Day 80km
Trip 11.253km
Bike 16.278km
Lazy start today, that is what hostel life does to you 😉
After getting breakfast I handed in some washing and decided to stay another night – so leaving monday and probably meeting up with Andreas somewhere near Ulan-Ude or the eastern shore of lake baikal.
Although I am staying nextdoor to Nikita, the deal included 3meals, shower and sauna on Nikita’s premisses. At 900 rubels/day (22€) not a bad deal compared to all other places we stayed at before. And a chance to meet travellers rather than ‘tourists’.
I took a small stroll through town and managed to find the petral station – not as easy as it sounds, the handpump is hidden in someones back garden. So I decided to get the bike ready, put in some petrol and explore the island.
I managed to get a detailed map in Nikita’s Souvenir shop and with the aid of my newly accuired russian topo maps, I set off. This island is really a stunning place. Surrounded by the lake which looks more like an ocean, it features forrests, sand dunes, beaches and these amazing rolling hills with their calming quality. I did about 100km zigzaging across the island, enjoying some offroad in unspoiled nature.
Actually it was quite demanding in places and I ended up spending a few quiet hours on an uninhabitat peninsular reading and dozing off 😉
Heading back to the hostel, I met 2 russian bikers – sergey, a photographer from Nadym far in the north, a young city of 50.000 people built by Gasprom and Max who lives near Samara. Sergey had just sold his 990 KTM last year and now drives a Ducati Multistrada. He loves the Ducati for onroad trips but says it’s useless for even light offroad. I think I saw a small tear in his eyes when he was looking at katie. 😉
Now they were travelling on Honda 250’s and were covering 5000km on them this trip. Actually Sergey went through africa on one of those last year – never a problem. Funny coinsidence, because I always thought this would be the best choice for a trip like that.
As we stood in the middle of nowhere, a 3rd biker on his Kawa 650 showed up, he was on his way back up north.
Sergey, Max and me carried on south towards our town and they invited me to a good meal in one of the restaurants. Unfortunately I cant remember the name of the main course (starter was borsch soup), some boiled dumplings eith a hole on top- from where you first drank the broth before eating the dumpling itself 😉
Ok, back in the hostel I will try to upload some of this and enjoy some good beers and conversations with the backpackers and hikers. Guess what nation dominates but does not really mingle with the others? 😉
Wir sind das Volk ….
offwe_r 