Saturday 30 August 2014

Day 63 Saturday August 30th. 480km from Vladivostok

Up after a good nights sleep in the four berth dormer, and after breakfast of two runny fried eggs and fried spam like salami we got away towards Vladovostok.

On our approach towards the city of Kharbovsk we crossed a large river and halfway across the bridge Geoff's front tyre suddenly developed a puncture. There were some road works on the bridge and this provided a safe refuge to do the repair and so we set about changing the inner tube. We put in a new tube and straight away it developed another puncture and on removing the tyre we noticed that the wheel had no rim tape protecting the inner tube from the ends of the spokes. This is a mystery as to where the rim tape has gone because Dave is convinced that when he took the tyre off yesterday there was no rim tape. Geoff has since remembered seeing a mess of rubber next to the damaged tube yesterday and he now realises this was the rim tape which must have come out with the inner tube when the drunks were changing the tyre yesterday!!

We taped the inside of the wheel and now it is holding ok!

So after a hot and sweaty repair on the bridge we set off into Kharbovsk to find the road to Vladivostok. We hit traffic jams and the weather was very hot (29 deg. C) and Franks bike started to smoke from the engine and make a "tappity" noise.
We stopped and checked the oil levels which were ok so just let the bike cool down and the noise reduced. We set off and ran up the sides of the traffic instead of waiting in the queues and the bike worked ok for the rest of the day.

It is still a long way to Vladivostok and so we ploughed on making good progress, except for a section of roadworks for about 2 miles where we were in a total dust storm.
Most of the roads were single carriageway and fast where we had to take a lot of care overtaking lorries.

We decided to stop for the evening, but hotels are very few and far between, but Paul spotted a sign he recognised as a hotel group and we are nicely settled into a modern hotel with one double room and two single rooms. What luxury!!




There is some sort of festival taking place in town and before we found the hotel we toured around and stopped at a place to ask a policeman if he knew where there was an hotel. He and his comrade were dealing with a situation where a man was so drunk he was sprawled in a ditch and absolutely out of it. They seemed happy to just leave him in the ditch to recover at his own pace.

More later
RRs



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Day 62 Friday August 29th about 500 miles from Vladivostok

Three people went to bed last night at reasonable time, and one stayed up talking and drinking with Vladimir the TV engineer.
He then came to bed very drunk and woke everyone else up to invite them to go ice fishing with Vladimir next year. This invite apparently included his girlfriend who is called Wendy!

We went over to the adjacent cafe for breakfast which consisted of fried eggs, bread and coffee.

Then on the road to make progress to Vladivostok.

After about two hours Paul pulled over to the side of the road because he could feel vibrations like a tapping feeling coming up through the footrest. On examination he found that the rear sprocket had lost all but one of the nuts holding the sprocket to the wheel, and that the bolts were trying to come out and starting to catch on the swinging arm! This was a close call because had the loose bolts come out the rear sprocket would have entangled with the rear wheel, caused a total lock-up of the back wheel, done a lot of damage and probably have caused Paul to loose control and have an accident at speed!

We took some bolts from the other bikes to get enough bolts back into Paul's sprocket and will keep close attention on whether they start to come loose again!






Later the front riders decided to stop at a cafe for a meal and Geoff was late seeing them slow down to turn, he put his front brake on strongly and could feel the knobbly tyres grip the road, and the next minute he had a puncture of the front wheel. When the tube was removed later the valve had ripped itself out of the inner tube!

We went into the cafe and unfortunately there were four men inside who were very drunk. They came over to enquire about our journey, and quickly became a nuisance. They interrupted our ordering of food, kept trying to give us vodka when we didn't want any because we were riding, and sitting in our booth when we were wanting to eat our food.
Paul and Dave decided to get away from them by going outside and started to repair the punctured tyre on Geoff's bike. The next minute the drunken men were trying to get involved and literally insisting that they know how best to remove the tyre and replace the inner tube. In the end we let them repair the tyre because it was the least hostile option. If we had told them to piss off and leave us alone we believe it could have got nasty. Finally the tyre was repaired and we left as quickly as possible!!
They had a young boy with them who held the bike whilst the bike was being repaired, and the drunken men were insisting we give the boy a one US dollar note for his help. In the end we again chose to ignore the offensive manner of their request and happily gave the boy the dollar.

Throughout the day we have seen a steady procession of army vehicles all making their way westward.

We managed to cover over 400 miles and late on found accommodation again in a four bed dorm type room in a truck stop place at the side of the road.

More later
RRs








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Day 61 Thursday August 28th. 280 miles from Tynda towards Vladivostok

Woke to a drizzly morning and packed ready to leave.

Geoff stayed back to post the latest blogs and when he came to take the lift down to the ground floor there were workmen repairing the lift and so he had to carry his heavy gags down from the fifth floor!!

The air filters were changed and the bike chains lubricated.

Geoff's pannier button was stuck and would not operate the catch to hold it onto the newly repaired brackets. Upon investigation it seemed that something had leaked onto the plastic button and welded it to the pannier!!

With a lot of force the button was freed and on taking it apart it looked like DEET or something similar had plastic welded the button in position. After scraping and re-shaping with his Leatherman Geoff managed to get the system working and could then attach his one remaining pannier to the support frame.

Dave, Frank and Paul were raking bets as to how long it would be before something else fell off Geoff's bike!

On our way out of a Tynda Ivan passed by in his car and waved to us.

The first 25 km out of Tynda the weather was misty and cloudy and visibility was very poor as we travelled along unpaved roads. Gradually the sun came out and drove away the morning mist allowing us to speed up and make good progress. Throughout the 150km south to a place called Never there were major road reconstruction works underway. At he point Dave was following a large Kamas truck and was about to overtake it when the truck without signalling decided to turn left directly in front of him. Dave did well to avoid what would have been a major collusion!!

At Never we joined the main highway to Vladivostok and the road turned into perfectly good tarmac road where we could make fast progress.

We made good progress, but tiredness was starting to affect everyone and so we started to look for accommodation. We had seen very few hotel looking buildings and were getting ourselves quite depressed that we may in fact have to ride some considerable distance before we found an hotel. Then just at the next fuel stop there was a new large looking cafe complex, and so on the off chance we asked if they do accommodation. Sure enough at the side of what seemed to be a building site stood a low level building, and inside we were shown clean accommodation. We took a single room with four single beds.






That evening we had a meal at the cafe and met lots of interesting people who insisted on sharing vodka tots with us. Some were staying at the same "hotel" and we spent a pleasant evening with a TV/radio repair man calked Vladimir and his co-worker Roman.

