Mother Russia

Once through the border, a quick coke at the side of the road and off to Barnaul to collect our new tyres.  Victor is the man in Barnaul where you get them sent to.  But first we needed somewhere to sleep and off around town we went until my clutch cable pulled its nipple off.

 A Russian guy, Nicoli, his wife, brother-in law and kids stopped for a chat and Nicoli is an endurance rider and within a few minutes the cable was off the bike and on its way to  a mate's place for a repair.  Meanwhile Dave had wandered off and found a hotel by the Railway Station.   45 minutes later the cable was refitted and we all went out for a meal.   Took a few pivos (beer) back to the hotel before wandering over to the station to check out the trains.  We all decided that it would be a great way to see this part of the world. 

 Next day we headed off to Victor's to get our tyres fitted  and Ben's shocker seen to. It was a long wait.  Its a real meeting point for cross Russian riders and we met a bunch of 7 Czech riders and Roger, a Swiss guy.   Ben's bike was taking some time, so after 2 nights, Dave and I headed off planning to meet the Hickeys at the Mongolian border in 3 or 4 days. 

 Dave and Roger at the cafe!

 We followed this river for most of the day.  Really beautiful.

 Met these crazy Russians, heading for Mongolia on sport tourers with full road tyres. Unregistered bikes with USA car plates on them

   Along the road, we stopped for lunch and up turned Roger.  A chat and off he went.  We passed him on the road and ended up staying at a village called Onguday in a weird little hotel.  Roger turned up and we tried, unsuccessfully to find a place to eat.  We bought a mixture of sausages, cheese, beer, wine, bread and headed back to our digs.  Raining next morning and Roger headed off into it.  We decided to see if it would let up.  It didn't so we decided to leave.  Tenere wouldn't fire up.  The air was very moist and there'd been a few issues with moisture before.   Bought some WD-45.  It ran for a few minutes and then zero!  Flattened the battery.  Jump started it and rode off into the rain.  Did 20km.  Stopped and fitted my spare coil and lead and had no more troubles.

With the troubles it was too late to cross the border as its got a reputation for being slow, we decided to stop 50km short at Kosh-Agach at a hotel.  Within an hour there were 7 other bikers there.  3 Czechs who had left the 7 and were heading home with damaged bikes, 3 Dutch guys on Yam Diversions and a Turk on a BMW.

Got to the Russian exit at 8:45am and joined the queue.   Stamp this, get this checked, search the bikes, go back there!   Just after noon, we were dispatched into no-mans land on our way to Mongolia.

At the border.  They were only small, but the mossies were everywhere.