Slowly moving west - eventually!

Well leaving Komsomolsk didn't go quite to the original plan - although in a very positive way.  As soon as I finished my last post I hurriedly started packing to be out of my room on time, when I got a phone call from reception that said, in broken english, that I had visitors. So off I headed downstairs to find one of the bike riders I had met the previous night, Igor (also known as Gronynych) and his 17 year old daughter Alexi.

[caption id="attachment_168" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="My hosts - Igor and alexi"][/caption]

Igor was keen to show me around the town and also to introduce me to someone who had already done the trip to St Petersburg from Komsomolsk.  So using the great advantage of single travel, the total lack of need to consult, I made a quick decision to stay another day.Igor and Alexi were lovely people and through them I got to see and hear things I would never have managed otherwise.  In the end I spent about 11 hours with them and poor Alexi was worn out by the end by the need to constantly translate - but her English was well and truly up to it (Alexi - if you read this my heartfelt thanks for your efforts - I know how tough it must have been).  First of all we went off to Igor's work shed from where he seems to run a small leatherwork business to supplement his day job working on the railway tracks. Talking to him seemed to confirm my view that life in the town had dipped badly when communism fell and lots of industry suddenly closed, but now it was improving and you could find work and make work if you were entrepenerial (not that it looked like life was easy).  At the shed we were then joined by Anatoli the man who had ridden to Saint Peterburg - he had done it in 2008 but on a 1955 bike; proving that you don't need the latest flashest equipment and making me feel very comfortable.  He was full of good advice on places to go and a few to avoid or to take care.

[caption id="attachment_169" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Anatoli and his ISH49"][/caption]

After this Igor suggested a ride up into the hills to see a local beauty spot Lake Amur. This was about 50-60km away about half of it up dirt roads leading through a small town and then abandoned tin workings.

[caption id="attachment_175" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Abandoned - and miles from anywhere, what must have it bee like working in winter?."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_176" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="This ones still working."][/caption]

Great fun riding and as we got further into the hills the scenery was stunning.  The photo's below give you a poor idea of how beautiful it was.

[caption id="attachment_170" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="Lake Amur"][/caption]



Today the temperature was a pleasantly warm 28-30 degrees but talking to Alexi and Igor I found out Komsolosk peaks at +45 celsius in summer and drops to -45 celsius in winter.  I'm glad I came in late summer!  Igor also said once winter comes and the snow falls start the hills we were looking at were home to the Siberian tiger, brown bear, wolves and assorted other wildlife I had not heard off.

[caption id="attachment_172" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Obligatory bike shot..."][/caption]

After looking at the lake for awhile Igor said lets go to the cafe for a drink and tea.  I thought cafe?; we are miles from anything but sure enough another kilometre or two up the tracks there was a cafe.  Actually it was part of a holiday camp where workers from the city could come and spent a few days communing with nature.

[caption id="attachment_173" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Cafe in the hills"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_174" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Life's tough!"][/caption]

After this we wound our way back to Komsomolsk via other local beauty spot, a waterfall before eventually ending up back at Igors flat to meet his wife and to have tea (now about 10pm).  Here I found out Igor had originally worked in the shipyards in Komsomolskwe looked at some pictures of this time.  Poor Alexi was worried her father might be boring me but I can honestly say they were fascinating and I loved them.All in all a superb day and another testament to Russian hospitality - but Igor will have a special place in my memories because we had many common views and interests.  I hope we manage to stay in contact via email.

 
Thursday the 4th and I finally did leave! Igor as another act of generousity had organised me a contact, Hans, at the Kharbarosk "Iron Tigers" group and a place to stay at their clubhouse that night, so I set off with a destination in mind.  The drive down was uneventful but as I headed south I ran in to a fair amount of rain and it was full waterproofs out.