More later
RRs




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Day 60 Wednesday August 27th Tynda

In the morning (?) we surfaced and gradually pieced together what arrangements had been made last night. Ivan ( who spoke no English) was called and when he said "bike, bike" we deduced that we should go to his garage where the bike was left overnight.
We walked to the garage asking a bank where Dave and Paul proceeded to change another wedge of US dollars into rubles.
In no time at all Aidan arrived at the garage and then Vitally and some of the others from the group. We all went to a local cafe and had breakfast.



After breakfast Geoff again returned with Ivan to the garage and the rest went back to the hotel to remove air filters and wash them ready for our departure tomorrow.
It took Ivan two hours to complete the repairs and then he helped Geoff to reassemble the bike which as it turned out was in fact a two man job because none of the brackets lined up with the screw holes, and the bracket had to be "helped into position" with the aid of crowbars!

Ivan would not accept any payment for all the work he had done, and so we gave him one of the watches Frank had brought as gifts for people. He was overwhelmed with gratitude that we should give him such a gift, but in fact it was us who were overwhelmed by the support and help that he had given us.



Ivan pointed out that the front wheel bearing on Geoff's bike was nearly collapsed, and so after finishing the welding repairs Geoff rode the bike back to the hotel and Frank and Dave changed the front wheel bearing. This proved to be not an easy job as the inner race had collapsed, and the outer race was stuck inside the wheel housing and wouldn't come out. We knew that a technique for removing these is to run a short weld bead inside the problem race and when it cooks it contracts the metal and allows it to be removed. Not wanting to trouble Ivan again we decided to put the whole wheel hub on one of the stoves and heat it up to see if this helped with the removal. Sure enough at the first tap after heating the problem bearing race came out.
In putting the front wheel back Dave noticed Geoff's front disc brakes were badly worn, and these were changed. The conclusion Dave and Frank came to was that Geoff had bought crap parts off the internet and that was why his chain had not lasted, his wheel bearing collapsed, and his brake pads had eroded when everyone else's bike was just fine!

The final repairs to Geoff's bike was to tie wrap his number plate back on, and gaffer tape up his broken rear light lense after they had broken off yesterday. The bike now looks as good as new but secretly is held together with tie wraps, gaffer tape and welds upon welds upon welds!

Geoff's phone had not survived a dunking in the river and so he went and bought the cheapest phone he could find so he would be able to text Savi and get in touch with get when she came to Moscow after on.

That evening we said our goodbyes to Vitally banking him for all his help. He has supplied us with the phone number of an English speaking biker in Vladivostok who will help us if we need support there.

We went for one last meal with Edward who in the morning will be heading north towards Magadan when we are heading south towards Vladivostok.

More later
RRs



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Day 59 Tuesday August 26th Tynda

The morning came, and it was raining so this meant wet clothes on then wet socks into wet boots, then wet motorbike gear. Not a pleasant experience! Then pack away wet tents!

Geoff put all his gear onto the floor and created a mound of redundant kit. Then he packed what he was keeping into his new duffel bag and threw away everything else including the Givi top box and one of the side panniers. Dave carried Geoff's tank bag with all his electronic gear and documents.

We set off and within a short time came upon a tough uphill boulder section and Geoff lost control of the bikes and was off. The good news is the new baggage arrangement survived the fall ok!!

We had been told that the last 200km run into Tynda was on good tracks, but we were all waiting for these to appear. At last the road started to improve and we started to make good progress. The front bikes pulled up at one point to check mileage etc. and as Geoff came towards them he misjudged the width of his one remaining pannier and hit Franks bike sending Frank and himself sprawling onto the ground!! Geoff was not having a good day!

At one point we stopped in a layby area to make a brew and warm up when road repair workers arrived with their large road planing machines.



Severobaikalsk norther RussiaThey waved at us and in the next minute had stopped their work and came over with the customary bottle of home made vodka and were offering us shots of vodka.

We went through a really fast section of gravel roads which was good riding and when the weather improved we stopped at the side of the railway and took out all our wet camping gear and clothes and dried them off in the sunshine and fresh breeze. It reminded Geoff of India where people lay out their laundry to dry on the gavel at the side of the railway tracks.

We arrived eventually at Tynda, and pulled into a fuel station to top up with petrol. A motorist at the station stopped to say hello and told us he had met a very tall Canadian biker a few days earlier. This must have been our friend Edward.

Paul set his sat-nav to an hotel location and we set off in search of some dry comfort. Unfortunately the hotel we had chosen was both expensive and awful, but we didn't know that until we actually got to the rooms.

When we arrived at the hotel and were making enquiries about accommodation a biker called Vittaly came up and indicated that he had known we were coming and had been looking out for us. He was from a group of bikers in Tynda and they knew Edward who was still in Tynda.

It was explained to Vitally that some welding repairs were required on Geoff's bike, and he made some phone calls and said they could do the repairs but it would have to be straight away as the welder was not available tomorrow. So when Geoff came out of the hotel after arranging accommodation his bike was already unloaded and he was told to follow this biker and go and get his bike repaired.

The other three went into the hotel and washed, showered and drank beer whilst poor Geoff spent three hours dismantling his bike for the welder to make repairs. The welder was called Ivan and he proceeded to put back together the totally broken pannier support frame, then looked over the bike and saw it needed the frame welding and repairing in three places.
After three hours the job was still not completed so Geoff's bike was left in Ivan's garage overnight and Ivan took him back to the hotel to clean up before going out for a drink with all the Tynda biker group.



We then all went with Ivan to the Sportsmans bar in Tynda and proceeded to drink beer on empty stomachs well into the early hours of the morning. Vitally arrived with Edward who had stayed in Tynda for a few days before moving on to Magadan.

The result you will by now have realised is that we all got well blathered. The Tynda bikers however restricted their drinking to modest amounts and Ivan then made two taxi journeys to ferry people back to the hotel. The arrangement was that when we surfaced in the morning (?) we should call Ivan who would come and we would all have breakfast together before completing the repairs to Geoff's bike.

More later
RRs






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Day 58 Monday August 25th. Chinin

Up and away and straight into three railway bridge crossings, the last of which was much easier than the normal ones because we could ride on a gravel apron adjacent to the rails.

Two dilapidated bridge crossings, numerous river crossings, and a section of gravel and boulders alongside the railway made for a hard time. Frank came off in the gravel/boulder section and fell heavily onto the boulders. Fortunately he was just bruised, but it could have been much worse.

