Bears еncountered

In to Siberia now.

We have crossed the Urals and left the European​ continent. We had expected to see some sort of sign marking the divide, but failed to do so. According to the guides there are many, just not obvious ones.

The Urals were very pleasant. A bit like Wales, green, wet and full of people I can't understand. They were also home to our first road/bridge wash out of the trip. 

Fortunately we were waylaid by a local before we had gone too​ far, he then helped us plot the 150km detour we needed to do. Across sand covered roads through the forest, with signs warning us not to stop due to "high bear density", and holes big enough to swallow the bikes. All in the rain. (Note I don't take pictures in the rain even in the absence of bears).

After a week of riding it was time for a little break. We opted for a couple of days in Yekaterinburg hosted by the Black Knives bike club.

I would like to say I'd managed a week in Russia without vodka. But I failed at the first hurdle, it would have been rude not to.

One of the club, Dmitry gave up his time to show us around the city, of great interest to us was the War Weapons Museum. Row upon row of tanks, jeeps, planes, rocket launchers, armoured trains, ships and a submarine.

Yes, a submarine. Yekaterinburg is thousands of miles from any ocean and they have dragged one there.

The interestingly bendy roads of the Urals eventually gave way to  long flat straight ones in  Siberia, which we would be crossing for the next 3500 kilometres.

The tedium is broken at odd times by animals wandering in the road. Cows, dogs and a wolf.

While no bears have wandered across , so far, we have encountered two in a roadside motel. On show for passing motorists. Caged, they don't look happy.

Bear dodging

We had a 5 hour long border crossing (a new record that has surpassed Central America) from Estonia, which was mainly caused by the Russians processing slowly. This gave us the opportunity to discuss our planned route, and we changed it. We dropped the idea of going into northern Kazakhstan and decided to put our heads down and head straight for Mongolia. We will be passing through Kazakhstan twice later any way (unless we change plans again).

I know Moscow is fairly north, and has harsh winters. But I really thought with it being June that it would have been warmer. 11c to 13c seems to be the best we could have hoped for. There has been a constant high wind, freezing rain and hail storms.

Maybe further south would have been better.

We are finally starting to meet people who want to talk , even though we have different languages. 

Accommodation has been roadside motels, cheap and cheerful but always with a 24 hour cafe attached.

Gregory, a motel owner, asked us to visit his home to see how real Russians live. He was waiting for us at breakfast the next day. He hijacked a young lad, Sranislav, from the petrol station because he had a phone with Google translate, and we could use both of ours to communicate.

We were shown around Gregory's village, no asphalt, some very broken houses. One person had abandoned their house and converted an oil tank to live in.

By contrast some traditional ones remained in a well kept condition.

At the back of his house was the remains of an old collective farm and machine factory. After the disbanding of the USSR the funds and infrastructure were taken away. All the jobs went. He was very angry about the new regime and corruption.

We left with a lot to think about.

Sneaking into Russia early

There is a part of Estonia that is forever Russia, or is that the other way around ?

As we were just killing time before our visas activated we were bimbling around Estonian back roads when we came across this sign.

I'd read about this bit of road but had not checked where it was. For 1 kilometer it crosses into Russian territory and back to Estonia. No barriers, no guard posts, no guards.

Jean decided not to cross the line in case they had cameras on us. I, on the other hand, chose to take photos (probably not a good idea ) and then enter the "zone" on the bike ( because walking would be breaking the rules).

As we returned along the road (track) we noticed that a small part of the Russian border came right alongside​ the edge of the road. We stopped and looked at it ( having missed seeing the no stopping sign) and noted the little no man's land of finely raked soil that would show up any footprints.

No sooner had we moved off than a police car came slowly round the bend , the two occupants eyeing us sternly.

We had wondered if there were any surveillance cameras. I think that answered the question.

Bear prints on the beach

We were given a good send off by Poland before entering the Baltic states.

There must have been a heat wave, temperatures had been 20 plus for the past week. We were glad of the ride being a short one , only two hours, as we entered Suwalki on the edge of Poland it was warmer still.

Only once the tent was up in a site squeezed between the cemetery and the local football ground did we notice the large stage peering over the stadium wall. A quick search revealed a free concert and fireworks.