[caption id="attachment_177" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Typical village en-route"][/caption]



The journey was about 400km and pleasantly unexceptional with the only really hard part was the last half hour through Kharabarosk peak hour traffic in the rain - thank heavens for GPS. As an aside, buying the GPS was a last minute decision and a slightly half hearted one.  When I left I had down loaded the maps of Russia for it off the net but not even worked out how to load them and was thinking I would probably manage with just the road atlas.  Well I'm sure I would have - but it would have been so much harder and I'm sure made finding places like the Iron Tigers club house would have been impossible.  When your navigating through strange cities with all the sign posting in Cyrillic having the GPS as a guide is a wonderful comfort - even though I sometimes have to overrule it as the roads on it and  the reality do not 100% agree.

[caption id="attachment_183" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Try reading that at speed!"][/caption]

Iron Tigers Kharabarosk were very hospitable, gave me friendship, dinner, bed and early in the evening another female translator.  This time slightly older and the girlfriend of Hans son - if I keep this up a few more weeks these translators could have grown in age enough to be a danger!

[caption id="attachment_179" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption=""Viking" and "Hans" my hosts (sorry folks no translator photo's)"][/caption]

 

The next day (now Friday 5 August) was the first day I started to move significantly west.  The target was Blagoveschensk, another city on the Amur River - but this time located where the river forms the direct border with China.  It was a long, about 700km and 12 hours, day drive  and again involved a lot of rain interspersed with some good sunny periods where I attempted to snap some pictures of the general scenery which changed slowly as the day progressed: we started in flat country but generally un-farmed land then moved into the hills, before finally returning to flat lands full of mines and then full on agriculture - mainly wheat with some diary.



[caption id="attachment_181" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="In the middle of nowhere - enough to make me sure I'm on the right road."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_182" align="aligncenter" width="370" caption="Lunch stop - and friendly local"][/caption]



[caption id="attachment_185" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="A more agricultural road hazard."][/caption]

Along the way the nature of the Trans Siberian highway also changed.  Up until about 200-300km beyond Kharabarosk the two lane road meandered between small village and towns meaning I was constantly slowing for the towns - but as compensation their was a lot of visual interest.  Suddenly after that point it turned into highway proper - still only two lanes, except for the occasional additional slow lanes on hills, but now it was by-passing towns - and hence got a bit less interesting.  Fortunately going to Blagoveschensk meant I turned off the Trans Siberian after about 200km of it and headed slightly south of it and this brought me back to the meandering roads.  The lesson is where possible I may need to plot my journey in this fashion - but I know there are some large chunks coming up for which there is no option (the Trans Siberian is the only road across some sections and even that didn't exist 5 years ago).  Another thing enlivening this section of the journey was being stopped by the police; but after a document check it seemed obvious that it had been done to see the tourist on the foriegn motorcycle up close rather than for any infringement of the road rules. We parted friends.

 

The rain coupled with the common Russian driving  style (everything in front must be overtaken irrespective of road conditions or what is heading at you) and Russian roadwork techniques let to some interesting moments.  A word on Russian roadworks - because however "boring" the highway they have a habit of enlivening it when you least expect it.  The first category of enlivenment are the small scale pot hole repairs.  When completed these tend to be done very well and end up with a very smooth repair.  There is no slapping a bit of tar on top of the hole and hoping for the best in the normal Australian fashion.  Instead the Russians surgically cut a vertical sided rectangle around the hole, excavate this to about 75mm to the road base, before then completely filling the repair.  When finished you can hardly see or feel the fix.  The problem is the teams doing step one, cut and excavate, don't seem to be closely co-ordinated with those doing step two; consequence you've been enjoying smooth highway for awhile, get complacement and come around a corner to be faced with a mass of these.
Tends to wake you up quick.  If there are cars in front of you they'll often alert you to them by sudden violent swerving.



The second category of repair is the major rebuild of a section of road - often 10 or 20 kilometres or so at a time.  Here they simply strip the old tar off and completely rebuild the road - whilst you just drive through it.  So you have large sections of dust, mud, road workers, heavy machinery, often single lane working, with no attempt at traffic control.  It sort of works but again it keeps you awake as vehicles spear off in all sorts of directions trying to find the smoothest route before suddenly diving back to their side when something comes in the other direction.