We became very conscious of our low levels of petrol and had set our hopes on reaching a village called Chichen where the hubb reported that petrol was available. As we got closer to Chichen we passed railway workers and we asked them if there was petrol available in Chichen. Usually the answer was no and that petrol was not available until Tynda still nearly 300 km away.
One railway worker gave us the name of a person in Chichen who may be able to supply petrol.
Gradually the bikes started to run out of petrol and we eked out what we had left in our jerry cans.
Eventually we arrived at the conclusion that we didn't have enough petrol to get all four of us to Chichen and so the remaining petrol was shared between Geoff and Frank who then went ahead to search out any petrol in Chichen.
On arrival at Chichen Geoff stopped a person in a car and showed them the name the railway person had written down, and asked if they knew where this person lived. He indicated a block of flats, and seeing that Geoff had no idea where this was got out of his car and took Geoff into the flats up to the second floor and pointed at a door. When Geoff knocked a person came to the door and Geoff gave them the piece of paper with the name on. The person was gob slapped that his name was on a piece of paper held by a foreigner and couldn't understand how It had happened.
When asked about petrol he indicated that he had none, then asked how much we needed. Geoff did a quick calculation of how much petrol to get four bikes the 230 km to Tynda which would be about 60 litres, and asked for 70 litres. His eyes shot up to his eyebrows and he indicated he only could let us have 20 litres. Reluctantly Geoff agreed hoping that when we eventually got him to the place where the petrol was stored we could persuade him to give us more.
The mans name was Uri and we followed him in his Lada 4 x 4 to his lock up garage. Inside there was a 50 gallon oil drum in the corner, and he proceeded to syphon out petrol into our 5 litre jerry cans. As he filled them Frank and Geoff took them and quickly emptied them into their bike tanks and returned with the empty can. When we got to 25 litres Geoff put his hands together in a prayer gesture and pleaded with him to give us more. He smiled shook his head and indicated ok we could have some more. By the time we had taken 60 litres we had both bikes tanks full to the gunnels, and 30 litres in six jerry cans. To get all this petrol out of the 50 gallon drum we had had to tilt it on its side and pour the contents into an open bucket. At one point Geoff was holding the bucket and spilled quite a bit of petrol onto the wooden floor of his wooden garage. Uri was annoyed and quickly got some sand and absorbed as much petrol as possible but he was not a happy man that his garage was now a highly flammable construction!
When it came to time to pay him for the 60 litres we only had a 5000 ruble note and he had no change available. There still seemed to be about 10-20 litres of petrol left in the drum so Geoff asked if when we collected our two colleagues who had run out of petrol could we come back for the last of his petrol. He smiled again in a way that seemed to indicate "you cheeky bugger" but said ok.
Frank and Geoff returned to give petrol to Paul and Dave and we all returned quickly to Uri's garage and took another 40 litres from the drum before it was completely empty. Now happy we had enough to get to Tynda we set off in search of a campsite, but it started to rain and we ended up putting the tents up in the rain alongside the river. We built a fire in a metal brazier that had been left by previous campers.

Geoff checked his panniers again and came to the conclusion that the pannier racks were so badly broken that he couldn't keep them all on the bike. In the morning he would have to rationalise his belongings and throw out everything he could then fit the remaining into the bag he bought in Severobaikalsk.

Dave cooked a superb meal of fish pasta. We think it was just a coincidence that he threw what he had left into one pot and it all seemed to taste ok!!

More later
RRs





Campsite
Next to river
Geoff's panniers totally buggered
Frank off not hurt

Fish pasta
Big camp fire


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Wednesday 27 August 2014

Day 57 Sunday August 24th. Yakutia

In the morning Geoff checked his panniers again and discovered more damage. Frank made an attempt to improve matters with more jubilee clips, but this was not possible, and so the strategy was to reduce the weight wherever possible on Geoff's panniers and to just strap them up with ratchet straps.
Having completed the repairs as best as possible we set off and just 200 yds from our campsite there was a particularly severe section of boulder strewn track. Geoff lost control and went down. The good news was the panniers survived ok!!
The only option for us to cross the river near where we had camped was to use the railway bridge and so we headed there hoping that there would not be a guard who would gave to be bribed for us to cross. Luck was with us we came to the bridge and no guard. We set up our now refined bridge crossing routine and successfully got all four bikes across. After reconnecting panniers etc we were ready for off when a train came by. The drivers all seem very relaxed, they sound their horns and wave (friendly!) at us as they pass.

We repeated this process another time at the next river crossing where again no bridge, and water levels totally impassable.
At this crossing Dave waited (not on his bike) at an escape alcove and took a video as a train passed. He came back and said he didn't fancy being here with his bike when a train came past!

We next came to an absolutely huge river where we already knew you had to use the railway bridge, and that there would be guards that would have to be bribed. We entered the track area via a barriered gate that the bikes in fact went under the barrier. We saw straight away that the bridge guard was on the other side of the bridge, and so decided to take off the panniers that had to be removed, and walk across the bridge to negotiate with him the crossing. It was a very long bridge, and the panniers are very heavy, and it seemed like ages before we were across. We greeted the guard warmly and he knew straight away what we wanted, and having established we could not communicate easily he scribbled in the ground 4000 rubles. This was for all four bikes so we agreed, and then he proceeded to walk with us all the way back across, and we waited for two trains to pass, and then he directed us across the bridge. This bridge was a different construction, and the rail sleepers were set into concrete with a small apron (18 inches wide) before a 12 inch drop down onto the concrete walkway that we had ridden across on previous bridges. The guard insisted that we ride across on this small apron next to the rails. This was a very difficult ride because on one side you cannot put your foot down because it is 12 inches below the level you are riding, and at the other side you have to slide your foot along the actual rail line.
About one third of the way across Dave said he couldn't ride like that and with the guards help bumped down onto the concrete walkway to continue the rest of the crossing. The rest of us managed to cross as instructed, but it certainly was a most awkward and difficult crossing particularly because of the distance. The bridge must have been 500 metres long.
The guard had been friendly throughout, but once we were over the bridge and outside the railway boundary he welcomed us into his hut and made us tea, and gave us salami sandwiches. We gave him a bottle of vodka which he immediately opened and shared with us.
On the wall of his hut was the shift rota pattern that he worked, and it was 24 hours on then 3 days off. I could not see any blocks of time off for holidays.
We said our goodbyes and as we left we wondered whether we had just doubled his wages this week ? month?

The rest of the day was spent traversing deeper than usual water holes in the track, however the bikes generally performed well. The exception to this was just after a particularly deep section Franks bike started to misfire, and give off black smoke. We stopped and removed the air filter from his bike to find it drenched and the air filter box with an inch of water still in the bottom. Clearly his water drain from his air box was not working correctly. Investigation revealed a filter plug in the drain line that was completely chocked.

