On Our Way at LAst

Day 98 Friday 8^th July 2011

We were too excited to eat breakfast so we had a cup of coffee and had a chat and a goodbye with Jim, Barbara, John, Amanda and little Lana. We were also joined by a young lady from Switzerland who had spent some weeks in China and was now on her way to Mongolia.

We checked out and were surprised that we were able to get a refund for our one night of unused stay at the Hotel Vladivostok, 2800 roubles (around £60) is not to be sneezed at ! We finished loading the bikes and got on, started the engines and we were off. First stop – fuel. We knew that there was a fuel station on Svetlanskya Street so we headed there and made our first Benzin fill of the Russian trip. Tanks full we head off in search of the east coast road out of Vladivostok. We knew all about the west coast road to the airport – one big construction site so we took the lesser of two evils and chose the back road. We aimed for the hot water factory, easily seen from Vladivostok town centre with its three big chimneys and after a couple of false turns we were on the road to Artem. It wasn’t long before we reached our first taste of road construction Russian style which has no UK comparison. A section of the road is dug up and a sort of mud/sand/hard rock base is laid and you have to find the best way through the potholes, puddles and ruts but, even so, this road is still better than the main route out of Vladivostok where the construction runs for a good 60 kilometres. The road finished at a T junction manned by a DPS policeman (road traffic) and I stopped and asked him which way to Khabarovsk. He looked amazed and said “impossible”  and something else which I took to mean “bad road”. I said OK but which way and he pointed towards the left so off we went. About 30 kilometres further on we reached the outskirts of Vladivostok and a quick look at the map revealed that we had gone north out of the city and had now been directed west back to the main route. We did an about turn and passed the police guy who waved to tell us that we were going the wrong way but our map said otherwise so we carried on. We were proved right when we reached Artem, a busy large town close to the airport and here we picked up the signs for Khabarovsk that took us to the interchange that we had seen on our way from the airport a month or so ago – we were on the right road, the M60. I use the word “road” cautiously as a lot of the route is nothing more that construction and, once again, no coned off areas to follow just each man for himself through the dust and dirt.

We survived the onslaught of the first bad section and from there onwards we hit more and more roadworks.   We stuck together through all the hard sections but on a particularly busy part Mark had overtaken some trucks. We were just entering the town of Spassk-Dalinsk so speed had to be lowered and I followed the convoy until we got to the other side then overtook the line of vehicles but there was no Mark to be found. I rode a further 10 miles or so continually talking into the two way connection that we have in our helmets but I got no reply. I stopped at the roadside and waited for ten minutes or so then decided that either Mark had pulled off the road or I had passed him and not spotted him so I turned around and went back to the last place that I remember seeing him. No Mark !  Shit. I have the phone and map but he has the water and most of the money, ah, but I have a debit card so will be able to get to an ATM if necessary. I decided that the best thing to do was to carry on. I retraced my route and it was a good twenty miles or so before I spotted the outline of a bike coming the opposite direction – it was Mark and we were reunited.

It was around 6pm, we were now tired so we started to look for a “gastinista” which is the Russian word for a hotel/guesthouse but there was nothing to be found. We stopped at a couple of places by the road to find a place to camp but, again, there was nothing secluded enough to keep us hidden from view and possible unwanted attention. A good three hours passed and the light was fading so, after a particularly bad section of roadworks with wet sand and mud all surrounded by deep potholes in the fading light, we stopped at a cafe for a coffee and I said to the lady “palatna” and “spat” which translates as tent and sleep. She said yes and so for the price of a coffee we pitched our tent in the corner of the cafe car park. It was now dark and putting a tent up in the dark with the mosquitoes buzzing around you is an unpleasant experience especially as the pitch is also a layer of wet mud over hardcore. We managed it though and after a failed attempt to light Mark’s petrol stove we gave up and went to bed – we had not eaten at all today.

Rough camping in far eastern Siberia