Каргат – 10 km, better weather and worse roads
Overnight the wind started howling through the trees. I was pleased to discover it was going to be a day with tailwinds. It was nice and cool when I left. Today started with many open areas and good roads so the tailwinds made it easy to glide along. I see fields occasionally plowed but mostly open areas. Without much trouble I was at a cafe at 35km. One of the proprietors warned me here “Bad roads aheadâ€. “How many kilometers are bad?†“300â€. My expectations were set for the bumps ahead. The road stayed good until kilometer 59, including our crossing of the trains-Siberian tracks. After that occasional good patches but increasingly rough. The road is old concrete highway that has started to deteriorate, even when they put some loose asphalt on top.
A quick stop at 72km and then the last riding through more forested areas to 110km. Here was a large truck-stop area with a large ÑтоловаÑ, магазин, мотель and even a place that advertised for laundry! We replenished everything here. While it was still early, I had seen enough bumps for the day that we found a place to camp. We’ve now crossed the 80th meridian of longitude and are east of both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
112km today, 6647km across Eurasia. [Photo: 828, 829, 831]