We arrived at Yakutia where we needed to get fuel. We stopped at a local shop to restock up with food and water, and whilst we were there a youngish couple came over to engage with us. It became clear fairly quickly that they were drugged up on something, maybe alcohol, maybe not, but we were keen to get away from them as they started to ask for money.

Next we set about trying to locate the place where we could purchase petrol. The information on the bikers hubb was that fuel was available, but from a private seller not a garage. We searched around with no luck but then asked a woman who hailed down a passing motorist who told us to wait where we were and he would be back in a minute to take us to the place to get "benzin".
He came back on a motorbike and we followed him out of town and up small tracks before eventually arriving a what looked like a scrap yard but in fact was "Uri benzin". Unfortunately there was a notice on the gate saying "benzin nyet".
The man who had directed us said there was no more places in town to get benzin, and the nearest place was 100km away. We were now in deep shit.
We certainly did not have enough petrol to get us all 100km, and maybe only just enough for maybe one bike!
We clearly portrayed our dilemma to him, and he asked how much "benzin" we required. We said maybe 20-30 litres. He indicated that he could let us have maybe 10 litres from his own personal supply. We eagerly agreed, and followed him back to his house in town. His name was Sergay and he lived in a house with a scrap yard of parts of vehicles, boats and anything that chuffed or moved. We went to his shed/garage/workshop where he had a 50 gallon drum with about 18 inches of petrol in it. He started to siphon out petrol into a 12 litre jerry can, and we engaged him in conversation to see if he would sell us more than 10 litres. His concern was not to get money for the fuel, his concern was to ensure he had enough for his own use. In the end he seemed happy to give us more and we eventually got over 20 litres. He was adamant that he would not take any money so we gave him a watch as a present and he beamed with delight. We tried to give him some vodka but he refused indicating he didn't drink.

As we left the town the heavens opened and there was a thunderstorm. We got drenched, and proceeded to look for a campsite. At one point we saw some open land and asked a woman who was close by whether we could camp there. She indicated no not possible. We then went back to a side road with a barrier across we had seen and discovered we could fit the bikes around the ends of the barrier. Further along the road was what looked like a pumping station with flat ground so we set up camp there.

Another tough day

More later
RRs


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Day 56 Saturday August 23rd

In the morning as we were packing away we were visited by a man called Victor who had come to continue to cut the grass in the field with a scythe.
He was very friendly and interested in our journey. He told us he had met a Canadian biker just two days earlier. We told him we knew the person whose name was Edward and he had been with us for a while.

Our first dilapidated bridge crossing of the day turned out to be the hardest we have yet had to undertake. At the exit of the bridge the structure had collapsed leaving a large gap, but it was possible to come off the bridge sideways and carefully manhandle the bikes through the trees and back onto the track.












Frank had a bad day today he came off quite badly twice.

The first time we were riding along the side of the railway, and the track turned into a steep vee shape with big rough boulders lodged in the middle. He caught one of the boulders and it twisted the bike sideways and threw him off. Unfortunately the only place get could land was on the rough boulders, and he badly bruised his right femur.
The second time was when we were descending a steep section and there were large undulations where the ground had been water cut and with boulders all around. His front tyre slipped into one of these ruts and again it had him off. This time it was more his pride that was hurt than his body.

We are being navigated by Paul and a Dave who have mapping for the BAM road on their sat-navs, and sometimes the sat-nav's take us along the original BAM road and not along the railway support track that is used by locals. On one such occasioned we were taken up and over a mountain pass that nobody had used for a very long time. Now as well as very difficult ascents and descents on rutted, boulder strewn tracks we also had to contend with overgrown vegetation that wanted to knock you off your bike at every other turn.

This is the toughest track we have had to ride so far!

Today we undertook our first solo railway bridge crossing. We arrived at the bridge and with no bridge guard present we had to work out for ourselves how to cross without getting caught halfway across the bridge when a train comes.
Firstly those with panniers that restrict their progress across the bridge removed them and carried them across by hand. Then scouts were sent ahead and behind to get as good a view as possible of the rail tracks in each direction. If there are rail lights these can be in condition of either, green, amber or red, and as we approached this particular bridge the lights in one direction turned from red to green. The train took about 10 mins to arrive, and as it passed the lights they turned first straight back to red, and then to either amber or no light.
We next set up a signalling system indicating whether a train was coming, and if all clear a biker makes the dash across the bridge. In saying dash in reality it takes a good 5-10 minutes to paddle yourself across a typical bridge, and your adrenalin levels are high throughout the crossing. There are safety alcoves about every 30-40 metres along the walkway, but these would only just squeeze a bike into them!

At the end of the day we came to a large uncrossable river with a totally collapsed and washed away bridge, and decided to camp on the remnant of the entry road to the bridge.






This was a other hard day with countless "offs" as we battled with river crossings and steep rough tracks. Added to the discomfort is the fact that you have permanently wet feet from undertaking river crossings that are deeper than the height of your motorbike boots. Putting the cold wet boots on in the morning is horrible.

Geoff reckons he is now well over twenty bike down incidents for the trip to date!

More later
RRs



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Day 55 Friday August 22nd. 30 miles short of Ochanda

We awoke and started our day again with our mosquito friends. The campsite was beautiful however as you looked across from the lake to the mountains opposite with lines of clouds that seem to cling to the sides of the hills.



Geoff had been carrying a bag of powdered milk in his top pannier, and this had ruptured with all the rough riding. He had to empty his pannier and aw hit in the lake to remove all the milk.

At the first river crossing we came to Frank who was leading set off towards the river and got stuck in the middle. Dave and Geoff dutifully waded into the river to help Frank get across. When In the river Dave and Geoff looked over to the side and there a short distance away was a perfectly reasonable dilapidated bridge. So right at the started the day Dave and Geoff had wet feet which they needn't have had if Frank had used the bridge!!

Today was a day of dilapidated bridge crossings and like Paul previously Dave dropped the back end of his bike through a rotten timber and it had to be lifted out. We all were thinking "what if" ?

Fuel stops now have to be planned and we need to use the jerry cans we are carrying to get us between fuel stops. At the next town we stopped for fuel and then went to the shop to stock up with water and food. We then went to an adjacent hot food stall where we had meat pasties and coffee for breakfast.
Mountains without mosquitos lunch

After refuelling ourselves and the bikes we set off again and made good progress along flat gravelly roads. This however creates a lot of dust and we have to ride well separated to avoid blocking the air filters on the bikes too quickly.

