Definition of a Road is different in Siberia
Set off late around 2 pm and with the help of the GPS got out of town on what I thought was the right road. Good tarmac road at first, then changed to good gravel. Continued on and suddenly had Lake Baikal in front of me. That was wrong….
Checked the GPS and I had missed a turn. Routing on those world maps is pretty crap. So back tracked 20 miles. Got petrol and a guy at the petrol station warned me that the road was pretty crap and that there were bears in the area. Ah rubbish.
At first the road was relatively good dirt track, then after a junction it got worse. Deep ruts with water. On one of those there were 4 ruts two with not enough dry space to ride between them and the others I thought I could make it without actually going into the rut. So standing up I went for it and of course half way thru I slipped into the rut. I got stuck then when the luggage cases touched the edge of the rut and the rear wheel bogged in. Tried for a long time to move backwards which was not working at all. Going forward was a bit of an issue because not only did the cases could get stuck but there was also a log protruding into the rut. Finally got the log moved and then put some logs in front of the bike to get it a few centimeters higher. This way I got the bike over the next 3 meters, then I just walked the bike the other 3 meters to firm ground.
Drove another mile or so then again a big puddle on the left and two ruts on right. Still pretty confident I tried to drive between the ruts on the dry ground. Again I slipped into the rut up to my axels in mud and the bike just died. Nothing no electricity at all. I knew it couldn’t be much (blown fuse because of all the water I went thru). But this meant I had to get the bike out by hand. It was crazy - the mud in that rut was the kind that sucks in everything. I think it took 1.5 hours to get the bike out by lying it on its side and then dragging it away from the rut, to then be able to lift it up.
Was just finished with that when I saw a car approaching. Great I thought could have used them an hour earlier. Anyway 3 guys get out around 18 - 20 years old. First thing one of them says is “Idiot”. They pull up beside the bike and one of them offers me beer from a 2.5 l bottle (party pack). I explain that engine is kaput. They get to work. Like before in Kazakhstan, hands on straight away. Takes little while before we have figured it out. Bad contact on battery (rattled loose over the last 10.000 miles).
Bike running again they offer me more beer and food. Had not really eaten all day so was starving. Again great friendliness by the Russians. By then it was 10pm and getting dark. There and then I decided that I did not want to continue on this “road” in the morning. Just too difficult by myself. So after taking some photos and saying goodbye I headed back half a mile where I had spotted a clearing that could make a good camp spot.
Day 55
9. June 2009
Start: Irkutsk, Russia
End: somewhere in Siberia, Russia
Miles today: 121
Miles total: 9438
Odometer: 15692
Bike Dropped: 3
Speeding Tickets: 1
It is nice that you posted something like this C5 Android 2.3 and I am quite lucky to read it. Thanks for posting this!
Thank you for your article, newfreeshipping.com is of a free shopping Store online, retail and wholesale high quality low price of electronic products,suah as Dropad D10