Trans Sibir eXpedition 2012

[EtronX]

You might expect that when you travel through the wilderness of the Sakha Republic you would meet lots of wild animals. The area is vast. Yakutia is the largest subnational governing body, by area, in the world. Just slightly smaller than India. If Yakutia was a country it would be the eight largest in the world :huh The area is huge. So is the wilderness. When you leave Tomtor you have almost 400 kilometers of nothing before you arrive at Susuman. Nothing except some of the most beautiful areas that I have ever ridden on a bike :clap

Before we left the mother land we were extensively briefed on what to do if we encountered bears. The morale of the story was to turn around and go back the same way you came. Never to pass the bear. This sounded good to us, and we told our anxious briefer that we would keep this in mind if those matters were to arise

What struck me on the trip, when we were in the middle of nothing, was the absence of wild life. We saw basically no wild animals. Only a few eagles maybe. No mammals of any kind. This surprised me a bit since we had heard lots about, and seen on TV, the extensive wild life of the region. I guess when you, as an animal, have the choice you tend to stay away from the roads and the noise from them. You have such a large area to roam and staying close to humans just don't make sense. Even though the roads are very sparsely frequented by mankind.

The first serious encounter we had was not long before the border between Yakutia and Magadan. It was standing tall in the middle of the road. Showing us who was the boss




Our second encounter was of a more interesting kind. Erik and I were driving up front. Erik in front of me. We had just crossed a small stream and heading up a small hill. Just as we came over the top I saw it. Erik didn't at first. He saw a big rock in the middle of the road. Then the rock moved and started to run out to the right and up a small hill. We stopped about three to four meters from a bear :eek1 It was a small cub.

I will now describe the scenery around us. Straight ahead was the road, where the bear had just seconds ago been enjoying his quiet little moment. To the right, where the bear went, there were some marsh. Maybe 20 meters wide before it was a fairly steep hill with sparse vegetation. To the left of the road there were dense small trees. About three meters high. I think it was birch. You could see for about 30 centimeters to the left. It was a bad place to be at the moment :huh

The bear ran up the hill for a few meters and then stopped. I noticed it was looking over us and slightly behind us. I suspected it was looking for mama bear. All 400 kilos of her. Erik went into default mode and did as he was told. He started to turn the bike around on the narrow road. By the direction the bear looked I had no intention of going back. I screamed to Erik to continue straight ahead. He had now turned the bike about 90 degrees, with his nose facing the dense vegetation. I passed behind him and went straight for about 50 meters, then I stopped. I had to get this bear on video

Since Erik had done the turn in quite some hurry he had managed to rip of an electrical wire of some kind on his handlebars. As he got the bike straight again it wouldn't start :kboom

He got his hands into warp speed, and after what seemed like an eternity, got the wire connected, the bike fired up and then he screamed passed me. I was now filming the cub. As I did this thoughts went through my mind on what to do if mama bear decided to show up for the party. I figured I had to lay down with the bike on top of me and hope that she would go for the bike and not me. When I look at the video afterwards the filming was pretty steady for about 12 seconds. Then I started to wiggle. I was now seriously looking for mama. I filmed for 18 seconds before I decided it was time to get the hell out of Dodge. I packed up the camera and drove for a few hundred meters where I met up with Erik. We were both pretty stoked and high on adrenaline from just having almost ran over a bear :rofl The picture below is a frame from the video. Hence the quality

[EtronX]

That day we rode for 12 hours. Due to a late start we were in our tents just after midnight. We wanted to reach the Hunters Camp marked on Walters waypoints, but it got dark and we decided to call it a day. It had been the most magnificent day. The scenery was stunning. We crossed lots of rivers and the Trans Sibir eXpedition members worked great together. I was pretty shot so I jumped straight into the tent. Downloading all the pictures and video onto my Mac. Erik and Steve got a small campfire going and sat chatting for a while. Before I went to bed we agreed on that if we got rain we would break camp and press on, no matter what time it was. We had two major rivers to cross before the end of the road. We wanted to do that the next day. If it started to rain the rivers would go up fast and they would stay tall for many days. This is due to the permafrost. The water will not be absorbed by the ground, but rather just stay on the surface. We couldn't risk that.