Frank hit some soft sand and had a major fishtail waggle of the back end of the bike at speed but just managed to control it without incident.

The road eventually took us up into the mountains and we stopped to take in the views and decided to have lunch not because it was lunch time, or that we were hungry just that there were no mosquitos and we wanted to stay there as long as possible!



As we came down from the mountains we came upon a recovery truck trying to winch a Lada 4 x 4 jeep out of the trees at the side of the road!

We arrived at a very large river where we thought we would have to either get a Kamas vehicle across, or use the train bridge, but as we arrived at the road bridge we discovered the road blocked, but workmen in the process of repairing the bridge. At first they said the road was blocked, but then relented and indicated we could use the beautiful new carriageway. The only problem was getting onto the carriageway but they pulled together some planks, and rallied around to help us when we were struggling to get up.

Again after a long day we struggled to find a suitable campsite. In the end as we approached a village we saw a field at the side of the road and quickly set about setting up camp. There was a lake close by but you could not get access because of the boggy ground between us and the lakeside.




Geoff had noticed that as he rode over the dips and bumps in the road the movement of his back panniers felt different. On inspection it became clear that more welds had failed and jubilee clips were fastened on both sides to keep him going until we can get it welded. The root cause of this problem is that Geoff is foolishly carrying the damaged shock absorber from Dave's bike!

For some reason ( probably because we were in a field at the side of a village) we decided we didn't need to put up the bear fence. At one o'clock in the morning dogs started to bark. At first just one or two, but then more and more and within 30 mins it seemed like there were 10-20 dogs all close by. Paul and Frank were the first to sense some possible danger. We had been warned by our motorbike mechanic friend in Novosibirsk that in fact wild dogs were a greater danger in Siberia than bears. They got up and put on their motorcycle gear for protection and quickly poured some petrol and made a fire. Geoff followed soon behind, but no amount of shouting from us could awake Dave. Frank went and shook his tent and he still didn't wake. Eventually we were all up and collecting firewood in the dark to keep a fire going all night. Frank and Paul put up the bear fence. The barking gradually moved off to further away, and at 3am we all settled back to try and go back to sleep. Nobody saw a dog, but they were certainly close by. Wether they were wild dogs we will never know, but since then we always put up the electric fence!

More later
RRs

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Day 54 Thursday August 21st 62 miles east of Kuamda

The next morning sure enough Elana came along at about 9:30 and insisted we all went to her house for breakfast. This was a sumptuous meal of pancakes (as many as we wanted) with options of cream, honey or blackberry jam. Also available were tomatoes, and cucumber salad, bread, salami and tea. They rummaged about in the fridge and came out with a Tupperware box full of smoked fish however we politely refused as we were already full to the brim!
Whilst we were having breakfast they got out their family photo album and showed us photos of them in winter having picnics in the snow, and taking vacations to Severobaikalsk by the lake. The temperature in winter drops to -50 C, and there can still be snow around in July !! We mad sure we got the address and name of these folks ( the Vulfert family) so we could write and thank them when we returned home.






After breakfast Elana told us she would make enquiries about how we could get across the river, and that we should just go back to our tents and wait to hear from her.
So we sauntered back to the tents thinking we would probably be at this place for some time. Paul and Dave went to the local shop and bought chocolates and other goodies for the women as a way of us saying thank you.
At 12 noon Elana's mam came around to say we could cross at the railway bridge and we had to pack up and be there for 2 pm. We all started to pack at a leisurely pace, and then Elana came round and said we had to be at the bridge in 40 mins. The leisurely packing turned into a frantic rush to get everything packed and back onto the bikes, and then there was a mad dash following Elana her sister, and her mother in their Ladacar for about four miles to the railway bridge. We arrived all sweating and very hot.

We wondered whether we would have to pay to cross, but when we got there the bridge guard (a different man to the guard yesterday) just insisted we didn't take photos and then waved us across. Thus was our first railway bridge crossing, and the technique is to pass along the concrete walkway adjacent to the rails. At one side you have the track on sleepers at a height of about 15 inches above floor level, and at the other side you have steel handrails. At every girder supporting the bridge there is a strengthening fillet of steel that sticks out and Paul's bike that has very low panniers could not clear this fillet. The guard lifted the back of Paul's bike over every single one of the fillets (there were probably 40 fillets). There is a technique to riding along this concrete walkway. One foot paddles along the railway sleepers and the other has to be lifted over the strengthening fillets when you get to them. A first it is fairly easy, but by the time you are getting to the end of the bridge it seems very awkward and you get very tired.
No money was asked for and non exchanged. The guard just waved us on our way. When we looked back the whole of the Vulfert family were watching and waving from the far river bank. We were all just blown away by the tremendous kindness and generosity of this family!

We set off in high spirits winding our way between potholes and making good time. Unfortunately this did not last long. Geoff hit a dip in the road too fast, and his left pannier came off the bike, unfortunately straight after the dip came deep gravel ruts and he lost control of the bike which proceeded to fishtail a few times and then headed straight for the trees and bushes at the side of the road. He missed one tree on his left, then another on his right and went straight through a copse of young trees. The bike slid down an embankment and landed on top of Geoff. He struggled to free himself, trying to kick the bike over somehow, and very conscious that when the bike gets horizontal it starts to leak petrol from the carburettor breather. Somehow he managed to wriggle himself out and walked away completely unhurt.

Paul who had been following a little way back to keep out of the dust was unaware that Geoff had had an accident and was stopped at the pannier thinking Geoff's lost his pannier and has not even noticed it has come off. He could not carry the pannier on his bike and so was waiting for everyone to return when Geoff staggered out of the bushes at the side of the road.
Geoff and Paul lifted the bike back upright and checked that it had not been seriously damaged and started ok but decided to wait for the other two to return before attempting to get the bike back up the embankment and onto the road.
When Dave and Frank returned Dave with help from Frank and Paul rode the bike back onto the roadway!!!













The day didn't get any easier we must have done about 30 tough river crossings with lots of boulders in the bed of the river. Sometimes we managed these unaided, but lots required people at the sides of your bike to stabilise it when you hit a large boulder.

If it wasn't river crossings in water it was dilapidated bridges, and again some we did unaided, and some with people available at the sides for support. At one such bridge Paul who had gone first dropped his back wheel into a large hole as a section of bridge fell away underneath the bike. We had to physically lift the bike out of the hole to recover the situation.

