Our goal is to get to Chita by Wednesday and Ulan-Ude by Thursday so we can be at Lake Beikal on the weekend. We try to plan a layover day on Saturday so we can have a break off the bikes and have the opportunity to meet locals when they may have days off from work. Lake Beikal is a popular vacation and weekend getaway spot so will probably be busy.
Our guesthouse for the night.
Bikes out front for loading, but we had secure parking this time.
Siberian Tiger statue - hope we don't see any...
Here is Little Dom. Check out his website at littledom.co.uk.
Making miles in Russia is difficult. The roads are unpredictable so we keep the pace fairly conservative. Speeds top out at around 60 mph, but are often only 10-20 mph through the rough spots. We keep the speeds down for safety as well as conserving tires and gas. We have off road tires on the bikes for Mongolia and need to have tread left for the dirt tracks there.
Today started with very smooth and straight roads similar to what you may find on most US interstates. We also noticed the roads were better lined, marked with reflectors on the shoulders, had guard rails and signs warning of upcoming rough sections and construction zones.
We stopped for lunch and gas at the nicest facility we had experienced thus far. A restaurant/deli with a display case so you could actually see what you were ordering, a convenience store with 7-11 type selections and bathrooms that had real toilets. The gas station toilets to that point had all been a shack with an open hole in the ground - all pretty disgusting. The nice bathrooms did however come with a price of 15 Rubles (about 45 cents) to use, but it was worth it.
After lunch we fueled up the bikes and hit the road in a great mood. Lunch was good, the air was cool and we had not been rained on once today. That's when the road got interesting. Many sections had buckled causing huge undulations in the road. Ken and Mark looked like they were on pogo sticks riding ahead of me bouncing up and down through the undulations. It was actually quite fun when going through at the proper speed. The other hazard we had this section were regular potholes, reverse potholes where the road had heaved upward and car sized 2 foot deep rectangular sections of the road that had been recently removed for repair. Going into one of the those would be a trip ender. Needless to say the road had our full attention.
We arrived about 7pm at the M56 which leads to the Road of Bones and Magadan - one of the most remote parts of Russia. We would like to ride some of the Road of Bones but just don't have the time. It would be about a 5000 km diversion there and back as it is the only road in and out of Magadan. We found a guest house near the M56/M58 intersection and stayed there for the night. It was quite an interesting complex with a restaurant and bar. We also got secured garage parking for the bikes so didn't have to strip them down like the night before. Tomorrow we hope to make it to Chita.
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