At around five in the morning the next day I heard drumming on the tent. "Fhat the Wuck". It took a few moments before I realized what the sound was; Rain :dog I screamed: "Incoming" and we broke camp in ten minutes. After about 10 to 15 clicks we came to the first river of the day, and the second last on the Old Summer Road. The water level was fairly high and we used about an hour to get the bikes across.

When you get a combat awakening in the morning and jump into cold wet riding gear, you don't get the best start of the day. You immediately get cold and it takes some time to get the system up and running. When we jumped into the river to recce it, it was bloody cold. The water felt like glacier water. It could not have been a degree over 3 degree Celsius. It took about ten seconds and the felling in the legs was gone. First it felt like needles, then nothing.

When on the other side we got on the bikes and pressed on. All of us with mild hypothermia. I was sitting in my own little world debating with myself if I could go on or if I had to get the tent up, undress and get into my sleeping bag. I was shivering badly and my teeth were rattling so bad I was afraid they might leave their sockets. I made a mental note to self that if we had to cross one more river it was a "no go" for me. That would be dangerous. I zoomed out on the Garmin and there was one more river to cross before Hunters Camp, W97. My heart dropped :uhoh Where was the sun of yesterday??? Where was the cuddly little bear. He looked warm...

When we got to the river there was a bridge over it. My heart got back on its feet again. I could not have been more happy. I decided I would make it to Hunters Camp :clap

We got to the camp pretty early in the morning. No one was awake. We drove back and forth for a while and finally one of the locals put his head out of his living quarters. He came out in his undies, looking a bit confused. He saw that we were pretty cold and invited us inside.




There were only two rooms in the garage he stayed in. One bigger room that served as storage room and one smaller room that was the bedroom. In the latter there was a monster oven and a bed raised about one meter off the floor.The hunter cranked up the oven for us and brought us some warm tea. Just what the doctor ordered :clap We got our boots of and soon the feeling started to come back in the feet and the rest of the body. Again we got the best of Russian hospitality :clap




We had a little chat with our host. He lived out here for most of the year. Including the winter. Hunting and fishing. Take a closer look at the pictures above. This is his house. This is where he lives and functions when the temperature drops to minus 60 C. RESPECT!!!

We told him that our plan was to cross the last hurdle of the OSR, the Arkagala River. He had bad news when he heard our plans. There had been no trucks crossing the river for four days and he expected none for at least two days. The Arkagala was high and there was no way we would get across with our bikes. Somehow we felt we had heard this story before We thanked him for his tea and hospitality and said we would drive to the river and have a look. We shook hands and his look was one of: "I will see you guys again later today". He might not have meet Vikings before 3

[EtronX]

We left our host after a short hour. Warm and feeling good. It was about 60 k's to the river and we were following another river it most of the way. The roads were good and the rain had stopped.

We came to the river and there was a pretty long bridge there. From our side it looked OK. Maybe not good enough for big Kamaz and Ural's, but certainly good enough for some light bikes. I had also lost some weight on the trip so I should be OK to




We got of our bikes and started to recce the bridge. As normal on the OSR and BAM the bridge ended in thin air. There was a gap of maybe 80 meters in it. No joy. We had to ford the damn thing. As we were standing on the bridge we heard some noises. There was definitively a vehicle coming. By the sound of it it from the other side of the river. Maybe a big Kamaz and maybe we could hitch a ride over The Kamaz truned out to be an old Lada Niva. It was spitting and coughing when it came across, and the driver had to stop in order to empty the air intake. This was good news for us. Could he pass, could we pass :rofl

We drove down to have a chat with the guy. He told us that the water came just over his bonnet, but he doubted we would get across on the bikes. The current was to strong. He had been a passenger at the front wheel in his car when crossing. Drifting quite a bit down stream. This sounded like modus operandi for us. We get told it is impossible, then we go 3 In my former life someone told me:

"Never give up!
Go over, go under, go around or go through.
But never give up!"