For a long period we rode along the side of the railway tracks where there is often a support track for railway vehicles. These tracks are made from the same gravel ballast that supports the sleepers, and have been worn into two ruts by the traffic. This gravel is not easy to ride. The front tyre grips the sides of the ruts and wants to try and climb out, and this can easily lead to a fishtailing waggle. Here "speed is your friend" as it allows you to recover easier from a back end waggle, however if the waggle is too big "speed is not your friend"!! Also the constant pounding you receive through the handlebars maks this very tough riding.
Whilst following the railway we came across a section where new lines were being lifted into place from a train with a built in crane and storage for sections of track.






All in all we were having a very tough day, and the tiredness and dehydration were starting to lead to more errors.

We wanted to stop but finding suitable campsites on the BAM is not easy as usually the trees are right up against the track with little space for camping.

We eventually found a spot next to a lake and set up camp. This in itself can be tiring as you are doing everything wearing your motorcycle gear, in boots laden with water, and wearing mosquito netted hats. This campsite had more mosquitos than any previous camp, and after a while the constant buzzing around your face irritates you even though you are protected.





Every time you stop on your bike there are mosquitos buzzing around. This means that as you lift your visor they can bite you around your eyes. Paul has been particularly badly affected by this and looks like he has gone ten rounds with Mike Tyson.




More later
RRs




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Day 53 Wednesday August 20th. Kuanda

Another absolutely fantastic day!

We awoke to dry weather and so waited for the sun to dry off most of the dew from the tents and then packed and away.

After the spanner work last night on Paul's bike where we discovered that he had a very weak spark which we could improve by shorting out his side stand switch we set off eager to see if we had fixed the problem. No such luck however as soon as his bike started to get wet it started to misfire. What we do seem to gave fixed is the total stopping when under water. This has confirmed to us that the side stand switch was influencing matters, but not totally responsible for the misfire when wet!!

Straight off we encountered deep rocky pools stretching right across the track. These pools were difficult to ride. The first problem is determining the the best line to take. Because the water is muddy you have to do this by walking through the pools checking for boulders and water depth. Soon everyone had water well over their motorcycle boots and it became pointless trying to keep your feet dry. This process of riding through these pools proved very tiring and with the sun rising and the temperature rising we were all sweaty and exhausted. Sometimes we managed to ride across individually and sometimes we needed people at the sides of the bike to help stabilise it when it hit a large rock. Even when the dips in the road are not filled with water they take some riding when strewn with large rocks. Your wrists get tired from the constant shocks they are receiving from the handlebars.

We passed through this rocky/pool section of track and then came across more river crossings with dilapidated bridges that needed some of the logs and planks rearranging before we could cross.







Sometimes we felt confidant just to ride across individually and sometimes we had a person standing at the sides of the rider just in case they lost their balance on a loose plank etc. at one of these bridges we met a russian called Alexander who was trying to cross with his vehicle. He was very respectful of the journey we had made so far, but indicated that there were at least four more similar bridges in worse repair yet to be tackled.

Then after about 24 miles from our camping site and four hours of riding we turned a corner and there it was the infamous Vitim Bridge across the river Vitim. We had all seen the videos on YouTube, but nothing prepares you for the height, narrowness and the sheer drop at the edges. We parked our bikes and all walked across the bridge to assess the riding condition of the carriageway.












We then had lunch to reflect on our options, had a discussion and agreed that each person could ride the bridge as they wanted.
We had company from a nice dog whilst we were having our lunch,



Paul went first and opted to straddle the bike and proceed at walking pace with a person positioned at either side just in case he lost his balance.

Next it was Dave who opted to ride across unaided, and did a magnificent job. Full credit to him for having the nerve to take it on.
Then came Geoff who opted for the same arrangement as Paul, and finally came Frank.

After riding the Vitim bridge we all had a big grin on our faces,and had loved the adrenalin rush from the concentration. I bet Dave had a fantastic feeling after riding it as he did. Well done to him!

Shortly after crossing the Vitim bridge and on a high of achievement Geoff managed to loose control of the bike and it spun him around and trapped his right ankle under the bike as the back end continued to drive and spin the bike around. It all eventually stopped and luckily Geoff had no serious injuries, just minor bruising to his right ankle.

Later on we saw Alexander returning back in the opposite direction
And we stopped and said hello. He wished us well, but telling us we had more obstacles yet to overcome.

We arrived at the village of Kuanda where we knew we had a problem river crossing. All the research that Paul had done indicated that there were only two possible methods of traversing the Kuanda river. You have to either use the railway bridge, or arrange for a big six wheel Kamas truck to carry over your bikes. The river is 5-6 feet deep here and the road bridge has totally collapsed.

We met a local biker who was riding a CBR 1000 Honda bike, and he took us to the local shop. We went inside and purchased drinks, beer, provisions and immediately a group of people gathered round enquiring about our journey.

We asked about an hotel, and were told there was one. Our helpful biker friend took Geoff and Frank to the hotel. We use the word hotel, but there is nothing to suggest an hotel. Geoff went inside a building the ground floor of which was a construction site, the first floor had doors with no labels. When you opened them you could be in a toy shop or haberdashery! Geoff made enquiries about an hotel and seemed to get negative responses. On the way out from the building he was called by a woman on her way in saying yes hotel. She took him back to the first floor, unlocked another unmarked door and we were into an accommodation block with two twin rooms, a kitchen, a toilet and one washbasin. The washbasin had two taps but only one produced a brown coloured liquid. Geoff asked about a "douche" but the woman dictated that we would have to ride our bikes to a "banyan", which at the time he thought was a communal bath house.

Geoff and Frank returned to Paul and Dave to consult on a decision to find Dave two pints of beer wetter and best pals with some guy called Sergio. Dave indicated that Sergio had offered to put us up at his place, and so not wanting to refuse Siberian hospitality we all followed Sergio and his two female companions.

We went east out of town for about 4 miles and eventually pulled up at the railway bridge crossing. Then for the next hour there were discussions back and forth between ourselves Sergio and the railway guard, and it transpired that Sergio had not in fact been offering to put us up but to be an intermediary in negotiations to allow us to cross the railway bridge. The first price Sergio suggested was 3000 rubles, but the bridge guard was saying no. Sergio came back and said he wanted 6000 rubles. Geoff went to negotiate directly with the bridge guard and failed to get him to name any price. He was shaking and unhappy and didn't want to know at all.

Sergio then suggested he get in touch with the person who carries people across the river in a Kamas truck. Phone calls from Sergio to the Kamas man indicated that the river levels were too high even for the Kamas and we would just have to wait and hope the levels dropped.