[caption id="attachment_187" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="20 kilometres of challenge coming up."][/caption]

 



Anyway in spite all of the above I made it safely to Blagoveschensk and found a hotel just in time to celebrate my birthday!

[caption id="attachment_189" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Birthday tea!"][/caption]

The birthday tea ingredients were bought from roadside vendors when I thought I might not make it that night and would have to camp out.  It seemed a pity to waste them.  These were washed down by a beer in the hotel bar.  And to explain why I might have camped -  I have decided at this stage I would much prefer to camp out than attempt to tackle the roads in the dark - any hazards of the woods would be much less than those of the road.

 

Anyway more on Blagveschensk tomorrow (or next time I find a decent internet connection).

Thinking of you all.

 

Travelling well

Well I'm nearly a fortnight into my trip now, amazing.  When i first started planning this i remember reading someones blog where he described Russians as dour and obviously was reasonably pleased to get out of the country by the end of his travels.  it was always one of those things that stuck in the back of my mind and nagged at me - making me wonder would i regret planning so much time here.  Well I don't know what happened to him - but the Russians here in their far east are anything but dour.  A more hospitable people I have yet to meet - as you will see as iyour read on.

I'm now in Komsomolsk which is as far north as I can reasonably get and today will back-track slightly then start to head west. Komsolock was described in the guide book as a pretty town.  First impressions maybe were not so positive in this sense - the photos below are from a walk around the block from my hotel.

 

[caption id="attachment_148" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Komsomlosk- bus station"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_149" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Typical apartment housing"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_150" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="River Amur - beach front"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_151" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Ferry terminal - in summer a hydrofoil is main transport south and north"][/caption]

Then I went for a walk into the city proper and suddenly it all changed:

[caption id="attachment_152" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Typical main street building"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_153" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="and another"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_154" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Not everything is restored yet - but still beautiful"][/caption]

 

The town which was started from nothing in 1932 gives the impression it was well cared for in the past and then fell on hard times, possibly at the end of the Communist era, and now again is beginning to prosper.  lots of things that were decayed are now being repaired and there is an air of life about it.  A very pleasant aspect is the relative lack of cars - a bit like the UK in the 60-70's and trolley buses still rule the main street.

[caption id="attachment_155" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Trolley bus on main street"][/caption]

On my walk around town on my first night here I met a group of bike riders so I said hello (and little else given my Russian) and after a few photo's headed back to the hotel.  The next day out of the blue I then got a visit at the hotel from Kosta, his son Alexi and daughter Anna asking me to be their guest that night on a boat trip on the river.  Anna and Alexi both spoke good English having just spend a month studying in Sydney - its a small world. It turns out Kosta is a member of the local branch of the Iron Tigers group i met in Vladivostok.  I have to be out of this hotel room in 30 minutes so don't have time to give the full story of the evening but the pictures below give a flavour;

[caption id="attachment_156" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Kosta - and his boat in the foreground"][/caption]

 

 

 

[caption id="attachment_157" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Kosta and wife Galileya"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_159" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Anna and Alexi"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_160" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="Vera ( the family grandmum!) and Anna"][/caption]

The river scenery was beautiful - but my little camera didn't do it justice - so only people photo's.

After the run on the river I then went on a ride with half a dozen of the local Iron Tigers group to a local swimming hole.  absolutely beautiful and totally hidden away - I would never have found it by myself.

[caption id="attachment_161" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Ride group"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_162" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Swimming hole"][/caption]

Following that we went back to town and met up with more bikers - and other locals.

[caption id="attachment_163" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Komsomolsk Bikers - the friendliest group you can imagine."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_164" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="No caption needed!"][/caption]

So as I said the Russians (at least those in the far east) are turning out to be the friendliest people imaginable and absolutely marvellous hosts.  Thank you to them all.

 

Time has not permitted any proof reading of this post so I hope it is legible.  There probably will be no more updates for a few days since I'll be travelling - look after yourselves folks.

 

Here - but bikeless

27/7/11.