It was time to get wet again :huh We drove down to the river, and into the river we dived




Steve did a very good job reccing the river. We were the support crew on the shore while he went back and forth. Sometimes I was sure we had to start running downstream in order to fish him up :eek1 The current was strong. The local Niva guy had got that part right.




After about an hour Steve was done and said: "Guys, it is not so much worse than some of the others we have crossed. I think it is possible."


As said, as done. We first got Steve's bike over. Then the rest :clap










You get wet crossing rivers. GoreTex or not, your feet will get wet. I used my old army boots when crossing. They are comfortable to wear and they dry out fast.




When we had gotten all our stuff over the river we changed clothes and sat down for a bit. Then it dawned on us. We had done it :clap The two major challenges on the trip was conquered. We had done the BAM and we had done the Old Summer Road :deal Not to get to spiritual here, but I felt welcome on the OSR. I had a very good feeling riding it

[EtronX]

After the Arkagala River we were now cruising First stop was the vacated town of Kadykchan. An old coal mining town. Kadykchan, in translation from the Even language, means “The Valley of Death”. The reason for this name are the underground lakes in the valley. Sometimes they erupt to the surface pretty unexpected and at random places. The natives thought the place to be bewitched.




About 7.000 people used to live in Kadykchan. Most of the inhabitants used to work in two coal mines close to the town. That was the only work available in the region. One day there was an accident in one of the coal mines and 6 workers died. After that the mine was closed. Not long after the second mine was closed as well. The people of the town were offered from 80.000 to 120.000 rubles to move out of town and relocated to other areas. Some did and some didn't. Then in the midst of the winter the officials cut off the electricity supply and disconnected all the buildings from the central heating system. No everyone moved :eek1 The private houses were then burnt down in order to prevent people from returning. These days there is only one man living in Kadykchan. An old man with his two dogs. We never met him.




It was strange driving round in this town. All the abandoned houses gave the place an eery feel. At the same time I felt watched :huh






We drove around for an hour looking at all the places and taking photos. Steve suggested that we should spend the night there, but both Erik and I felt that a nice clean bed and some cold beers would far outweigh camping that night




We left Kadykchan and set course for Susuman. On the way we stopped by Myaundzha to say hello to Adrian's rescuers. Long story short. They were nice and gave us some food and drink, but they were not overly impressed with all the foreigners driving the Old Summer Road. They thought it a bit stupid and dangerous doing that. Ohhh well, you win some and you loose some

[EtronX]

The Russian gas stations in the boonies are not quite what we are used to in our neck of the woods In Russia you park your bike by the pumps and the you go to the cashier, who usually sits behind solid glass. Then you state the amount of cash you want fill for, or the liters you want, and put money in a small drawer. The cashier takes the money and/or gives you change back, starts the pumps and you can start filling up. We usually broke their routine doing this. We filled up all three bikes together and never knew how many liters or Rubles it would be. One of us just went to the cashier and put 2.000 Rubles in the drawer. Showed three fingers and turned around. Lots of talking and asking followed. We just went to the bikes and started filling up. When done we came back and got the change. that worked every time

One piece of advice though. When you take the pump make sure the pistol is closed. If it isn't and the cashier cranks up the pump you will have gasoline spraying all over the place. In the picture below Steve has just tried that. The only bad thing was that he hosed himself down with gasoline. In his face and in his eyes :eek1 Luckily we had lots of drinking water with us and could immediately flush his eyes and face with clean water. That saved the day, but Steve had that wild funny look in his eyes for the next few days :rofl

[EtronX]

After a good nights sleep in Susuman, for the last time on this great adventure, we saddled up the bikes. Our next and last goal was Magadan. Some 730 kilometers from Susuman. It was a strange day. The weather started out nice. Just some minor adjustments was needed on the luggage




It was quiet riding all the way. We just enjoyed the fact that it looked like we were about to reach our goal. Crossing our continent from West to East. Driving all the way from Norway to Magadan. Almost 18.000 kilometers, give and take a few. 8.000 of them off road and no major incidents or accidents :clap The fun part is that Erik had the first and only puncture, amongst the Trans Sibir Team, some 120 clicks from Magadan. For 18.000 kilometers we had had only one puncture. That is pretty amazing considering the roads we rode and the way we rode.




