 metres or more. My carbs are having problems with this and my speed gradually decreases as I near the top. I know this can be a problem with carbs, but have no clue what to adjust. They need to be serviced anyway because they cause my engine to sputter a couple of times when I kill the contact. Anyway, in Kuray we leave the main road to head for the Aktru Glacier over local roads. The info on where to go to was provided by Suchov. He used to live in Gorno and knows the region very well. He is a hiking and rafting guide. I am a bit apprehensive of local roads: the quality is very bad and road signs are non-existent. Suchov said not to worry, there is only one road leading to the glacier. He gave me a map of the area as a present. Nadya double checks the directions and road conditions at the local road services office. After asking for some more directions in the town we are directed towards the only bridge over the river. They also say, you cannot go wrong, there is only one road and one bridge. 100 metres out of town the ‘one’ road starts to split in a multitude of tracks. We just sort of chose the one that led us as straight as possible in the direction we needed to go. We reach the bridge that will hopefully stay intact until we return from the glacier. Once across the bridge the ‘one’ road again splits in multiple tracks and I choose the one leading us as best as possible in the direction we need to go. The road, well it is more like a track actually, constantly splits and has other roads joining it. The area we are passing through here is called the Altay Steppe. You actually do not need roads, you can just drive over the steppe and I end up just orienting with the topographical map. Nadya and I have the classical disagreement on where we are on the map and whereto we should go. We have to wade through a couple of creeks. The track gets very rough and the altitude is making my engine stall, I have no power. We are forced to continue on foot. I don’t really like it. I am wearing my motorcycle clothes, rather uncomfortable for hiking uphill. All we take with us is a flashlight, some candy and our coats. I am not in the mood for hiking, but carry on because Nadya wants to go. Anyway, I estimate it is about 8 kms to the glacier. We need to get back so that makes 16kms in total. It is late in the afternoon and I figure we will be returning when the sun has already set. I am really not in the mood for the hike, but Nadya wants to go. We eventually reach the lake near the glacier at dusk. We learnt from another hiker we met that the glacier is another 4kms from here. I think it would be crazy to go on and after enjoying the view we head back. The lake is very wide and because of the low water level now it is mostly a lake of glacier sediment. The wind stirs up the dust. The view is breathtaking and I am grateful to Nadya for dragging me up here. We head back and along the way we meet the same hiker again. He is the administrator of a turbaza near the lake. He invites us to stay there and explore the glacier in the morning, but I am already stressing out for leaving my motorcycle behind for the hike. I absolutely do not want to leave it there unattended overnight. We reach the bottom of the mountain and stay in the cabin of an abandoned turbaza. My motorcycle is a little further down the road. I want it near the cabin and rev the heck out of the engine to make it reach the cabin. We make a campfire outside and have a stove inside. It is a good thing that we stocked up on food before leaving town. The night is cold so we cuddle close together. In the morning we continue our Altay trip and head back to Aktash. In Aktash we again leave the main road and head into the mountains to Ulagan. The new batteries we bought for the camera are not up to specs (but are the only ones we could find) and we can only make pictures with the cell phone, a shame since the scenery was very beautiful. As we got closer to Ulagan it started raining. Nadya and I were cold and craved a warm cup of coffee or tea. Upon entering Ulagan we stop at the first magasin we see and ask for directions to a kafe. The sad reality of these remote villages in the Altay is a major alcohol problem. Everybody around the magasin was drunk and instead of pointing us to a kafe they just mumbled some remarks they thought were funny. We eventually find a kafe and to our surprise none of the kafes in the Altay sell vodka, instead they have a huge selection of beers in bottles ranging from 0.5 to 3 litres. For vodka you need to go to a magasin. Needless to say they have a lot of magasins in Ulagan. We sip our coffee and try to get warm again. Our destination is Teletskoye Lake about 130 kms out of Ulagan, but probably a bit more. This is off-road driving. The ‘one’ road to Teletskoye Lake of course splits into multiple tracks again … I still have no clue why they cannot just follow the main road, it seems to me that everybody has a different idea on what the best track is as all are well used and not just the result of one idiot trying to find a shortcut. Anyway, it is raining, foggy, slippery roads winding along mountain sides … we are cold and it will be dark soon. In the last settlement we passed through we learned that there is no gas station at our destination. Gas will probably be available from a local, but will they have 92??? What if there is no gas for a couple of days? With the fog and the rain there is noting much to see anyway. We still had a dangerous descend ahead of us to the river which we needed to follow to the lake. Along the river we would have to cross some streams as there are no bridges here. To make a long story short, I was not in the mood to go to the lake. Maybe the rain and the cold got to me, but I just wanted to be back in Kemerovo. I could only see the negative sides no matter how much Nadya try to lift my spirits. We decided to head back and find a warm gastinitsa with shower. A pretty tall order here in the Altay. We reach Ulagan and see signs for a gastinitsa. Of course the signs lead nowhere and all the people we ask have no clue of a gastinitsa or give us all different directions. It is getting late. When we stop for a while to discuss what we will do now I notice my tent is missing. I am sure I put it back on the luggage rack this morning and secured it properly. The fastening hooks are also not as I would normally attach them. It is possible that it did fall out, but all through my journey across Russia it has never budged. We figure it was probably stolen when we stopped at the last kafe. A pitty … I sort of liked that tent but there is no use crying over spilt milk. We have been all over Ulagan, dodging drunks lying on or zigzagging across the road, we are fed up with this town and decide to head for Aktash where we now for sure there is a gastinitsa. 20kms out of Aktash we stop for a cup of coffee at a turbaza. It is very cold. Nadya asks if they can maybe put us up for the night. They have a cabin, no heating and power here is provided by a generator. We decide to call it a day and take the cabin. It is freezing cold, but we have a lot of warm blankets to cuddle up under. When we wake up the next morning the condensation on the window is frozen. My Ural is white from the ice. The small waterfall a little further down the road has icicles. I am not an expert, but it must have been very cold last night for this to happen overnight. To us it is an affirmation of the fact that we have to head back to Kemerovo. The Altay is very beautiful, but July and August are the only good months for touring it. On the way back we are spared from rain, but sun as well. The wind is blowing fiercely. We check out some prehistoric rock carvings, very interesting. Anyway, we make it back to Barnaul two days later. It was fun and the scenery was breathtaking, but the weather was not with us. We will have to come back next summer as the Altay has even more to offer.
