Today we made a great leap forward, some by auto transport. It was nice to get on the road after a day and a half of sickness and rain. Mickey was still feeling a little weak but better. The road continued to be just as challenging with loose gravel over hardened surfaces and a hill to start. With some lost time and a lot more of the rough road, we discussed the possibility of taking a train from Ерофей Павлович in 100km or two days ride. We tried stopping a car or two, but it wasn’t promising as most traffic was heading the other way or going short distances.

As we cycled along, there was mist. We had our first cafe at 10km. It was crowded with cars, a sign of either good food or a large gap until the next cafe. They told us no cafe until Ерофей so at least expected a big gap. On the next stretch just as I remarked at how flat it was, we had several hills come up. Fortunately, we also rounded one of these hills and saw a cafe at 30km and stopped for lunch.

After lunch, a few hills and I started climbing a large hill. Mickey was behind on this climb. At 39km, I looked back as I passed marker km764 (from Chita) and saw a large auto transport pull up and stop. Tied down was Mickey’s bike. She had flagged down Valerie and Victor and gotten a lift. We tied my bike up too.

It was nice in the cab of the 18-wheeler (technically, 14-wheeler since the last four weren’t double). They were making a 7-day run to pick up a new load of cars to Krasnoyarsk. Their cab had two bunks in back, and even linoleum on the floor. Rule was to take your shoes off inside. We had brief conversation along the way in limited Russian. It was still slow and bumpy, though a lot faster. We stopped briefly at the Amur oblast boundary at 30km and again at a cafe near Урша. Here we saw religious procession walking from Vladivostok to Moscow.

We came past large scale construction near Невер. Many bridges were being built and lots of dirt was being dumped. It was impressive, though would have been difficult to get through on a bicycle without walking. Finally as the sun was almost down, we passed a river. The truck stopped to change drivers. We took the opportunity to jump off as well. They wouldn’t take money for the ride, though we insisted and gave them some. We were at km1027, so had hitchhiked 263km past some of the worst road sections. We cycled another kilometer before setting up camp as it was getting dark.

40km today + 263km hitchhiking, 10680km cycling across Eurasia [Photo: 147, 148, 154, 155, 160, 163]

Posted by john as Siberia, Far East, Amur Highway at 7:00 AM EDT

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Today a quiet rest near Амазар. Mickey still wasn’t feeling well and it started to rain. Our campsite was in a good location (dry, away from the road, close to town/store/cafe). All these combined to say, take another day of rest here.

I read my Dostoevsky novel and wandered into town during the afternoon. There are six or seven shops, two large apartment flats, a school, two Lenin statues, a train station and too many log cabins to count.

We might skip some of this gravel by taking the train at the next reasonable opportunity. The tricky spot is finding places for the bikes.

0km today, 10640km across Eurasia [Photo: 135, 141, 142, 144]

Posted by john as Siberia, Amur Highway at 8:37 AM EDT

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Last night Mickey had been up all night sick. With exception of someone fetching water at 12:30am, I slept soundly. Perhaps it was tainted water? Perhaps something else? We’re not sure. We waited this morning until things were stable before setting off.

We cycled 17km to the turnoff to Амазар. Someone told us the next cafe was still 10km further, so we instead went into town. The village had a few large concrete apartment blocks and otherwise many wooden cabins. There were several shops and we stopped at the first to refill on provisions.

Mickey still wasn’t feeling well, so we went to the train station to inquire about possibility of skipping some of the roughest road. As best we could understand the helpful lady, the baggage train didn’t stop here but instead at the next town 100km further. It would be a shame to skip some of the route – though we both thought this section was worse than normal. In any case, it wasn’t going to be.

We instead cycled back to the main road, and found a place to camp not far from the bridge and had a quiet day.

26km today, 10640km across Eurasia [Photo: 128, 130]

Posted by john as Siberia, Amur Highway at 11:51 PM EDT

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It rained during our rest day yesterday. Early morning showers with thunder and lightning. Enough to knock out power a few times and perhaps the reason the internet cafe wasn’t working in the morning. However, dry after that.

We left with morning mist and saw remnants of showers the day before. We took the back roads to Тадтугары rather than immediately back to the federal highway. This meant 6km of asphalt before turning to a gravel road parallel to the railroad tracks. It was nice, quiet and familiar ride with one or two rough streams to cross and some large puddles to go around. Sorry to have Bert leave and not join us in this part of the trip.