We passed the town of Atka where we just had to take a picture




Then it started to rain. The mother of all rain came to visit. The last hour in to Magadan was spent driving in the dark and in the rain. I saw diddely squat. We just hooked onto a car and followed its tail lights :huh Due to the rain we didn't quite get the feeling of arriving proper into Magadan. We just got to a hotel and crashed sometime after 1 am.

The next day we went back and took this picture




:clap WE DID IT :clap

[EtronX]

As we left Yakutsk Walter came to me. He gave me three of the Gold Road of Bones patches he has designed and made up. This is the proof that we have done the Road of Bones via the Old Summer Road. When, and if, we made to Magadan I was to give one each to Erik and Steve. If we didn't make it I had to promise to send them back to him and he would send me the silver ones if we instead did the M56. This is what it looks like




In Magadan there is a very good steak house called, guess what, the Steak House 3 We came to Magadan on a Sunday. Well, technically it was a Monday due to the late hours. Anyway, we went to the steak house on that monday. There we had the largest steak they had and some good Italian wine to go with it. After the meal I held a little speech for the guys. Thanked them for their company and their courage on this trip. Then, on behalf of Mr. Colebatch, I distributed the patches. It was a big moment for us all, and I wear mine with great pride :clap

[EtronX]

This is our complete route




Then some statistics from my sometimes meandering mind :deal

• We left Norway on the 1st of July.
• We came back to Norway on the 26th of August.
• We rode some 18.000 kilometers total.
• We rode some 8.000 kilometers off road.
• The longest stretch we did in one day was 1117 kilometers.
• We crossed 10 time zones.
• On the trip my bike used an average of 0.4 liters per 10 kilometers.
• We stayed 21 days in a tent.
• Amazingly we had only one puncture between us on the whole trip :clap
• We had 8 days of riding in the rain
• I got a total of 11 mosquito bites on my balls :eek1
• We had some Vodka :freaky
• We met an amazingly amount of friendly and helpful Russians :clap
• We made some great friends
• We can confirm that you can ship your bike directly from Magadan to Norway :deal
• I only drowned my bike once :huh
• I changed oil two times. One because of the above mentioned submariner :rofl
• I am the first, and the only one, to ride the Magadan panniers to Magadan :clap
• We were stopped by the Police twice. No drama, just showing papers :deal
• We were never asked for bribes
• Russian girls knows how to wear high heels
• I lost 8 kilos of body mass on the trip :norton
• I rode the Vitim Bridge

Thats all that comes of the top of my mind right now. I will post one more post regarding the days in Magadan and the arrangement of the shipping of the bikes :deal

[EtronX]

We did spend five days in Magadan. Through Adrian, which we met in Yakutsk, we got in contact with Olga Izotova. She runs an adventure company specializing in hunting and fishing trips and trips to the Gulags amongst other things. She also coordinated a lot of stuff for the BBC when they did some story about Tomtor in the winter.




Hotels in Magadan are pretty expensive and through Olga we rented an apartment for a few days. At a fraction of the cost of staying in a hotel.




When we were in Yakutsk Bolot told me that he had met a few Norwegians passing through Yakutsk on their way to Magadan in some old Land Cruisers. He even had a phone number. I rang the number and Audun answered in the other end. He was planning to ship his car home. We agreed on meeting in Magadan.

