We again got a slow start Sunday morning leaving Khabarovsk - enjoying a late breakfast with our new Russian friends. We exchanged some small gifts, said our goodbyes and hit the road again. Our time in Khabarovsk was a wonderful experience - the generosity displayed by Lena and Phil was above and beyond. I'm so glad we got to meet them along with their family and friends.
We now will be traveling on M-58 - the longest road in the biggest country in the world. It is a a two lane highway road that travels through villages, towns and cities all the way to Moscow. Like M-60 before it, the road occasionally disappears into dirt and construction zones. Some of the construction zones are very hazardous - on one stretch they had just put down a diesel/tar mixture on a section they were about to pave. It was very slippery and at least a half mile or more long - super sketchy!!!
Traffic just goes through construction zones with no division between the machines and crews and traffic - no flag man, nothing. We are always very careful as a machine can move into the traffic lanes at any time. There also is very little warning when approaching the construction zones or when the road is about to disappear.
We got in about 150 km and decided to start looking for a camp spot about 7pm. We went down several dirt roads and could not find a good spot as everything off the roads were wet, marshy and lined heavily with vegetation. After about an hour we found a sizable dirt road heading towards China. We followed it for about 8 km and saw a two track heading off into the bush. The trail dropped down into a wooded area and after a few minutes riding and we heard dogs barking and saw some rustic buildings ahead. We pulled up and were greeted by an elderly looking Russian man. Luckily the dogs were chained as they looked like they wanted to tear us apart. We discovered his name was Sasha as Mark handled the translation. Sasha offered us tea and we all sat down in his makeshift outdoor kitchen. We found out he was a beekeeper and had lived in this compound for 3 years. The whole place was super shady looking and we weren't sure if we wanted to ask if we could camp there. It was right about then Sasha brought out his shotgun and laid three shells down on the table. Right when we were wondering if the three shells was a message - three shells, three bikers he began to explain to Mark in Russian that the shotgun was for the Siberian Tigers he sees frequently in the area. We were a little relieved he was just proudly showing us his gun and not threatening us - but then thought about the idea of wild camping with Tigers on the prowl. A storm was coming in and we didn't want to start over with the search for a camp so we decided to ask him to stay. He immediately asked if we had Vodka, which we didn't. We offered him money, but he said he couldn't drink money. He said there was a store 15 km away and would go with one of us to buy the Vodka. So Mark ended up taking him to the store on the back of his bike with a storm brewing. Ken and I stayed at the compound and had a look around while they were gone. Of course Ken had to check out the gun, which he determined was fully functional - but only 2 of the three shells were good, so one of us was sure to be around to tell the story.
They returned about an hour later, soaking wet as it had started raining. We then all sat in his little house - which was actually only a small room with a wood stove, table and cot and watched the lighting storm while shooting Vodka. We all had to do three shots as it is Russian tradition and left the rest for Sasha. It was now around midnight and the rain had let up so we set up our beds for the night - Ken and Mark in hammocks and me in my tent.
It ended up raining on and off all night and the dogs never stopped barking so we got pretty much zero sleep. We got up early and it was still drizzling so all the gear got put away wet, which really sucks. We hit the road and stopped after about an hour for breakfast at a cafe. We all just looked at each other and said "did that really happen?"
Ken posing with Sasha's gun while he and Mark were out buying Vodka.
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