Тадтугары was a quiet village but we found the main street and a small store. We then asked directions and reached the federal highway at 31km. It started as a reasonable ride, but soon found ourselves back on hard washboard surfaces with large stones. The road didn’t have many large hills but surfaces still made for slow riding. Most cars were polite though a few drove fast and close, throwing up obnoxious amounts of dust.

At 53km we reached Семиозерныи and a nice cafe. Mickey’s map indicated there might be a service road next to the tracks and we decided to give it a go. It took us 1km to get to the tracks and another 2km of the service road to give up. It was quickly becoming impassible and we backtracked to the federal highway. It was a slow and dusty ride. We stopped at 78km (post “700”) for water and then it took us another 6km to find a campsite. This area has a lot of marshy ground or bumpy permafrost so it is difficult to just go into the woods and camp. It was a long and tiring day.

84km today, 10614km across Eurasia [Photo: 124, 126]

Posted by john as Siberia, Amur Highway at 11:42 PM EDT

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We have taken a much needed rest day in town of Могоча. The town has 15,500 people, two hotels and otherwise is a small eastern Siberian town. So far we cycled 432km of gravel roads from Чита, though reports are this and the next 800km are the toughest cycling. Today we bought food, fixed bicycles (front rack on my bike, new brake pads on Mickey’s bike). Bert joined us in cycling these last eight days from Чита. Today he took the train back to Иркутск. Sorry to see him go since it was more fun with three on the road than two. We also lost our Russian speaker, so back to simple speech and hand gestures with my Russian. Tomorrow plan is to take off again heading east.

Posted by mev as Siberia, Amur Highway at 5:55 PM EDT

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Today we continued following the old road past small settlements and into the larger town of Могоча. The road continued to occasionally be rough, though it was considerably flatter. This along with the lure of a hotel room at end of the day kept us going for further distance than before.

We continued the pattern of waking early and getting on the road. After 7km we passed Кислый Ключ. We hoped for store here, but didn’t see one and it was also still early. We crossed under the tracks and continued to next town of Чадонка at 16km. We did find a store here, but it didn’t open for an hour and a half. After this point, the road became a little rougher. It was hard to get lost here as the road very closely followed the tracks. I think we saw more trains today than automobiles. We waved at them and got train whistles back. The automobiles we did slowed down enough, so not much in the way of dust today. At 38km we briefly added a 4km extra ride since we thought there might be a store in Пеньковая. After the initial report of a store here, the next two autos told us no, so we turned back.

At 56km we came upon a set of railroad workers. They had stopped, made a fire and cooked their lunch. They invited us to join them for tea. After this, we started to get closer to Могоча and had idea we might make it today. We kept riding slowly. At 67km we crossed the tracks again – and we came upon asphalt. It was rough asphalt, but still smoother than gravel we had. The last few km it turned back to gravel. Bert’s back rack broke here, so we had to adjust the panniers.

It was nice to make our way into Могоча. We stopped to visit both hotels and stopped in to make a reservation for two nights. Nice to make a stop here for two nights and recuperate after 432km of gravel roads so far. Bert has finished his ride and will take the train back to Irkutsk from here.

82km today, 10530km across Eurasia [Photo: 1231, 1233]

Posted by john as Siberia, Amur Highway at 6:43 PM EDT

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Today we rode the road less traveled and it made a big difference. Not much difference in our average speed or total distance, but a difference in experience. The road was narrower. It had fewer long slow grades but the hills it had were steeper. One long hill today and the rest were small hills.

Last night something nabbed my food bag. I had a stuff sack from my sleeping bag with a loaf of bread, crackers, chocolate and other foods. The stuff sack and all were gone. I looked for it and didn’t find it nearby. I ate some trail mix and set off down the road.

We had a nice quiet road with a few ups and downs. At 13km began a long slow hill. At first it was possible to ride, but afterwards I ended up walking the top of the hill which came a little past 16km. The descent was slow since it was rocky. We had more level stuff and Ксеньевка at 30km. We waited for Mickey and then found a cafe and store in town near the railroad station at 33km.

It took a little bit to find our way out of town. A helpful motorist led the way. This included fording a river without a bridge. After this the road was a little flatter but also had more loose gravel and it became warmer. We stopped briefly to fix a flat in Bert’s bike and stopped under a railroad bridge for lunch at 50km before riding a little further to finish the day.