Our original plan, and the only way of shipping stuff out of Magadan, was to ship our bikes to Vladivostok by container. I know that someone previously (Walter) had managed to put the bike on the deck of the boat, but that option was now supposed to be impossible. So we were to ship the bikes and fly down to Vladivostok and wait there. This would take a week or two. Then when the bikes arrived in Vladivostok we would repack them in a new container and ship them to Norway. Then we would fly home. This would ad another two to three weeks to our trip. Just waiting :huh I wasn't too keen on that.

The reason you can't ship abroad directly from Magadan it that Magadan has no customs service, and therefore you can not ship directly abroad.


Anyway, the first few days we just wandered around in Magadan. Had some nice food




Then we met up with Ilya, Katja and Alexander and had a few beers at the Green Crocodile Pub :freaky




We went up to Maska Skorbi and had a look.



It was a very spacial place to be.




Olga was our guide and we met some locals.




They were celebrating something and when in Rome we did as the Romans :clap




Anyway, back to the shipping issue. We did some research and figured out that it should be possible to ship directly from Magadan to Norway. We contacted Yuri in Vladivostok. Yuri is "the" man in Vladivostok when it comes to bikers. He is mentioned in a lot of different forums and everyone gives him the best recommendations :deal

In order to ship something from Magadan and through Vladivostok you have to be in Vladivostok in person in order to do the customs. Thats the main rule. That was not really an option for us. Our trip was done and for us to just wait in Vladivostok for two to three weeks was not an option. After lots of back and forth we concluded that it was possible to ship from Magadan as long as we empowered someone in Vladivostok to act on our behalf and it seemed like Yuri was our man. The problem was that we had to arrange all the paperwork in Magadan :huh

We can order food in Russian, but arranging transport documents and going to government offices was a far fetch. We needed help and help we got in form of a very nice blond girl called Tanya Sorry no pictures

Tanya was the one Ewan and Charlie used when they came to Magadan. Tanya was effectiveness personated. We spent one day running around to different offices and finally we got a notarius publicus to sign the official paper.




What we had to do was to empower Yuri to act on our behalf with regards to the bikes. That also meant that he could sell the bikes if he wanted to :huh Based on what we had read Yuri was a man to be thrusted and we did that. We got the letter and sent it to Yuri.




That was it :clap Now all we had to do was to pack the bikes in the container. We needed three bikes and one Land Cruiser in one 20' container. It was a bit short :rofl I demounted my bike and then put it in the back of the car. Along with all the rest of our stuff.




Then we fitted the whole lot into the container My bike in the back of the car. Steve's bike over the hood and Erik's in the front. We could now get the h**l out of Dodge and home to our loved ones




Steve left a day before us so we arranged the packing with Audun. Finally we said good bye to Olga and Audun, and went down to the bus station. Audun was staying a few more days since his passport was somewhere in Mongolia. But thats another story :rofl




Erik and I was now to leave this great country and as a last thank you mother Russia gave us a final hug. When we arrived at the bus station a local guy came over to us and asked if we were going to the airport. He and his wife were going to pick up some family members and if we needed a lift we could come along :clap




Our great adventure had come to an end. The country and the people we have met has marked us for life. In the most positive way :raabia

Now a new adventure is in the molding pot. Same country, but different place. That will be another story here on advrider :deal

To all the people who have followed us: Thank you very much :clap See you on the road somewhere 3

[AJ]

Imponerende skildringer med fantastiske og sjeldne bilder fra steder hvor jeg er ganske sikker på at bare noen få motorsyklister har vært.
Kjempegreier og veldig sjenerøst, vil jeg si, at du deler disse opplevelsene med oss, EtronX!

[RuneMC]

Flotte bilder og inspirerende reiseskildring, også for oss som ikke er "hardcore adventure"

Hva er forresten totalbudsjettet for en sånn tur?

[EtronX]

Flotte bilder og inspirerende reiseskildring, også for oss som ikke er "hardcore adventure"

Hva er forresten totalbudsjettet for en sånn tur?

