Trans Sibir eXpedition 2012

[EtronX]

While Terry was doing that, Steve and Erik were eating melon with the revellers, and Geir and I were cutting up an old plastic oil container to extend our mudguards for the roads ahead.

[EtronX]

With Terry's bike back on the road, we continued on our ride to Taksimo ...

With only one road to follow, and the road reasonably simple, the group often spread out, with Terry, Geir and myself racing each other at the front of the pack. Sometimes there was an alternative track in the rail ballast beside the track ... and often some riders would stick on the main road while someone seeking to sneak ahead would shoot up to the rail track to try and scoot ahead unseen.

I spent more time up on the rail embankment than anyone else so missed a few of the funky bridges like this one:



But Geir, Terry and I pulled over to wait for the other guys at the foot of the Severomuisk range. A 16 km rail tunnel goes thru the mountain but we were going over it.



Terry grabbed another chicken samsa, a snack we had stocked up with that morning in Severobaikalsk

[EtronX]

By the time we reached the other side, I noticed the time was getting on. While the sun was still up, it wouldnt be for long - the shadows were getting pretty long. I looked at my watch. It was 9pm. The late start, over an hour spent at the river crossing, Terry's broken bolts ... We still had 100 km to Taksimo and had to get a move on.

[EtronX]

It was dark by the time we arrived in Taksimo.



I called upon a few hotels, but nothing. The place we stayed in a few years aback was no longer a hotel. A couple of other hotels were full. But the receptionist in the last hotel we went to, said she had a friend who would let us stay at her house, have a banya and feed us, for 500 rubles (12 EUR) each. We accepted ... but had to wait an hour for the woman to finish work and come and meet us in the centre of town.

It was well after midnight when we finally got to sleep!

Tomorrow we had a big day ahead ... the Vitim River.

From Taksimo onwards, the BAM Road gets more serious

[EtronX]

We crossed a few bridges while on the BAM and one thing stuck out. Since it is a single track the trains come from one direction for a while. Then it is quiet for some minutes and then they come from the other direction. About every 50 - 60 km there is a small unmanned rail road station with a sidetrack where they pass each other.

If we didn't see a train for a while we waited a bit. When one came we crossed the bridge right after. This sort of worked most of the time. Two times though the second train came within a minute. That called for some excitement amongst the crew

[EtronX]

Erik ... taking the rocky roads in stride:



And splashing thru the streamlets:



My helmet cam, going over a nice smooth part of the Severomuisk Range:



And a not so smooth part:

[EtronX]

We had two rivers to cross today ... one was the legendary Vitim River ... and the other the much smaller but still inconvenient Kuanda River.

Having got to bed late, we woke late ... and it was after midday when we all left Taksimo, via the local convenience store.

Terry and Geir stormed ahead, aiming for the Vitim Bridge. After 30 km there is a fork in the road, a turnoff. The road straight ahead to a village on the banks of the Vitim about 30 km downstream form the bridge.

I got to the turnoff, and checked tracks in the dirt to make sure Terry and Geir had taken the turnoff ... tracks indicated they had. I thought I better wait there to make sure Steve and Erik make the turnoff. So I parked my bike poining in the direction of the turnoff and waited. Erik arrived, saw my bike pointed in the direction of the turnoff, and took it. Then I waited for Steve. A few minutes later Steve cam flying down the main road at high speed. Too fast to slow down abd take the corner it seemed, so I waved at him, and pointed in the direction of the turnoff. I saddled up and while I assumed Steve was slowing down and turning around to return to the turnoff, I set out to catch up with Erik.

I caught up with Erik and we rode slowly together for a while which would allow Steve to catch us up. By the time we got to a first tricky bridge, Steve still hadnt caught us up. We decided to go across the little bridge and wait for Steve on the other side.

Geir and Terry should be up ahead at the Vitim River bridge by now.

