World Tour - Europe, Asia, North and South America - Entries for: Russia
24° | sunny / cloudy | km 1431
Boring
on 2016-07-10 in Kazakhstan, Russia
Right after we entered Russia we immediately noticed that the Russians were a lot colder and distanced than the people of all the countries we had visited so far. But to be honest it was nice for a change to be left alone for a bit while stopping in the middle of a town or city.
The rest of the journey towards Novosibirsk was rather boring. The countryside was extremely flat and the streets incredibly straight. To make things worse there were a lot of swamps near the street which made looking for a camp ground a pain in the ass. It was not just hard to find a proper spot but once we stopped there were tons of mosquitoes buzzing around us. We sucked it up and still tried a night in our tents. As long as you had the light on all the mosquitoes flying against the cover of the tents sounded like rain. Even with the lights turned of we still heard the constant buzzing of the mosquitoes around us. For the first 800 Kilometers we basically only had two sounds surrounding us:
Brrruuummmm bruummm brumm bruuuuuummmmmmmmmm brrrrrrrrrrrrrruuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmm VVVVVVVVrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrooooooooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm (1.-6. gear on our motorcycles, with riding at the same speed for hours.)
Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz (The constant sound of mosquitoes buzzing around us)
The rest of the journey towards Novosibirsk was rather boring. The countryside was extremely flat and the streets incredibly straight. To make things worse there were a lot of swamps near the street which made looking for a camp ground a pain in the ass. It was not just hard to find a proper spot but once we stopped there were tons of mosquitoes buzzing around us. We sucked it up and still tried a night in our tents. As long as you had the light on all the mosquitoes flying against the cover of the tents sounded like rain. Even with the lights turned of we still heard the constant buzzing of the mosquitoes around us. For the first 800 Kilometers we basically only had two sounds surrounding us:
Brrruuummmm bruummm brumm bruuuuuummmmmmmmmm brrrrrrrrrrrrrruuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmm VVVVVVVVrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrooooooooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm (1.-6. gear on our motorcycles, with riding at the same speed for hours.)
Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz (The constant sound of mosquitoes buzzing around us)
23° | sunny | km 0
All around service
on 2016-07-12 in Russia
For our short stay in Novosibirsk we had planned to do some maintenance, repairs and a tire change. Since we arrived quite early in Novosibirsk we had some time to look around for a proper hotel. We found a nice small Hostel in the center and relaxed the rest of the day in the company of some fellow travelers.
Our first stop the next day was at a delivery office where we were expecting our tires to arrive. Google Maps had some troubles with the Russian signs which is why we ended up between some run down houses with a gravel road. Luckily we rode past an ATV dealership and decided to ask them where we had to go. They were really nice and quickly helped us back on the right track. After a couple of minutes we found ourselves at the right place and after signing some delivery paper we finally were able to pick up our brand new Heidenaus. Thanks again to motorradreifendirekt.de for the quick and very uncomplicated delivery. We had our tires changed the same day in a small Russian workshop (Bikesib.ru). They managed to change the 6 tires really quickly and with a lot of care. The only thing that looked a bit off was the balance machine. To get this old thing working the mechanic had to lean on it to get the correct “Russian” reading. After changing tires we cleaned the bikes and went out to a local Burger King for dinner.
With a lot of motivation we rode back to the repair shop the next day. We had planned to do an oil and air filter change. Also the two Hondas were ready to finally get their fork oil and fork seals changed. With all the parts successfully picked up from the Posta Russia postal office we were eager to get started. To make the day even better shortly after our arrival an employee from Liqui Moly came to our garage with all the oil we needed for our maintenance. With the oil we were able to replace all the engine oil, the fork oil and Fabi’s drive shaft oil. Thanks again to Liqui Moly for the support and the great service. The feeling after finishing all the repairs was incredible that evening. Everything worked out great and the bikes felt great after all the repair work.
That evening we only had to do some minor repairs on Fabi’s tent, since it had been loosing air pressure for a couple of days. Since he had to get up two to three times a night to reinflate the tent he was quite eager to get it fixed. We managed to spot the leak and were able to repair it with the patches quite easily and quickly. So we had some time left to enjoy the evening and go out for some cold beers and a bit of party. Overall we had a great time in Novosibirsk!