Det er litt vanskelig å si hvor mye penger som går med. Det å reise i Russland er billig. Vi brukte vel noe rundt 21.000 i måneden. Det inkluderer alt. Mat, bensin, overnatting etc. Som du ser så er ikke det så avskrekkende. Igjen er dette avhengig av hvor mye og hvor langt du kjører. Vi kjørte mye og vi kjørte langt. Dette dro opp prisen for oss. Bensinen er rundt kr. 5 per liter og det utgjorde 15-17.000 per måned for oss. Overnatting på hotel er billig på landsbygda. Kanskje et par norske hundrelapper. Norske priser pluss i større byer. Telt er gratis. Mange vil også invitere deg hjem.

Så er det hva du har av sykkel og utstyr. Jeg brukte en del på sykkelen og på ombygging av den. Totalt ca. 130.000,-. Dette er dog ikke nødvendig. Han man en gammel XT eller lignende i god stand holder det. Det som etter min mening er viktig på en sånn tur er at vekten på sykkelen er lavest mulig. Det gir mest glede. Husk at vi kjørte over 8.000 km offroad på relativt vanskelige veier. Da er lav vekt et mantra.

Et lett lite telt, sovepose og underlag trengs også. Kanskje en liten primus, men de fleste har vel dette allerede i heimen.

Det vanskeligste med en sånn tur er ikke å få fri, eller å få råd, til å gjøre det. Det vanskeligste er å bestemme seg for å gjøre det. Komme over dørstokkmila. Begynn i det små. Norge er nydelig. Ta turen til Nordkapp en sommer. Kjør alle fjordene, Rv 17 til Bodø, Lofoten, Senja og opp. Så kan du være vill og gal å kjøre gjennom Russland ned igjen. Murmansk, Kandalaksha til St.Petersburg. Gjennom Sverige og hjem. Dette er en flott tur som gir mye tilbake. Denne kan kjøres på alt av sykler, men om du vil finnes det flotte grusveier på samme ruten.

[Bimma]

Tusen takk for at du deler Geir, jeg har kost meg veldig med alle de flotte bildene og alt det spennende du har å fortelle om alle opplevelsene og alle stedene dere har vært innom, og alle de flotte menneskene dere har blitt kjent med underveis. Utrolig artig!

Det vanskeligste med en sånn tur er ikke å få fri, eller å få råd, til å gjøre det. Det vanskeligste er å bestemme seg for å gjøre det. Komme over dørstokkmila. Begynn i det små. Norge er nydelig. Ta turen til Nordkapp en sommer. Kjør alle fjordene, Rv 17 til Bodø, Lofoten, Senja og opp. Så kan du være vill og gal å kjøre gjennom Russland ned igjen. Murmansk, Kandalaksha til St.Petersburg. Gjennom Sverige og hjem. Dette er en flott tur som gir mye tilbake. Denne kan kjøres på alt av sykler, men om du vil finnes det flotte grusveier på samme ruten.

Så sant, så sant ja Geir
Har selv aldri vært nord for Trondheim, så kysten videre oppover er noe jeg godt kunne tenke meg å utforske nærmere....

[Pug-Nose]

Helt sykt fristende å gjøre noe liknende, men, som du skriver over spørs det om jeg noen gang kommer over dørstokkmila. Flotte bilder og bra fortellerevne gjorde at jeg leste hele tråden kun med "nødvendige" pauser! Hva slags kamera brukte du forresten?

[EtronX]

Helt sykt fristende å gjøre noe liknende, men, som du skriver over spørs det om jeg noen gang kommer over dørstokkmila. Flotte bilder og bra fortellerevne gjorde at jeg leste hele tråden kun med "nødvendige" pauser! Hva slags kamera brukte du forresten?

Dørstokkmila er ikke så lang bare man får bestemt seg

På denne turen brukte jeg et Canon G12 kamera. Lite og kompakt og det har godbilledkvalitet. Men, jeg bruker vanligvis et speilreflekskamera og kommer aldri til å reise uten det igjen. Savnet en del funksjoner på turen.