Even though this was just a short little bridge, just 20 yards across, it was really the first bridge we had come to on the BAM where you could not afford to make a mistake. A mistake here and the trip quite possibly ends.



I rode across ...



But perhaps conscious of the costs of a mistake, Erik decided to play it safe:

[EtronX]

We waited half an hour for Steve ... but still no sign of him.

In the end, Erik said he would wait 15 minutes more before going back for him. I would ride up to the Vitim, 10-15 km ahead and tell the guys we lost Steve.

It occurred to me that Steve must have kept going straight at that turn off where he blew past me at high speed.

There were a few more funky bridges between here and the Vitim (this one shot on Steves camera)



Geir's crossing of the Vitim River

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... Zil2LChcTc[/video]

[EtronX]

I thought I would put a small tribute up here to those who have crossed the bridge.

But first, for those who have only seen what the bridge looks like in the videos, I will again highlight the challenge of the bridge. The biggest fear factor in the bridge is its height above the water. Pretty widely estimated at 50 feet / 15 metres. This is not visibile at all on the videos, which show no depth perception. But I can tell you it is totally perceptible to the rider when he is on the bike! You are on a narrow platform of greasy old railway sleepers, 2.5 metres (7.5 feet) wide, with no edge or railing, 15 metres (50 feet) above the water.

So for the sake of clarity, and to offer some perspective of the height of the bridge, here is a pic of the bridge that shows the distance to the water:

[EtronX]

Due to the fact that three very experienced guys walked the Vitim in 2009 I had a pretty open mind about what to do when I came to the bridge. I had a low threshold for walking the bridge. I have a wife and a few kids back home. No stupid heroics here

I had been riding shotgun with Terry the whole day. We had crossed some bridges and it all felt good. When we came to the start of the bridge I took a quick look at it and felt this was doable. I asked Terry to double check that my GoPro was on and saddled up. I started easy. Got the bike into second gear and stood up. It felt good. I was very focused. My eyes were locked about 20 - 30 meters ahead. I listened to my breathing. It was very calm and very deep. I actually heard it.

When I came to the bump in the middle I just had to stop in order to shoot some pictures




Things got a bit more interesting towards the end. I now had to drive between parallel planks that were about 4 cm high :huh I felt relaxed though. I am not a very seasoned off road driver, but this felt completely normal that day




We all had a good start in Taksimo. That helps :clap For the record, I only bought motor oil from that girl

[EtronX]

I only have one picture of the estate we were living in. It is from the outside.




When we came to the place it was dark and I was feeling miserable. When we stopped at the Severomuisk range we agreed that Walter and Terry should drive ahead and arrange some housing in Taksimo. I should wait for the rest of the gang. When they came we headed of.

Then, in a silly little stream I tipped over. Flooded the engine with water. Erik and Steve gave me a hand and we got the bike ashore. I was wet from my helmet to my boots. We drained the air filter housing and took out one plug. Then we put the bike on its side and cranked the engine out of the cylinder. I was now getting cold. When we got the bike to run again it was getting dark. We had 100 km's to go. I checked the oil level of the bike when it was running OK. The oil looked like milk. Nothing I could do about it before I came to Taksimo.

[video]http://vimeo.com/58798949[/video]


It was a long and cold drive. I was wet to the bone. When we finally got to Taksimo I was freezing :huh We found the guys and the place we should stay. The kind lady there fired up the Banja and soon I was a happy man again

[EtronX]

Just afew more pictures from the road to Taksimo

Here we have Terry's bike after being fixed with "Biltemastropp" :clap The crazy part is that Terry didn't slow down afterwards :rofl




A normal BAM bridge.




Terry with our helpers in Novyy Uoyan.




We tried, but gave up and took the rail road bridge. These guys just had to try the river




Lunch :1drink

[EtronX]

I dismounted after crossing the Vitim and had a chat to Terry.