Well I've been in Vladivostok for three nights now and have enjoyed the city - but there is just one small hitch; I've yet to get my bike which is still going through the customs process! The ferry may be drive on , but its very definately not drive off.  The bike gets lumped in with all the cargo to be processed and we are not  a priority. It looks like I'll get the bike tomorrow which is Thursday so three full days after arriving.  I'm told not to complain as the previous weeks ships delivery took a full week to clear.
Vladivostok is a much bigger city than I expected - population officially three-quarters of a million and I'm told unofficially over a million.  Its also a giant building site as the next Australian Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) government summit occurs here July next here and the town is getting a massive spruce up in preparation.  As well as the usual tidying up of building facades, new parks and general roadworks they are also building two huge suspension bridges across parts of the bay.  When you see the current state of progress on construction all I can say is I'm glad I 'm not the project manager.
In the photographs below you can see some general shots of Vladivostok in its slightly faded beauty.  Its easy to criticise it but just as easy to forget this was a closed military city between the '50's and 1992 where obviously maintaining beauty was not a priority.  But with imagination (sometimes a lot) you can see how given another decade or two of work it could regain some significant glory.On the ferry I teamed up with two Croation guys, Patrick and Robert who are doing a round the world trip by bike.  They are on the back-half of their trip having done Europe and the US and now planning Vladivostok to home.  We will probably ride the first couple of days together in Russia but they will then run on ahead as they want to be back in Croatia by late August - thats around the world in 4 months definately faster than I'd like.
The first couple of nights here in Vladivostok I stayed in a hotel I booked off the internet - mainly based on price.   I booked as a single person and so, unbeknown to me, the staff decided that meant as "my" room had two beds they could also let it to someone else.  This I only found out as I registered and when it was too late for me to do anything about.  As it was they failed to find me a room mate for the first two nights so it didn't matter, and then for reasons I'll explain in a minute I moved out tonight almost as soon as my room-mate moved in.  The hotel itself had a very flash lobby and lovely pictures of beautifully furnished rooms on its walls (and use on the Internet advert) but it turned out it was only partially renovated - my room was definately in the to be done part, very 1950's or 60's soviet, tired but fortunately quite clean and functional (though the bathroom only just scraped into the male version of that category).  It was fine though as a first stop and it had a good reception and cafe/restaurant staff who cheerfully tolerated my attempts at murdering their language.
I was also due to stay at the hotel again tonight,but then I along with Robert and Patrick got an offer to stay at the clubhouse of the local motorcycle club, the Iron Tigers.  This group is well known for helping  travellers so I happily accepted and it turned out to be great decision.  The club is 10km out of town so one of its members Andrei picked us up and drove us there and given the state of Vladivostok traffic was a major effort on his part.  It is located within an old building which contains the clubs president, Mickaels, business, which is re-building and selling imported bikes (dozens and dozens of them).  Within this building they have a room termed "the box" which is outfitted for travellers to stay with camp-beds and the like plus a toilet and washing machine etc.  At the end of the day they simply leave and tell you to lock yourselves in.  They have been offering this hospitality for a decade or more and it is hard to imagine someone in Australia being as open and trusting. The visit to the Iron Tigers has been a bit of a highlight of the time in Vladivostok and has made the wait for the bike worthwhile.
Well thats about all the news for now - hopefully when I next post it will include news of the bikes safe release and the start of my forward progress.

 

On the move at last

Well finally I'm travelling by bike in Russia.  It's an experience.  The people are really friendly and helpful - but I really feel my lack of language skills because unless I meet an English speaker I am pretty cut-off from things and communication is very limited.  The night school russian helps a lot but I wish I had paid more attention and practised more. That is where my preparation really fell down in the last month or so, with all the rushing around I did very little practice then and it really shows at the moment.  What is really useful though is being able to read, albeit very slowly, the cyrillic names of towns, signs on shops and the like: even this was very hard at first but I practice with every street sign I see and it is slowley getting more intuitive and I'm beginning to recognise some common letter patterns. Without that basic skill travelling around would be a nightmare.  In an attempt to re-establish my very basic speaking skills a bit I've now holed up in a hotel for a couple of days in order to just listen to the lessons I have on my computer again and refresh the basic vocabulary and grammer. I hope it helps.
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]