We reach Barnaul rather late and spend the night at Mila’s who is so kind as to arrange a banya for us at one of her friends. The next day we go to Suchov’s masterskaya to find Nadya’s Ural working like a charm. I change my oil and filter and tighten some nuts and bolts. I also purchase a windscreen. Suchov assembles and installs it free of charge and also gives me the Ural grip protectors. It is in the afternoon and I don’t feel like taking off now, we will leave in the morning. Suchov puts us up for the night. The next morning we pick up Nadya’s bike and get going. Just after the Barnaul DPS checkpoint, Nadya’s Ural again brakes down. It runs, but bad and slow. We go back to the masterskaya and Suchov takes the whole machine apart again. He replaces some parts and it runs OK again. It is again late and we spend the night at Suchov’s again. The next day he, his girlfriend and another biker are going to Leninsk-Kuznetsk to attend the birthday party of a biker there. This city is along our way so we decide to go together. 30kms out of Barnaul Nadya’s machine breaks down again. Suchov takes it apart to find a bad valve. Spare parts for old Urals are abound in Russia, so they just head in to the nearest town and find the required part. Once back together again all is OK. We have lost a lot of time here, Nadya and I have a lot of kms to cover still. For some reason it is rather warm that evening and it is easy riding all the way until they stop us at the Kemerovo DPS checkpoint. Just a routine check I guess and we can carry on, but it starts raining. It is still about 10kms, so enough to get soaking wet. It is once more late in the night before we get to bed. Poor Nadya is exhausted and has to go to work the next day. We were on the road for about a week and a half.
My last week in Kemerovo has started. I relaxed the first two days and caught up on my emails. I planned my route back to Belgium. It will be a 7000km trip to reach Westerlo again. I will stop in Irbit again to get some repairs done.
During my ‘lectures’ at the university I learned of another Flemish guy staying in Kemerovo. Some fancy searching on my part leads me to his email address and I contact him. We decide to meet for a talk. Tom Verlinden is a translator (Russian-English) from Mechelen that lives in Kemerovo with his Russian wife. He works at home. They are expecting their first baby in November. Thank you Tom for finding the time to leave your wife and have a beer with me. It was a very nice conversation. The topic does not matter, I was an incredible feeling for me to speak Flemish again in the middle of Siberia. We generally just talked about Russia and Russians and how it all compares to Belgium. It was interesting. Thank you.
That evening we were invited to the local biker hangout to meet some Kemerovo bikers and a guy, Sam, from New Zealand. He is traveling to France and bought an old Ural in Irkutsk. He has had a lot of adventures so far and is traveling on a very tight budget. He is a cool guy and I wish him the best. Maybe we will meet up again on the road and he might even drop by in Belgium.
The next day Nadya takes me to the movies. We go to the “KOCMOC” kinotheater. Besides the movies being dubbed in Russian, they have numbered seats and you can choose seats in different price ranges, like in a theatre or stadium. How different things can be in other countries. One more thing, you can bring whatever food or beverages you want into the cinema. So we went shopping before we entered the cinema to watch “Perfume” or “Parfyumer” as they call it here. It is a relaxed movie, not a fast action movie, so they spoke slow and clear enough for me to understand the gist. It was a very good movie … Dustin Hoffman can speak excellent Russian.
On Friday we met the Professor (Sergey from Tomsk) again. He and a friend were passing through to go to the Krasnojarsk end-of-season bike show. He also invited us, but we had other things planned. Anyway, it was good to see the Professor again. He did not bring the disc with my interview, but will ship it once he gets back home.
On Saturday we went to see the Tomskii pisanitsa. These are prehistoric rock carvings along the river Tom. Nadya’s cousin Sasha joined us. The carvings are interesting but sadly enough vandalism and normal natural decay of the rock have damaged it badly. The camera they have installed now to observe the visitors is too late. In the evening we went to Nadya’s uncle to have a banya and spend the night. A lot of beer was consumed…
On Monday the Professor passed through Kemerovo again on his way back to Tomsk. I gave him a disc with my pictures, he also gave me a ride to the garage and his friend insisted I sing a part of “Piet Hein” again. They had met Nikolai in Krasnoyarsk who was curious to learn how I was and who told them about my performance in Novosibirsk. What a small world we live in. Once at the garage I had to go to the local TV station for and interview. A friend of Albert is an anchorman for Rambler Kemerovo and he wanted to interview me. It was quick but very good, his English was very good.
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