КраÑноÑÑ€Ñк, welcome to the big city
An easy ride today into КраÑноÑÑ€Ñк. Last night we were close enough to the airport that we could hear an occasional jet taking off or landing. We had as many mosquitoes as I’ve seen anywhere. My legs and arms look like they have a rash from the bites (despite sheltering in the tent and otherwise trying to cover up). The roads were good quality and fairly light traffic. It also seemed like we had a slight downhill ride to the river. I quickly reached the first exit to the airport at 12km and then the second at 22km. The road became a wide four lane divided highway.
At 28km was an exit to a cafe. It smelled bad and somehow didn’t seem like the place to stop. I bought an orange and waited outside for Mickey. When she arrived we went to a better cafe at 37km. From here we climbed over a small hill and took the turnoff into town. Once we reached town, we followed the main road and then into the center. Without trouble we found the hotel. They had rooms and it wasn’t much hassle to rent. In comparison with other cities, first impressions are of a town with friendly people.
I did an initial walk around town. Saw many people out for a Sunday stroll. It was warm, so walking along the river and by the fountains were popular options. We’ll be here another rest day and hence chance to look around town some more. My great circle program shows 3104km to Vladivostok and 5354km to Amsterdam. The road ahead winds back and forth a lot more and we have the unpaved roads coming after another 2000km, but it is nice to be slowly getting closer to Vladivostok. We’re even closer to Beijing at 2486km.
51km today, 7658km across Eurasia. [Photo: 931, 933, 934]
Hope that picture was not of your butt. Robin says you’re looking kinda skinny, or is it just that the size of the beard now shrinks everything else?
This has been my first visit in a while to your site. Been far too busy! Still interesting to read and glad you got more pictures in there. Also nice to see Mickey in one.
We refer to this town as K since we can’t even pronounce it. Looks like a modern city in every way….did you take a photo of the girl in the short-shorts on purpose?
How many km do you plan to average on the gravel roads and how many hours (or what kind of pace I guess)?
What kind of temps are there also?
Are you doing any camping? I read alot about hotels only. What kind of cost for a room in US dollars? Also, if you want, we could send you a couple of bottles of mosquito repellent with 100% DEET. Give me a town couple of weeks out and I can try general delivery.
Keep the journal coming and take care.
Ed H.
PS Robin is threatening everyone with a Fort Collins trivia ride next year so you got that to look forward to when you get back (Oh Boy!).
Ed asks all the difficult questions…
I’ll leave you to guess what part of my body that was a picture of. Fortunately, we’ve been having fewer insect problems this past week or so. I think it is a combination of having less rain and also one or two chilly nights. Hard to believe, but I expect by later in August or September we’ll be done with insects and instead be thinking of frost on the tent. Right now our night-temperaturs are perhaps 50F and daytime in 80F.
In the cities, it is difficult to not have photos of women in short shorts, or high heels. Somehow the womens fashion here is much more with high heels and tight short clothes. We’ve seen this as well in the small cow towns (where they literally walk the cows down the main streets), though less.
We actually camp most of the time. For example, from the “K-town” you describe to here, we traveled about 1100 km in 11 days and stayed in a hotel one night and in tent the other ten nights. It is only in the larger cities when we take our rest days that we find a hotel. The prices vary some on hotels. In K-town, we paid $20/person but then had a shared room with others. Here in Irkutsk we have $50/person the first two nights and then $25/person in a hotel the next two nights. Russia is not a budget location, so the hotel rooms can add up some. Hence, it is nice to camp on those nights between.
On the pavement, we are typically “on the road” for about 8 hours between 7am and 2 or 3pm in the afternoon. That “on the road” includes all our stops for lunch or other cafe stops. It also includes time at the end to fetch water and find a campsite. We’ll need to see how much time and what pace we do on the gravel roads. If the gravel is good, I suspect the pace could be almost what we do now (since there won’t be many cafes to stop and distract us) but I think we’ll just need to see what is possible.