66km today, 10448km across Eurasia [Photo: 1223, 1229]

Posted by mev as Siberia, Amur Highway at 6:41 PM EDT

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It sounds like a broken record, but we had another tough day of cycling on the gravel road. It seems like they dumped a fresh load of gravel on this road. This accompanied with climbs made for a slow ride. Even the downhills were slow since we had to be careful to avoid sliding.

It was foggy when we left. We all left close to the same time. I cleared my glasses a few times due to the mist. At 9km, the fog began to lift and we briefly saw a rainbow. At 18km we reached the first top of the hill. We had a steep descent and then followed a stream downhill. We started the next climb around 27km and reached another top at 32km. From here a descent to 44km. By now there were many cars raising dust.

It was getting hot again as we had more climbs and descents before reaching a cafe at Сбега turnoff at 56km. After a filling lunch, we headed into town. We decided to take the old road from here to Могоча rather than the new one. This was in part because we were told ~150km of road without cafe and wanted to try something different than our dusty road. We’ll see how that part of the adventure goes.

First we rode around town to find a store, refilled on provisions and water. Bert discovered two more screws missing from his bike. I discovered that my front cycling rack had broken. This is likely the same problem that Herman Veldhuizen had with the same rack. I used the same remedy of shifting the rack further forward.

71km today, 10382km across Eurasia [Photo: 1219, 1221]

Posted by mev as Siberia, Amur Highway at 6:39 PM EDT

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Two things made for tough cycling today: there was a lot of loose gravel on the road and the road itself went across a number of hills. When climbing the hills there were already signs up marking the grades as well as the start and end of climbing lanes. Marking lanes themselves was a bit silly since there are no lanes on the gravel road and oncoming traffic seems to drive where it pleases.

We left in the cool morning. There were once again some mosquitoes. Within the first few kilometers we started out climb. We had several other climbs and a few descents before reaching a cafe at 22km. All the cars in the parking lot were right hand steering wheels. All the patrons in the cafe (except Mickey) were men and all the staff were women. I think we might have been the only ones traveling eastbound.

After breakfast we had a little of the descent back. There was unfortunately a lot of loose gravel. At one point Mickey hit a large rock and went down scraping up her knee a bit. We continued slowly on this loose stuff. It was getting hotter and a slow trudge. At 49km we stopped at a small railroad station town at Зудыра. Bert noticed several screws missing from his rack. Fortunately we had some spares.

From here we decided to go to the next large river. Replies to our “next cafe” question gave us an idea we might find one there. It was a 7km climb to start and then mostly soft gravel. Fortunately, there was a cafe at 69km and the river at 71km. We found a nice place to camp after a tough day.

71km today, 10311km across Eurasia [Photo: 1215, 1217]

Posted by mev as Siberia, Amur Highway at 6:37 PM EDT

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They are building a new road from Chita to Khabarovsk. It was the announcement of the “opening” of this road in 2004 that sparked the idea for this ride. Today we saw some of the new road and even cycled across fresh tar as they were busy paving. It total 24km of gravel and 72km of asphalt. (I put “opening” in quotes since the road is far from complete and because there were already ways to get through some years before 2004).

We awoke a little before sunrise and were quickly on the road. The road this morning had a smooth surface. It was so smooth that I started to wonder after 12km if we had transitioned to a very poorly surfaced asphalt road. Yesterday we had multiple conflicting reports of exactly when the asphalt might start.

However, at 17km we had our answer when we reached kilometer post 277. Wow, pavement! It was a welcome and sudden change. The smooth road went past agricultural areas with hay fields, wheat and cows. It also went across some gradual ups and downs with a big drop at 24km followed by a 3km climb at 26km. This all made for a quick ride and our first cafe stop in Чернышевск. After lunch we cycled through town with stops at a store. Leaving town we had 3km of gravel before reaching the new road. The new road was wide and smooth. It was freshly paved (15km later they were still busy paving the second layer of asphalt) and was not yet striped. The grades were gradual though it climbed several hills. At 72km we got stripes.

We made good progress to Жирекен at 92km. Here we stopped at a second cafe for the day. This was also where the road changed back to gravel. We rode 4km of the new dusty road before stopping for the day. Nice to have a break from the gravel roads today.

96km today, 10240km across Eurasia [Photo: 1205, 1206, 1210, 1214]

Posted by john as Siberia, Amur Highway at 6:26 PM EDT

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