We decided to return to Kuanda to camp close by and buy more beer.

Four bikers then proceeded to trawl around town looking for a suitable camping place. We settled on a small piece of land just behind the local football pitch.

This apparently had a footpath through it and every so often a person would come along walking their dog. One such person was a young woman who spoke some English. She talked to Dave trying to suggest we not camp but use the local hotel. We told her we had been to the hotel, but we now had the tents erected and were happy to just camp.

She went away and came back a minute later with a phone giving it to Dave to talk to another person who spoke better English. The same message went back and forth.

Eventually the person on the phone who was calked Tanya turned up at the campsite and insisted that we use their "banyan" to wash, clean our clothes, and then they would feed us.

Tanya's husband Andrias duly arrived in a UAS jeep and took us and all our dirty clothes back into town. We arrived at a wooden fence through which there as a wooden shed guarded by a ferocious dog in what you would describe as an allotment.

The shed turned out to be the "banyan" a sauna.

It had a huge caldron of hot water and two milk churns of cold water. There was a ladle for spooning out the water, four hand basins, and a shelf containing soap and a mixed collection of cleaning materials.

We were given towels and so proceeded to strip naked and get washed. We were having a good time recovering from our tough day and bonding as only naked males can when Andrias came in and he stripped down, and then we started drinking vodka and then a stronger spirit like poshine that he had in a plastic bottle. Every so often Andrias would get up and throw cold water into the area below the hot water caldron and steam would billow out into the sauna.

As time went on and we were starting to get more and more relaxed we were getting concerned that the women would be wanting us to come out of the banyan for the food they were providing. Andrias was not at all concerned and was happy just socialising without any language skills and drinking. At one point he just got up and went into the allotment and came back with a bunch of chives. These complimented the vodka and spirit beautifully.

As time passed and we became more relaxed, Dave who had consumed more vodka and spirit than the rest of us tried to refuse another shot and poured half of his drink into Andrias cup so not to waste the spirit. This triggered a hostile reaction from Andrias who went outside and made himself vomit, then came back inside took the remainder of the spirit still inside the plastic bottle and threw it away into the allotment. We all looked at each other wondering what had happened, and there then proceeded to be a somewhat subdued period where we all got dressed not knowing what had happened or what would happen next!
The women arrived and were cross with Andrias who duly ignored them. We then all got back into Andrias's UAS jeep and he drove us (drunk) to the local shop to buy beer. At the shop he bought a tin of beef and some biscuits insisting these were presents for us!!
He then drove us to a house just adjacent to our campsite where Tanya, Andrias wife, his sister Elana and his mother were waiting to feed us.
Food detail???
We had beer with our food, by which time it was past midnight, and so after thanking them all profusely we went back to our tents. They said in the morning they would give us breakfast and make enquiries about crossing the river.
We tried to establish exactly what we had done that had so offended Andrias, but the women who spoke some English just said to ignore it it was just Andrias!! (We suspect not because when we were drinking in Severobaikalsk there had been a time when Geoff had tried to share some of his undrunk beer with Alexis and Vladimir had indicated that that was a no no situation!)

We were all overwhelmed by the extreme generosity of spirit that these people had shown us. They obviously felt it was their duty to look after these foreign visitors to their town.

More later
RRs





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Day 52 Tuesday August 19th


Woke up to rain this morning for the first time. Not a pleasant experience. Also because we had camped right next to the road we were kept awake with lorries clanging over the bridge.

Packing the tents away in the wet was not a good experience especially wearing mosquito nets.

Geoff noticed his panniers seemed to be wobbling about a lot and when checking found that some bolts had come totally out and lots were loose. So again with mosquito net which makes visibility poor he tightened all his bolts and replaced those that were missing.

All ready to go and Franks bike totally dead. We can't believe it was due yo the bear fence as it worked fine last night, but we had to stRt his bike with jump leads from another bike. Once started all seemed ok. Maybe someone else's bike will have to power the bear fence tonight!!

We rode into Tacsimo for petrol and Paul's bike kept cutting out on the way. We decided to stay in an hotel in Tacsimo and exchange the sender unit inside Paul's clutch housing.

Tried the three hotels and only one had accommodation and for just three people. We had noticed a bus garage when looking for hotels and we decided to ask them if we could work on Paul's bike inside their garage to avoid the Mosquitos. They were very welcoming and made space for us in their garage. They were very amused as we unpacked Paul's bike and proceeded to lie it down on its side so oil would not run out when we took the cover off the clutch housing.











Whilst we worked we got out a stove and made a cup of tea.

When the job was completed we asked them if there was a restaurant close by where we could get something to eat. The garGe owner kindly offered to lead us to a restaurant.

In the short journey to the restaurant Paul confirmed that changing the sender unit had made no difference babe problem was just the same.

So we went to this restaurant which we think was actually the canteen for the railway workers and had neat soup followed by beef chunks and mashed potato. This was all washed down with cups of coffee, iced tea, and then chocolate biscuits to finish. We all felt much better as we had not eaten since our mushroom soup /pasta at 3pm yesterday.

Over lunch we discussed various option on Pails bike and decided to check out the wiring to the neutral switch as this passes very close to the drive sprocket and is low down and will get drenched with water when the bike runs. Nobody could think how a poor contact on the neutral switch would cause the misfire problem, but we were willing to try anything.

So we put the lead that feeds the neutral switch permanently to earth and Paul now has a neutral light on even when in gear. It made no difference!!

Nobody has any more ideas, and we are scratching our heads at this problem. We have even phoned home to known local experts using the satellite phone, so clearly we must be desperate.

All answers very welcome as comments please!

Just outside from the "restaurant" there was a monument with a sea plane mounted on what looks like a ski run.



We then did a fast 40 miles further along the BAM because Paul was leading and needed to keep the revs up to ensure the bike keeps running!
The roads out of Tacsimo were quite good with lots of sand, but this was easy riding as the sand was wet and compacted.

At about 5 pm we saw what looked like a reasonable campsite and decided to set up camp with our wet tents.






We look like zombies from a horror movie with our nets on and motorbike gear.

The mosquitos at this campsite are much bigger than last nights mosquitos!


Tonight we again had a determined effort to understand Paul's misfire problem.
The spark that we can see when the CDI unit is earthed directly through the side stand is much stronger than the spark when the VDI unit is earthed via the neutral switch and the diode.

We have again shorted out the side stand switch and left it like that so that any water into the switch does not worsen the earth connection. We feel we have done this before and it hasn't solved the problem, however maybe we now have a complex two fault problem and we just need to eliminate all influence the side stand switch has.