I explained that Steve had missed the turnoff and we may have to go back to look for him, but as we were talking, 600 yards away on the far side of the Vitim bridge, we saw two motorcycle headlights ... Steve and Erik.



Steve: Remember, the guy had just learned to ride a bike 3 months earlier ... he rode across the bridge! KUDOS !





Erik played it safe ... I guess a sky diving instructor is more aware of the risks than most people, and has probably seen more than his fair share of the results of risk miscalculations. This shot, better than any of the others, gives a good sense of perspective regarding the height of the bridge relative to its width.



All across ... just enough time for a few more glory shots:





And this is my "welcome to the bridge" look

[EtronX]

We pushed onward to the town of Kuanda ... passing plenty of streams along the way:



In Kuanda we stopped for a drink and I asked the lady in the shop what the going rate was this year to cross the Kuanda rail bridge. I wanted to be sure of my negotiating position when we arrived there and had to discuss options with the bridge guards. 5000 she told me. 5000 rubles (about 125 EUR) to let a car over the bridge.

We rode 8km beyond Kuanda to the problematical Kuanda rail bridge. The guys in charge of watching over the bridge insisted that we couldnt cross. I offered them 5000 rubles in total, 1000 rubles per bike ... told them we would be across in 2 mins max.

He said no.

5000 rubles per bike.

We argued with him for about 15 minutes, but he wasnt budging. 25,000 rubles is about 800 USD ... thats an insane price to cross the bridge for all 5 of us. He was a grumpy young SOB too ... He said if we tried to cross it without his permission he would telephone ahead to Chara (the next town) and get us arrested for terrorism.

We decided to ride down to the river and have a look around. There was clearly a fording area about 200 metres downstream from the rail bridge. A track into the water on our side, and a beach marked by truck tracks on the other side. But it looked deep. And it had a decent current.

I decided to jump in and check it out. I tried to walk across and find a way ... but everywhere I turned was too deep. At one point the depth and current swept me off my feet and I began drifting downstream, unable to get traction with my feet due to my buoyancy. When I finally regained my feet, now 20 - 30 yards downstream from where I lost my feet, I decided thats enough. I cant even walk across the river, there is no way we are going to get the bikes to ride through it. Now soaking wet up to my chest, I returned to the guys waiting by the shore and told them we would have to backtrack 8 km to Kuanda township and see if we can find a truck to take us over.

[EtronX]

We started the day late ... it was after 1pm when we left Taksimo. Then altogether we lost an hour when Steve missed the turn to the Vitim bridge ... Then there was the Vitim bridge ... and then we faffed around at the Kuanda bridge for ages working out how to get across.

By the time we returned to Kuanda to look for a truck to take us over the river, it was 6pm.

On the road into town I spotted a guy working on a 6WD truck. It was a good enough place to start asking about trucks.



But he couldnt help us ... he did suggest we ask around the centre of town though and gave us an address. And so we went back to the centre. While checking out the address, we were stopped by a guy in 4WD who asked what we needed. I explained a truck to take us over the river. He said no problem ... pulled out his cell phone and made a call.

Then he hung up and told me 7pm, 3000 rubles for all 5 bikes.

Done !

While we waited a few locals began chatting to us. They told us of a group of 6-7 Foreign bikers that had been stranded in Kuanda for a couple of days before getting the train over, a week earlier. I knew who this was. This was the Kudu Expedition guys. Kudu had contacted me earlier in the year to ask about routes waypoints etc on the BAM. I told them as much as I could but thought they were nuts for trying to lead a commercial expedition on this road. But here they were ... doing it ... massive kudos to Kudu ... they had the commercial balls to actually give it a go.

By 7pm, we were at a makeshift loading ramp, on the side of the main track through town. Our driver came up in his 6WD KAMAZ and backed in. We loaded all 5 bikes on the truck and tried to pack ourselves and the bikes as tight as possible for the 8km ride in the back of the truck back to the river. It was going to be bumpy as hell.

