Baikal blues

Sadly not the sky or the water.

Blues as in Russia is difficult at times and today has been testing. The language barrier is no different to being in any country. In the end different words for similar meanings is just a case of education. . But when the alphabet is different it sometimes gets a bit cryptic.

No blue skies travelling from Irkutsk to Ulan-ude. .just grey cloud. Cool temperatures and occasional rain.

No blue water either. . The great lake all but hidden from view by the endless trees. . .Russia has become a road lined with trees hiding anything that might be interesting, punctuated by mainly grim cities and paranoid petrol station cashiers. Is this all that Russia is?

Irkutsk was vaguely interesting. But one town becomes much like any other in the end . .

My day started badly in Irkutsk as rain and slippery tram tracks conspired to put me down the road just 5 minutes into the days journey. That I guess went some way to setting my mood for the day, which matched the atmospherics.  No serious damage. A bent handlebar will straighten and a bit of a knock on the knee will be a little stiff the day after but I'll live on. . Just annoyed at myself for what is really a rookie mistake. Crash bars and good kit saved the day.

I'm just not feeling good about Russia right now. . Initially  it was a pleasant change after Kazakhstan's trials but further East it's just, well grey, tree lined and mostly uninteresting. The people I've met seem mostly the same. More interested in their mobile phone conversation than customer service. I know I don't speak the language but give me a break here!

Sometime it would be nice to have someone around to pick me up both metaphorically and as it happen today literally!

It's just been a bad day that's all. . With a few repairs to sort out I'll take some time in Ulan Ude before moving on. .

Lake Baikal - best view of it all day!

Rushing through Russia

At the risk of invoking every Russian stereotype you have ever imagined. . Most Russians appear to have a real affinity with vodka! But served ice cold I can understand why. . As a single malt whisky lover a cold shot of vodka is a disparate but agreeable experience.

And all the trees that weren't in Kazakhstan? - they are in Russia. Millions of them. 

Mile after kilometer! of endless roads with trees. no views, just trees! Silver birch and conifers by the score. 

The petrol stations have a system where you pay up front for what you think you will need and then either pay the difference was collect the change once you've filled up. Which is fine now I understand it. It was more than just a bit confusing when the first petrol station I stopped at had a woman behind a mirrored window talking through a speaker with a sliding slot to put the money in before she switched on the pump. With no eye contact on my side, communication was somewhat difficult!

By Friday I've had to push on a bit. . With over 6000km to cover in 3 weeks I can't hang around. Consequently I've not had much time for film or photo's stopping to catch "that" shot puts an enormous dent in my average speed and covering 800km in one day means that is crucial.

One night stops in Novosibirsk and Krasnoyark were just that, neither being places you'd really visit. Although arriving after dark in a strange city is always fun! Seeing flashes of lightening illuminate the slightly yellow smog was a dramatic introduction.

My Friday night was a tent in a woodland next to the continuous rumble of the trans Siberian railway, but it put me within a days travel of Irkutsk on Saturday which is right on schedule. An early start ensured I covered the distance easily and at some point in the day I seemed to enter a Russian version of Lincolnshire. Dense forests of trees gave way to rolling hills and farmland with islands of trees amongst the sun ripened golden cereal crops. The only difference seeming to be the size and with collective nouns of combine harvesters working together to reap the crop. 

Irkutsk arrived at 52° N 104° E and 40°C! Russia had been pretty cool until then! I'm sure Irkutsk will be cool in other ways that most of the Russian conurbations I have passed through so far could never be. 

So after 3 big days of covering the kilometres, 800 on the first day and 1000 split over two days to get here its time to have a day off to explore some of Russia that I have only passed through along the way... So far I've seen trees, road and trees and some fairly messy big cities, I'm sure there's more to offer than that? Lake Baikal and onto Ulan Ude  on Monday will I'm sure be a highlight. 

From Russia with love...

Monday the 3rd brought my Russian visa into action. With the usual trepidation I approached the end of Kazakhstan fearing the worst if my six hour endurance test on entry was anything to go by. 

As it happened the border guards were significantly less officious on exit. I was asked if I had any drugs (adrenaline does me fine thanks) or guns and pointed in the direction of the passport control office. Less than twenty minutes later I was on course for the Russian entry which was swift and courteous as the customs guy took a cursory glance at my pannier contents and after my passport was stamped I was allowed into the embrace of mother Russia. 

A stop to purchase insurance for the month was completed with minimal fuss and minimal cash at 750 Rubles is less that £8 for the month - Bargain! And Russia has proper roads to boot! its like re-entering civilisation. 

My first destination was Barnaul where I took a two night stop over to allow me to fettle the bike a little. A broken bracket on the exhaust had allowed a worrying tyre/exhaust interface to occur. Rough roads in Kazakhstan took their toll. . .A little less of a problem than a Belgian guy had with the drive shaft of his BMW. Niko,Steve and Koen had some sorting out to do to overcome that issue on one of their three trans Mongolian express beemers. 

On Tuesday evening Stuart and Oli, I travelled with into Georgia and Ian, I met in Tbilisi arrived not only in the same town, but the same hotel as our paths crossed again. 

Russia it seems is not some dark distant land with overpowering political rule. So far it is a modern relaxed civilised country with good shops, modern roads, plentiful goods on the shelves and 21st century gadgetry. So put away the ideas of cabbage soup and cross the border in your mind. "Velcome to WRussia my friends". 

Planning ahead for my route will I hope bring me to Irkutsk by the weekend which will mean I am one third of the way along my mammoth Russian trek. Hopefully I can take a little break around lake Baikal before tackling the prodigious distance to Vladivostok.

 

Kazakhstan Konclusions

So kazakhstan finale dawns and time to reflect on the experience. Kazakhstan is absolutely vast. Massive open plains. Huge desert scenes.  Incredible seas of grass steppe that meets the cerulean sky at the distant horizon. Those more than anything will be my overriding memory of this country.

Although I fear the state of some of the roads may well be a resonant memory. There is a big road building programme going on and in the next 5 to 10 years Kazakhstan will have a viable roads infrastructure, so in some respects I'm glad I've seen it now because despite the attention grabbing pot holes, rippled, broken down and just plain horrible tarmac in places it somehow fits into the tableau of the country. Lines on a map do not necessarily mean there is a physical road in this country.

Zebra crossings in the middle of nowhere I can only think are for the benefit of Camels, but they don't seem to have understood the irony. Similarly, bus stops and road junctions that can't possibly benefit any potential customer are placed miles from any occupied areas.

Everyone I've met has been genuinely pleased to see a tourist in their country. Lots of car drivers waving and tooting as they pass in either direction.

It can be a dusty, hot, dirty frustrating travel experience. You could easily think of the negative things that are part of the daily reality in Kazakhstan. But I like to think it has been a positive time. While it's true there is not a lot to see in between destinations, that remoteness is in stark contrast to someone more used to a country that is ten times smaller in area with four times the population!

My last night in kazakhstan was spent in Semey. Which from 1949 to 1989 was the site of Russia's nuclear test facility. Not a place to linger long! But a sunny Sunday stroll in the park doesn't reveal any of the substantial issues that have been evident from the exposure to the fallout from 456 explosive tests. 

So that's that. . Two weeks to cross Kazakhstan was a viable timescale. Did I need off road tyres? Probably not in reality. They were useful in places, but there is enough road to not warrant that capability. I now have 3 weeks to get to Vladivostok...

Russia beckons. . . .