More later
RRs

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Day 51 Monday August 18th

What an absolutely fantastic day!

Up at 7am and packed away the tents etc and off riding by 9:00am

Straight away we noticed that there are very deep sections of the road with maybe 12 inches of water totally filling the roadway, but in wet weather it would be 3 ft deep at least and probably totally un-passable.

By mid morning we came across our first major obstacle. A bridge with lots of the planks missing and with a steep upward ramp at the exit end, a
So with many missing planks. As a team we foraged around and took planks from different parts of the bridge and managed to fashion a reasonable runway along the bridge.









Then came the moment of truth and Paul volunteered to be the first to give it a go.

Then Geoff, and then Frank
Then our riding buddy Edward.


and finally Dave.


We then pressed on with Geoff leading the way.

We came to a large pool of water and Geoff stopped to contemplate the best line of attack. Just as everyone arrived at the crossing Geoff decided upon his line and set off. Big mistake he should have got off and walked the pool first to decide his line of attack. Needless. To say he hit a deep section and then large boulders and he was off. His bike horizontal under water he struggled to get free only to loose his footing again and swan dive helmet and all under the water. He was totally soaked from head to foot. Help arrived and we lifted the bike back to vertical, and after a short rest to get his adrenalin levels back to normal Geoff got on the bike and it started straight away and he changed his route and made it across the pool. Needless to say nobody else used Geoff's route!

Paul had come off his bike at a river crossing but managed to avoid splashing about in deep water.

We all crossed and made a cup of tea, and Geoff stripped totally and put on dry underclothes and then wet motorcycle outfit and away we went again. While Geoff was wet he went into the pool to be in position to help Frank when Frank crossed. Frank proceeded to head straight for Geoff who tried to step backwards out of the way and ended up flat on his arse again in the water.

We arrived at another bridge that was only slightly in better repair than the last
and Frank took the lead and showed the way,or not because he caught a lump of wood at the exit and went over sideways.


Everyone else easily managed the crossing and couldn't see why Frank hand made such hard work of it!

We came to another river crossing and it was fast flowing fairly deep water and so we decided to stop and eat our dinner early so that we wouldn't be eating where we were going to camp and therefore attract bears. Dinner consisted of mushroom soup made as a sauce and added to pasta. Delious!

Then came the team effort of getting everyone across the river. We went for the slow approach with two people helping to stabilise the bike and give it a push.

Here are Frank and Dave crossing.






Paul's bike continues to play up at every wet crossing. This problem has been with that bike ever since he bought it and we still have not managed to isolate the problem. Although nobody is convinced it is the sender unit that sends a pulse from the crankshaft to the ignition control circuit this is the only thing we have not tried swapping. Also the bike stopped just when the bottom of the engine where the sender cable leaves the clutch housing was under water and nowhere near the plug, coil or ignition control unit!!

When you come river crossings often there is a rubber mat or tin plate with coins on. We think this is some formed good luck charm for crossing the river.

At another location we could hardly believe our eyes. From a distance it looked like a naked woman with sun glasses beconing. In fact as we got closer it turned out to be a shop manikin scantily dressed and holding a plastic cup with money in. Also there were teddy bears and lots of ribbons tied in the trees.




We stopped at a riverside camping area and Edward decided to carry on alone as he has much further than us to go. We said our goodbyes, and Geoff went to get his phone to take down Edwards email address only to discover that the. Fresh zip-lock bag that he had put his phone into had worn a hole through vibration, and his phone was not working. When Geoff had fallen off in the water his tank bag had been totally submerged in the water!!

The campsite was only just ok it was on stony ground at it was difficult to get tent pegs into the ground.









The water in the rivers is very clean but also very cold

We all now have to wear mosquito hats and nets because they are ferocious. They even bite you through your trousers and shirt!

More later

RRs






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Tuesday 26 August 2014

Day 50 Sunday August 17th. East of Novy Uoyan on BAM road

Breakfast earlier than usual as we were all up packing and wanting to get away. One of the nicer breakfasts of pancakes, sour cream followed by fruit yoghurt and a cup of tea.

All the people from the hostel gathered about to wave us goodbye, taking photos and videos of our departure.

It was then straight to a petrol station to fill up tanks and jerry cans before starting the BAM. The petrol pumps here have catches that click in automatically and keep the nozzle open. Dave had a spraying petrol moment when his tank was full, not only dousing his hot bike with petrol, but also spraying it all ver Frank who was standing next to him.

We then set off along the BAM and soon came to the next town along the coast from Severobaikalsk. Here we stopped to look at a WW2 fighter plane and a memorial to fallen soldiers. There were an awful lot of names on the memorial wall.

The first 70 miles was tarmac but then the BAM gradually deteriorated into gravel tracks, and then further on into sand covered tracks where the sand in places was up to six inches deep and required a careful eye on the track to avoid fishtailing in the deeper sand.

After only about 10 miles of riding on tracks Dave's Russian repaired shock absorber failed again. So whatever had caused it to fail the first time was still causing problems. We stopped at the side of the road and removed the old shock absorber and then made spacer pieces from an old PTFE spacer that Paul had used when making his improvised side panels on his bike. So two 3mm spacers were cut with a hacksaw blade, filed into final shape and fitted either side of the top mount of the shock absorber. The whole exercise only took about 30 mins. (Dave now has his shiny red shock absorber, and we suspect he nay secretly be happy that the other one failed again!!




We went through a section where mountains were on our left and the views were truly magnificent.

The road now progressively got harder to ride with pot holes full of water, and boulders that had to be avoided. Geoff went through a long puddle and it seemed just like someone was pouring water into his boots. The water is forced up the inside of the waterproof trousers and then over the tops of the boots.

We turned a corner and there was our first narrow bridge with little or no sides. Nobody even stopped to consider how we should manage this we all just rode straight across. Geoff however got his entry wrong onto the bridge and had a big wobble trying to correct the bikes trajectory. Still even he managed to get across without falling off.









At the next bridge crossing we decided to camp just off from the road.






We have installed the bear fence, but for reasons nobody really knows we decided we would cook a stew close to the campsite. I think tiredness and hunger were key in the decision process.
Edward is with us but unfortunately he put his tiny little tent in a place where the electric fence wouldn't reach. We offered for him to move it inside the "zone" but he has declined.



He was however a little sceptical about out bear fence and decided to test it. I don't think he will bother testing it again!!

Paul and Dave gave bear bells and are wearing them. It makes the campsite sound like an alpine meadow.

There is a railway bridge very close to us and trains seem to pass about every 40 mins.











More later
RRs



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