Our first stop the next day was at a delivery office where we were expecting our tires to arrive. Google Maps had some troubles with the Russian signs which is why we ended up between some run down houses with a gravel road. Luckily we rode past an ATV dealership and decided to ask them where we had to go. They were really nice and quickly helped us back on the right track. After a couple of minutes we found ourselves at the right place and after signing some delivery paper we finally were able to pick up our brand new Heidenaus. Thanks again to motorradreifendirekt.de for the quick and very uncomplicated delivery. We had our tires changed the same day in a small Russian workshop (Bikesib.ru). They managed to change the 6 tires really quickly and with a lot of care. The only thing that looked a bit off was the balance machine. To get this old thing working the mechanic had to lean on it to get the correct “Russian” reading. After changing tires we cleaned the bikes and went out to a local Burger King for dinner.
With a lot of motivation we rode back to the repair shop the next day. We had planned to do an oil and air filter change. Also the two Hondas were ready to finally get their fork oil and fork seals changed. With all the parts successfully picked up from the Posta Russia postal office we were eager to get started. To make the day even better shortly after our arrival an employee from Liqui Moly came to our garage with all the oil we needed for our maintenance. With the oil we were able to replace all the engine oil, the fork oil and Fabi’s drive shaft oil. Thanks again to Liqui Moly for the support and the great service. The feeling after finishing all the repairs was incredible that evening. Everything worked out great and the bikes felt great after all the repair work.
That evening we only had to do some minor repairs on Fabi’s tent, since it had been loosing air pressure for a couple of days. Since he had to get up two to three times a night to reinflate the tent he was quite eager to get it fixed. We managed to spot the leak and were able to repair it with the patches quite easily and quickly. So we had some time left to enjoy the evening and go out for some cold beers and a bit of party. Overall we had a great time in Novosibirsk!
21° | sunny | km 954
A burden shared...
on 2016-07-16 in Russia
Later that next morning we left Novosibirsk and fought our way through the Russian traffic. We were glad once the traffic slowly grew less just to be surprised by a heavy rainfall and thunderstorm. We were able to take shelter at a nearby gas station and watched how the weather turned the main road into a big river. We waited until the worst had passed and decided to quickly ride further south. Denis had heard some weird knocking sound from his bike in the morning but he had some troubles figuring out where it was coming from. After about 30 more Kilometers he noticed that his back tire was giving some weird feedback. Denis stopped as quickly as possible, just to find out that his rear bearing had broke down. Since we knew about the reliability of the two Hondas when it comes to fault, Basti instantly decided to check his rear tire as well. After our so called “wobbletest” he had to find out that his bearing had broken down as well but with a little less play then on Denis’ Twin.
We had to stop and get both bikes fixed but since we stopped in front of a supermarket we first had to find a place to stop and sleep. Fabi was luckily able to find a nice Hotel just 300 meters away. So we decided to go there and try to figure out what we could do to fix the two Africa Twins.
Our room even had a WIFI router in it so we were expecting to have real good WIFI. We wondered quickly why we didn’t get full bars even though we were right in front of the router. So we took it upon ourselves to figure out what was wrong with the router. We were amazed what we found when we took the router apart. Even though there was a network cable and and power plug “connected” to it it turned out that the router was completely empty. Everything was taken out but an old cellphone battery with an led mounted to it. We were amazed at the ingenuity and audacity to mount something like this on the wall.
On the other side of the room we had the pleasure of a 3D picture of some woman looking down on us. We were certain we had managed to stumble into another transient hotel. So far so good lets get back to our bearing problem. Thanks to Basti's girlfriend Olga we were able to find a bearing shop back in Novosibirsk. And after some calls she even managed to find out that they had the bearings in stock and we would be able to pick them up the next day.