When we got to the river, the trucked turned to where we had found the fording area, and just engaged low gear and ploughed in. As we looked upstream we could see the rail bridge guards staring at us from the rail bridge ... they had thought they would get 25k out of us ... and we were getting across for about a tenth of that.

On the other side, our driver backed into another makeshift loading ramp and we unloaded .... giving our driver, Grisha, his 3000 rubles.

[EtronX]

Coming ashore again from the Kuanda River Wet from the top of our heads to our soles For those who wonders, the water was cold and the current strong

[EtronX]

When you do the BAM and ROB you inevitably have to cross a river or two.

Some you drive through with ease.

Some you drive through with difficulty.

Some you try to drive through.

Some will challenge your persistence.

Some you will conquer.

Some will conquer you.

But all will make your feet look like this

[Andreas]

Underholdende og spennende lesing

[KawaKjetil]

Underholdende og spennende lesing

Enig, virkelig en spennende tråd å følge

[EtronX]

After crossing the Vitim, taken a swim in the Kuanda and finally crossing the Kuanda on the back of a truck, I was pretty shoot when we came to Balbukhta. We went inside the rail road station and the kind people there gave us some tea and biscuits before they closed down the station. No sleeping inside tonight.

Knackered I got my tent up and headed inside. Every night I had the same procedure. Of the Norwegians I was the only one with a Mac. Therefore I collected all the memory cards and download the pictures and videos. I then took a quick look at what we had captured that day and made backup to an extern HD. When this was done Erik came and said they had a fire going down by a stream, but I was to tired to join and took an early night.

I had crossed the Vitim River on my XC. A goal I've had for two years. I needed to be alone in my tent that night. I needed to contemplate all that had happened. Let it sink in. I soon fell asleep.

Some camp pictures below taken by Steve

[EtronX]

We rode through some pretty countryside


(pic courtesy of Steve)

... before reaching the Chara river bridge, on the outskirts of Chara. For some, its the Gnarliest bridge on the western BAM. Personally I dont mind it. Its 270 metres long, very rough surface, no edges and you have to ride along a raised ridge of 3 sleeper widths. But for me, my issue with the Vitim Bridge is its height. I dont feel good about the exposed height at all.

The Chara bridge by comparison, is normal bridge height. Maybe 20 feet (6 metres) above the ground / water. Most of the bridge is over ground that floods in season, but is usually just ground. Sure, care and precision is still essential, and a mistake can mean the end of your trip, but somehow for me, the lack of that 15 metre (50 foot) drop makes it feel tame in comparison.

Check out the exposed nails and stuff on the left side of the bridge.



EtronX and I rode over ... but the other guys were having issues ... so EtronX (whose confidence had been sky high ever since the Vitim Bridge) went back and volunteered to ride Terry's bike over. Bongo accepted faster than you can say - "oi, get me a truck".



EtronX had his helmet cam running at the time ... so this is his first crossing (first of three):

[video]https://vimeo.com/59097532[/video]

[EtronX]

[EtronX]

Riding shotgun with Terry along the BAM. This is from the stretch not long before Novaya Chara.

[video]http://vimeo.com/59076085[/video]

[EtronX]

As we got close to Novaya Chara we met these guys. They had some small problem with their bike. When we left them they still had the problem




We got some food and checked in to Novaya Charas finest. Sometimes I don't know what is best; hotel or tent:huh




One good thing when being on a trip like this is that you really appreciate your own bathroom. You don't have to wear your sandals in the shower and you actually dare to sit down when taking a dump. Not being afraid of catching something with a long and difficult latin name :eek1




That said mind you, I am not complaining. Just observing the facts. We got beds and a few beers. Life was good

[EtronX]

I am sorry that I am a bit behind with the videos. This clip happened a few days ago from where we are now in the story. It was our first attempt at a major river crossing and our first crossing using a rail road bridge

[video]http://vimeo.com/59089156[/video]