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 ahead”. “How many kilometers are bad?” “300”. 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 столовая, 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]

Posted by mev in Siberia