Anyway a lots happened since I last posted after the bike was just freed from Customs. It is now about 5 days later and I have travelled north and am in a small town of Komsomlosk Amur probably about 700 km of Vladivostok as the crow flies.The original plan had been to leave Vladivostok early (5am ish) on last Friday (29/7) to avoid the horrendous city traffic but due to the two Croations, Patrick and Robert, bike batteries still being re-charged we didn't actually get away until 1100 and peak hour gridlock. Fortunately the night before I had managed to get my Russian maps working on my GPS so at least I had some idea how to get out of the city, although this was much complicated by roadworks and closed streets coupled with steady rain to make everything really slippery. It was here it became apparent the Croations and I had different riding styles - they wanted to filter aggressively through the traffic, me (and remembering I'm coming to grips with being on the wrong side of the road) wanted to be ultra cautious. Once we got out of the city proper (and no longer needed the GPS) the Croatians shot off and I haven't seen them since.The first 20-30 kilometres of highway out of the city leads past the airport so it was being upgraded in preparation for next years summit. This means that most of it was gravel, often highly potholed and took over 2 hours to cover. I said in a previous post I didn't fancy being the Project manager for the unfinished bridge - all I can say now is he has an easy task compared with the one for the Motorway.
[caption id="attachment_125" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Vladivostok - motorway!"]
[/caption]I was heading for Khabarosk some 800km basically north and after the end of the "motorway" at the airport the road is basically all normal road. The main hazard on this section of the trip was the delivery drivers for the imported Japanese cars - time is money and these are driven north at furious speeds with overtaking at every opportunity; several times I took to the hard shoulder to allow everything to fit across the road width. Russian police were every where and lots seemed to be stopped by them for speeding and crossing white lines (both of which seem heavily enforced) - but I think the drivers mean weight of numbers mean most of them will get away with it. Everything changes dramatically as soon as you leave Vladivostok - within 200km I was passing through tiny villages with some fairly run down houses and on occassions water still being drawn from a well.
[caption id="attachment_126" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Typical village house - 200kn N Vladivostok"]
[/caption][caption id="attachment_127" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Roadside scene"]
[/caption][caption id="attachment_130" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Road side eatery (some are a lot more basic)"]
[/caption]Night fell when I was about half way to Khabarosk so since I was now in fairly unpopulated areas I found a side track into a bit of forest, got well out of sight of everything and camped for the night. Camping is a rather grand term for it - since it was warm I simply put a plastic sheet down and slept on that. There were a few mosquitoes around but nothing too bad (unlike the monsters that reputed to live further north) and it was a pleasant night.
[caption id="attachment_128" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Dirt road to the "campsite""]
[/caption][caption id="attachment_129" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="A happy camper"]
[/caption][caption id="attachment_131" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="One of the road hazards"]
[/caption]The next day I continued on uneventfully, except for some atrocious patches of up to 10 km of very dusty dirt road masquerading as roadworks, to Karbarosk arriving their just after lunch. Its a medium size city on the banks of the Amur river and its noteworthy feature (according to the Lonely Planet guidebook) is that it has actually tried to make something of its water front rather than just ignoring it. Whilst you wouldn't call it flash, and the beaches are mainly pebbles, they are right it has an inviting feel in the sunshine and whilst some things are rundown there is obviously some new money moving into the town.
[caption id="attachment_134" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="Amur River beach"]
[/caption][caption id="attachment_132" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="You can see where Disney got inspiration."]
[/caption][caption id="attachment_136" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="and where you have churches you have ... (actually about 20 of them!)"]
[/caption]After wandering around the waterfront for a few hours I was just about to get back on the bike to try and find a hotel when I was approached by someone speaking good english. Turned out he was a merchant banker from Moscow visiting friends in town. Turning a long story short I had a very late night involving river cruises, lots of vodka, toasts of eternal friendship and ended sleeping in a very swanky penthouse apartment. Russian hospitality was turning out to be all it is reputed to be - thank you Michael, Sasha and Andrei.
[caption id="attachment_138" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="My new friends"]
[/caption][caption id="attachment_139" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="Michael's daughter checking out the bike"]
[/caption][caption id="attachment_140" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Later the same night!"]
[/caption][caption id="attachment_141" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="The accommodation for the night"]
[/caption]Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, I was not feeling my best the next day. So reminded why spirits and I normally avoid each other I delayed my departure for Komsomolsk until late afternoon. The drive there, which is as far North as the road goes in this area was through increasingly wild country side, beautiful in Summer but you can imagine how inhospitable it must be for 6 -8 months of the year. The trip was enlivened by a couple of incidents. Firstly I was flagged down by a driver in a very smart new Lexus (more serious money) and he then explained he had been motorcycle touring in Australia last year and was going, with friends, to do the same in Europe later in the year using old russian built "Ural" sidecar rigs (think any sidecar in WWII movies) - any way we exchanged email addresses and who knows I meet up with him later. The second instance was in the middle of absolutely no where I found myself driving down a very smooth very wide bit of tar; it took a few minutes to realise this was an old cold war runway hidden in the road network - off to the side was some indication of abandoned military stuff in the forest but locked barriers and signs deterred further investigation. Anyway I safely made it to Komsomolsk just on dusk, about 10 pm, and am now safely holed up here in quite a nice hotel catching up on "blogging" and doing my russian lessons. I'm staying here three nights total before I have to turn south and repeat my run back to Khabarosk - there is no other practical route out of town. There was another road on the map I thought to use but I've found out it is 6 wheel drive truck country. If I was with someone I might try and tackle it but being on my own I'll give that a miss. More about Komsomolsk in the next post.
[caption id="attachment_142" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="Arriving Komsomolsk Amur"]
[/caption]
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