Where is the Road Out ?

Day 75 Wednesday 15^th June 2011  

Fed up with vegetables for breakfast we both aimed for the cheese and meats but there was a serious lack of coffee which was only rectified later during the meal but was delayed by the fact that there were no cups – can’t have it all can we !

Today’s task was to walk our route out of the city to make sure that we knew which way to ride on the bikes (more bloody hills) and so we set off from the railway station heading north but not before taking another peek at the DongHae ferry which was due out of port this morning.

DongHae Ferry in Vladivostok Port

We found (or at least think we found) the route towards the airport at least that was the way that the airport bus was going. I asked a passer-by but it looked to us that perhaps this was the first time that he ever seen a detailed map of Vladivostok (up until 1990’s Vladivostok was a closed city which meant no foreigners and even Russians could not visit here and roads did not have place names or direction signs and it would have been illegal to give directions). Direction type signs are not present in the city so if you ever come don’t expect signs telling you which way the main road out of town is and my Russian map on my Garmin GPS is about as useful as a chocolate fireguard. Interesting times to follow we suspect.

When we got back to the hotel we saw Mattie and his pal in the c ar park but one of the Harley’s was being worked on by a couple of Russians as it would not start. Vienhard from a local biker club had taken Mattie to the ferry ticket office and he now has ferry tickets for him and his pal but not yet for their bikes. They could only get next week’s sailing for themselves but I think if I understood him right his bikes may have to follow 3 weeks later. We also met a Dutch traveller, Ad,  in the car park. He is riding a Harley as is his wife Rian and he is trying to get a container to take their bikes to Anchorage but he has been drawing a blank. There is a remote possibility at $10,000 but that is too much I think. We gave him Yuri’s telephone number and suggested he might consider Seattle as this route is more plentiful and cheaper.

Working on the starter motor of the Fin's bike

Ad and Rian's Harleys from Nederlands

And to round the day off we had an email from Yuri saying that the Russian shipping agent named by our US shippers as being the ones handling our bike container when it arrives know absolutely nothing about it. I fired off an email to the US Shipper Bob Erion so we will wait and see what happens – no point worrying about it !