Korea, Russia, Stans To East Europe (page 22)

Tomtor

Anatoly and I said goodbye having accomplished the ride, Anatoly choosing to go back the same way solo, knowing what he is in for makes life easier but he will have his work cut out in a few places but for the most of it he will be fine.

Me I continue west towards Yakutsk.

I finally get my accommodation sorted, the owner comes to have a chat after my first shower in 5 days. Google translate and smiles work well, we chat about things and he says he has a swap quad…would I like to have a look?

Well, does the pope have a funny hat?, does the queen like corgis…hell yeah lets go.

We go into has man cave and here is a “quad bike” with MASSIVE tyres, Suzuki engine, gearbox and transfer-case and diffs. The owner is probably 1.85 m tall and yeap that is him behind it and yes that is a full size truck wheel resting against the back of it.

Seeing my enthusiasm he starts it up and says lets go, I could not get on quick enough and we drove around swaps like they were not even there, we could have done with this thing the day earlier LOL.

So what it can drive over it does as both front and rear diffs are locked, what it can’t drive over it just paddles through, he made this completely in his garage and I typed in to Google Translate “Honourary Kiwi” and he understood, his eyes lit up and he too was stoked at the recognition from the moto alien.

Just proves again language does not have to be a barrier and with translate doing the basic the rest is done with smiles.

A quick stomp around the village I pick up some eggs and cheese for macaroni cheese for dinner and back to my larry lonely desk coupe with Vodka and the travellers book to fill out which I did, facilities here 5 star after the last few days.  

Also meet three young fellas hooning around on a Russian two stroke with a sidecar, it was a stunt show in itself, the first word "hello my friend" ....second words none that is all he knew so there were big larfs all round.

Tomtor To Khandyga

The morning was warm and slightly damp but by the time I had everything on the bike the sun had made an appearance.

I had 154 km of potholes, creeks crossings etc to make it the main road which was potholes and dust so nice to have a change.

I reached the famous gas station at Kyubeme, after watching Go East vid I put our TMK sticker next to it.

Heading towards Yakutsk it was dry and dusty, two large semi trailers pulled out just as I got to the gas station so they had about 15 minutes on me.

Every now and then you make a wish, today mine was “where is the rain when you need it, please come”, well I musta been a good boy cos 20 km down the road it turns dark and starts to rain, and quite heavy to start with.

I was catching the two big trucks and could see their dust in the distance, as I closed in on them the dust got less and less with mum nature doing a fine job at my request.

Sneaking past these guys there was another couple of trucks which were easy work, the was 470km long so a biggy for me and more so my arse.

Getting through the traffic there was nothing in front of me, as it would happen mum nature pulled the curtains of rain and it came out hot and sunny, talk about perfect timing. 

The last straights which are very very long seemed to take forever.