Amsterdam to Vladivostok

Sunrise over Baikal. The water was calm and it was slightly cool as I left. I carefully carried my bike over the tracks as the line was very active last night, particularly between 4am and 5am. We were camped close to the tracks so would hear a loud thunder of trains as they passed.

The road started with many small hills. Again, I would switch to low gear, slowly climb the hill, descend and do it again. In hindsight, we had picked one of the better Baikal campsites as after this see saw less of the lake. At 16km I came through Боярская and after this the road became flatter and curved more inland. At 38km was a side road to the Selenga River delta and some more hills. The cafe at 42km was unfortunately closed. Hence, I kept cycling to 51km where I saw many vendors of fruit, potatoes and fish along the road. I bought and ate fresh raspberries and also sour cherries.

I was surprised Mickey hadn’t caught up with me yet. So I waited. Eventually she came. Her freewheel had started making a horrible racket, tick, tick, tick, particularly when it would spin free down a hill. It seemed to keep riding and became a little less loud, so she kept riding slowly.

We cycled on to 62km and had lunch at a small gas station beyond Каменск. The terrain became much flatter here but it also became warm with a slight headwind. We kept riding through small delta towns and at 98km turned into Югово. The girls in the photo below were friendly (but gigglely) but otherwise this was an unfriendly town. The store clerk was exceptionally surly/impatient. There were a set of juvenile delinquents hanging outside the store causing trouble. As they started whining about money, we became more strict with them. We also decided to cycle a ways out of town. Just as we left, Mickey had a flat rear tire. We pumped it up and fixed it down the road. We found a reasonable place to camp after that.

108km today, 9149km across Eurasia [Photo:1107, 1108]

Rain on my tent, but nice and dry inside. We also had some rain showers come through last night. Fortunately, the riding today was dry. We followed the shoreline of the lake with some climbs and descents, particularly in the first half of the day. The mountains came down to the lake and hence we would climb over the low ridges. The second part of the day we saw the lake less and it was also flatter.

I left Култук early and had quiet cycling through Слюдянка. After that there were a few steep hills to climb over. We could see the lake below and could also see the opposite shoreline. At 35km I refreshed my rear brake pad which had worn with all the hills. After this, we saw more people along the road selling strawberries as we came into the small town of Утулук. There was a cafe here at 42km. Not much further was the larger town of Байкальск with a large smokestack and factory and more strawberry vendors. The road turned inland after this and we didn’t see much of the lake. It was flatter cycling and we road to the oblast boundary and a cafe at 82km.

We went into Выдрино to find a store and refill on water. From here the road surface was a bit worse. We cycled out of town and found a place to camp along a small river. We had just enough time to get situated before the rain came.

108km today, 8962km across Eurasia [Photo:1087, 1088]

We’ve had a few rest days to look around Irkutsk. The first two nights in a hotel and last three nights in a hostel. Mostly looking around the city or relaxing. Plan is to leave 25th.

We walked through the city to find different possibilities for bicycle repairs and service. My bike seems to be running well enough and I didn’t really find a good mechanic to check things over, so didn’t bring it in for service. The problems I know about my bike are some cracks in the rear rim, need to replace brake pads and the chain is likely stretched. The plan is to do these items myself with some parts that are coming from the USA (including a newly built up rear wheel, new chain and new rear cassette). Mickey did bring her bike in to check on the derailer (was loose) and bottom bracket. The bottom bracket was replaced and all is well again.

After taking care of the bike service task, we found that “Fan Sport” is a good place to get iso-butane/propane gas for the gas stove. I picked up a gas stove as well as I suspect we’ll have fewer cafes after Chita and as it gets cooler may be nice to heat up soup or tea.

I’m looking forward to the road ahead including the gravel roads after Chita. Folks are happy to tell us things about this road including (1) ~1700 km construction zone with a few smooth gaps, lots of dust and a huge variety of road surfaces (2) most traffic will be heading west and consists of Japanese cars being imported into Siberia – if the car gets wrecked then there is no way to tow/repair it so a few burned cars are also along the way (3) Russian mafia stories of people preying on those driving the cars along, having a few cyclists together is a good idea. Just for fun, here is a recent report from a Fiat 500 expedition made in June 2007 of driving the road.

I’m not quite sure what to expect of this gravel road, so we’ll see once we get past Chita (and probably with some construction zones before then). That will be part of the adventure…We still have 1150km to get to Chita itself.

I stopped in at a natural history museum and saw stuffed versions of all these animals that we haven’t been seeing along the way. Both large predators such as wolves and bears and other animals such as deer, mink, weasels and the like. It is surprising how few of these animals such as deer or moose that we’ve seen in our cycling.

Irkutsk definitely has more tourists wandering the streets. They are easy to pick out (as are we). The hostel is also a nice place to meet folks. Most seem to be from Europe (Dutch, French, Swedish,…) and most are traveling the train with a stopover in Irkutsk/Baikal before going on to Mogolia and China. The hostel owner says many British tourists this year and fewer American tourists this year.

Irkutsk has the standard main streets (named Karl Marx and Lenin as in other cities) and a large lively market area. Behind the market area is a Chinese area. There is definitely a larger Chinese/Mongolian/Buryat and Asian presence here than we’ve seen in other Siberian cities. We saw a little in Krasnoyarsk but very little before then. Irkutsk also has a better collection of camping and sport shops than we’ve seen so far. Women’s fashion still includes high heels and short skirts, though less so here than further west.

Overall been a nice few rest days while we regroup, repack and get everything ready for the road ahead. I’m expecting it to get at least as challenging, particularly with the dirt roads. I’m guessing internet access in Ulan-Ude and Chita and then a big gap until we get closer to Khabarovsk so you may not hear about those gravel roads for a while.

Today we arrived in the city of Irkutsk. This was the goal for second part of the trip (first part was St Petersburg and third part will be from here to Vladivostok). It is nice to finally arrive here. Irkutsk is a popular tourist destination…the internet cafe is filled with German speaking, English speaking and Asian speaking peoples. My keyboard is set up not only for Russian and English but also Korean, Chinese and Japanese. One of the large attractions in this area is Lake Baikal. The closest point from here to Baikal is 70km. On our route it will be about 105km to Baikal. However, first we will take some rest days here and also get the bikes in top condition. For the third segment of the trip, my brother Bert will join us.

It was chaotic to cycle into the city of Irktutsk. Many trucks, cars and other traffic. We walked around to finally find a place to stay. We have a hostel reserved, but arrived two days before our reservation, so found another place first. Over the next few days, I plan to update the web pages and get photos as well.

The roads today were sometimes rough (little bumps). We crossed several drainages with some long climbs (big bumps). Overall, it was a good day of cycling. We’re starting to see more Asian and Mongol faces in people we see.

The morning started out as cool as we’ve had in the past two months. I could wear my wool hat and I wasn’t bothered by mosquitoes. The first 18km were to Зима. The road was fairly flat and went through agricultural areas with hay, wheat and grains. After crossing the Oka river, we had more climbs through forested areas. There was a long area without much settlement and hence I was happy to see a cafe in Тыреть at 49km.

From here a long climb of 10km and a brief downhill to lose the elevation again in descent to Залари. The road bypassed the town and then started climbing again up a broad valley. Here we had another cafe at 81km. After lunch more climbing and then ups and downs until we reached Кутулик at 102km. We walked into the village and found a pump house. We couldn’t figure it out, but some helpful children showed us how it worked and also showed us where to find the store. We left this town and climbed a hill across from town to camp. While it started out as a cold day, the sun on the tent makes me sweat now.

107km today, 8563km across Eurasia [Photo:1025, 1031]