During the course of the evening we noticed another GS had stopped at the same Hotel we were staying in. It had American license plates on it and so we were eager to find out what his story was. We found Gail shortly thereafter and decided to get some dinner with him followed by some beers. He had been riding for over three years around the world and we exchanged some of our funniest moments of our trips so far. We had a good time and once we told him we had a planned tour through China he was instantly very interested about our journey. It had been a dream of his to travel through China as well but he thought it was either very expensive or not possible at this point in time. We decided that night to try to get him into the same group with us to make his dream come true. Via WhatsApp we contact Nancy from chinaoverland.eu and even got a response from her that Sunday (!) night stating she will try her best. Even though nothing was certain yet we could see the excitement in the eyes of Gail right away.
We also had some nice locals taking care of us: the car wash right next to the hotel let us park the bikes inside their building for the night, a Russian gave Basti his fireman jacket as a present and two local journalists interviewed us about our journey!
The following day we managed to get all the problems sorted out quickly. We had mounted to two rear tires of the Hondas on Fabi's BMW and went back into Novosibirsk to get the bearing replaced. The only thing that we wondered about was that we payed two different prices for the four bearings. Since we did not have much choice we took them anyways and got them mounted at the same workshop.
In the afternoon Basti went to the famous Nowosibirsk railway museum just to find out that it is closed on Mondays. But still he managed to take some nice pictures.
In the next days the countryside had changed dramatically. The fastness was overcome by some beautiful mountains, the boring straight roads turned into a beautiful curvy road through the mountains and across some rivers and waterfalls. So we enjoyed our ride through the beautiful Altai valley to meet up with Gail, just 80 Kilometers away from the Mongolian border. We had planned to cross into Mongolia together and enjoy one anthers company for a bit.
We had to stop and get both bikes fixed but since we stopped in front of a supermarket we first had to find a place to stop and sleep. Fabi was luckily able to find a nice Hotel just 300 meters away. So we decided to go there and try to figure out what we could do to fix the two Africa Twins.
Our room even had a WIFI router in it so we were expecting to have real good WIFI. We wondered quickly why we didn’t get full bars even though we were right in front of the router. So we took it upon ourselves to figure out what was wrong with the router. We were amazed what we found when we took the router apart. Even though there was a network cable and and power plug “connected” to it it turned out that the router was completely empty. Everything was taken out but an old cellphone battery with an led mounted to it. We were amazed at the ingenuity and audacity to mount something like this on the wall.
On the other side of the room we had the pleasure of a 3D picture of some woman looking down on us. We were certain we had managed to stumble into another transient hotel. So far so good lets get back to our bearing problem. Thanks to Basti's girlfriend Olga we were able to find a bearing shop back in Novosibirsk. And after some calls she even managed to find out that they had the bearings in stock and we would be able to pick them up the next day.
During the course of the evening we noticed another GS had stopped at the same Hotel we were staying in. It had American license plates on it and so we were eager to find out what his story was. We found Gail shortly thereafter and decided to get some dinner with him followed by some beers. He had been riding for over three years around the world and we exchanged some of our funniest moments of our trips so far. We had a good time and once we told him we had a planned tour through China he was instantly very interested about our journey. It had been a dream of his to travel through China as well but he thought it was either very expensive or not possible at this point in time. We decided that night to try to get him into the same group with us to make his dream come true. Via WhatsApp we contact Nancy from chinaoverland.eu and even got a response from her that Sunday (!) night stating she will try her best. Even though nothing was certain yet we could see the excitement in the eyes of Gail right away.
We also had some nice locals taking care of us: the car wash right next to the hotel let us park the bikes inside their building for the night, a Russian gave Basti his fireman jacket as a present and two local journalists interviewed us about our journey!
The following day we managed to get all the problems sorted out quickly. We had mounted to two rear tires of the Hondas on Fabi's BMW and went back into Novosibirsk to get the bearing replaced. The only thing that we wondered about was that we payed two different prices for the four bearings. Since we did not have much choice we took them anyways and got them mounted at the same workshop.
In the afternoon Basti went to the famous Nowosibirsk railway museum just to find out that it is closed on Mondays. But still he managed to take some nice pictures.
In the next days the countryside had changed dramatically. The fastness was overcome by some beautiful mountains, the boring straight roads turned into a beautiful curvy road through the mountains and across some rivers and waterfalls. So we enjoyed our ride through the beautiful Altai valley to meet up with Gail, just 80 Kilometers away from the Mongolian border. We had planned to cross into Mongolia together and enjoy one anthers company for a bit.
21° | sunny / cloudy / rainy | km 540
Time to chill!
on 2016-07-21 in Russia
Fabi realized that night when we went to bed, that since we would be getting a 30 day visa for Mongolia we would have to leave the country on the 19th of August. But we actually had planned to leave on the 25th to China. So we agreed that we had to stay for another week in Russia. Luckily the Altai region was perfect for our unplanned vacation. We were in the middle of these beautiful mountains with rivers and small lakes everywhere. Camping was easy and possible all over the place.
Our first stop was at a nice place right next to a small river. We set up camp under some trees and decided to do some barbecue for dinner. We saw some Russians fishing in the river nearby and this brought up something unknown in us - the instinct to hunt ourselves. We decided to try to catch some fish for ourselves - Fabi had gotten a small survival pack with a fishing line and hook from Andi back home and it was time now to try it out. We already almost failed setting up the line and the hook. Thanks to Gail we managed to get everything sorted after a while. We threw the line into the river with some fly attached as bait and waited for the first fish to bite. But they were apparently to smart to bite on our self made fishing line and after almost an hour we had to give up and resort back to the meat we had bought. :)
A couple of days before we knew we had to stay we talked about going rafting, but back then we once again had been inseparable of our bikes so we passed most of the spots. Since we had suddenly some time on our hands we decided to try to find a spot to do it now. The rafting was located at a campsite with some Russian Banjas. To go in one of these was also on the list so we decided to spend the rest of our time there. Everyone we met at the campsite was incredibly nice and we made plans to go rafting the next morning with the guys from sibextreme.com.
We spend a couple of nice days at this campsite. Rafting was great, we had a small meerkat as a pet and we met some really cool people at that place. We also managed to meet up with Josef, a German biker we had met in Uzbekistan a while back. He was on his way back from Mongolia and he was riding with Marco and Mladen from Serbia. They were on two old Africa Twins and so we instantly had a lot to talk about. We decided to spend a day riding an offroad track to a lake together. There is nothing more fun than racing through some back country road without luggage, a perfect scenery and some great new friends!
The week went by real quickly and after some really nice last days in Russia we were finally getting ready to go to Mongolia!
Our first stop was at a nice place right next to a small river. We set up camp under some trees and decided to do some barbecue for dinner. We saw some Russians fishing in the river nearby and this brought up something unknown in us - the instinct to hunt ourselves. We decided to try to catch some fish for ourselves - Fabi had gotten a small survival pack with a fishing line and hook from Andi back home and it was time now to try it out. We already almost failed setting up the line and the hook. Thanks to Gail we managed to get everything sorted after a while. We threw the line into the river with some fly attached as bait and waited for the first fish to bite. But they were apparently to smart to bite on our self made fishing line and after almost an hour we had to give up and resort back to the meat we had bought. :)
A couple of days before we knew we had to stay we talked about going rafting, but back then we once again had been inseparable of our bikes so we passed most of the spots. Since we had suddenly some time on our hands we decided to try to find a spot to do it now. The rafting was located at a campsite with some Russian Banjas. To go in one of these was also on the list so we decided to spend the rest of our time there. Everyone we met at the campsite was incredibly nice and we made plans to go rafting the next morning with the guys from sibextreme.com.
We spend a couple of nice days at this campsite. Rafting was great, we had a small meerkat as a pet and we met some really cool people at that place. We also managed to meet up with Josef, a German biker we had met in Uzbekistan a while back. He was on his way back from Mongolia and he was riding with Marco and Mladen from Serbia. They were on two old Africa Twins and so we instantly had a lot to talk about. We decided to spend a day riding an offroad track to a lake together. There is nothing more fun than racing through some back country road without luggage, a perfect scenery and some great new friends!
The week went by real quickly and after some really nice last days in Russia we were finally getting ready to go to Mongolia!