And the fireworks would be launched 50 meters from our tent.

We returned from a food shop to find my bike on its side , according to the German who helped us right it a mini whirlwind took it out. We could see a trail of debris from the arena. This bike has an unlucky streak, good job I have not paid Jean yet.

After the gig , a good female " pop rocker" (Ewa Fawn) , we settled down to await the fireworks. As they started the security guard who was stood between our tent and them quickly backed off behind us. We held our ground as debris fell around us.

Since then we have blasted across Lithuania to visit the beach in a tourist resort, Palanga.

Then Latvia for some more beach but in a remote spot  down some dirt roads. Where we had a play in the sand and pine tree lined tracks that connect all the small rural communities.

Some decent roads at last.

While out jogging one morning Jean grew concerned about prints in the sand that were definitely not dog. Some research showed there were at least 12 breeding pairs of bears in Latvia and she reckoned the googled print images matched the ones on the beach. This would explain how we were both spooked by a wild animal in the woods that night.

The following day we came across an information board, in English, that explain red foxes would scavenge dead fish washed up over night. Along with pictures of paw prints. That was that mystery solved.

We are just drifting and lazing around now. The bikes seem OK. Hopefully no more issues. Still a few days before we can enter Russia, just Estonia to see first, then it will be heads down and shoot for Mongolia.

Shake down period continues

Over the years we have got used to hanging around in small towns for repairs now, I think.

In 2011 it was nine days in Punta Arenas, Chile. In 2013 it was four days in Antofogasta, Chile.

Now it looks to be five days in the less exotic Mikolaji, Poland.

After we left Germany and crossed the river Oder the warm dry day slowly turned wet. During a torrential down pour my gear shift became loose. Leaving me stuck in 3rd. We carried on for 20 km before a petrol station appeared that had a covered forecourt.

In the 45 minutes we were there,  with bits scattered around the fuel pump, I managed to make matters worse by snapping the tightening bolt. Luckily I was able to extract it without needing a drill. I then had to borrow a bolt from the sprocket guard to replace it and get moving again.

Fortunately we know a man, David, back in the UK with a spare lever. He is kindly donating it and posting it to us while we laze around a campsite in the Polish lake district. The trip had now become in the hands of TNT.

On a plus note, I took the time to look at the hazard light problem again. Along with more tech support from David, and a circuit tester, I established that the issue was in the dashboard. 

This is a bad thing, I had a dashboard die on me in 2011 and remembered now that the indicators were first to go on the blink.

Jean reminded me that because of that I had a spare buried in the parts pannier.

All back together again, indicators working  (but not the hazards, I left them disconnected) . Now I just have to ignore the empty fuel gauge warning as the dashboard is off at slightly different model.

Only two and a half days after it was posted in the UK, the lever arrived. This meant muchas swearing as I wrestled the old one off.  But finally, despite the heat and the mosquitoes nibbling at me it was on.

To celebrate we splashed out on a fish supper.

It's Italian, why should I be surprised?

Riding through Belgium and into Germany with my hazard lights permanently on was not in the plan. My bike was not playing to the rules and nothing I tried would turn them off. Randomly they did occasionally stop, but would start again after a few miles.

Thanks to a fellow Peg enthusiast who identified the cables and connector for the hazards, I had a plan to avoid 6 months of the bastards flashing. Of course the next morning when I put the fuse in and switched on, everything worked OK!

I had to get under the tank to find the connector to isolate the hazard button.

After putting it all back together again and going for a ride, we managed a whole 10 miles before they came on again.

That means there is either a short just before the ECU or an issue with the ECU.

I think I will call this one the bastardette :-)

At least it was all done in a nice setting, in the Eifel National Park, somewhere we had never heard of but looked good on the map.

Successfully made it to east Germany, I might rename this blog "Arm signals across Asia " (assuming we get that far ....)

Departure day

Waiting for this day has dragged on and on. Lists have been done, panniers have been packed (repacked and packed again). We also had a pre trip shake down run to South Wales last weekend. Just about few bolts needed tightening. 

We have practised tyre and inner tube changes, something I have not had to actually do for seven years (Mike changed his himself in Kazakhstan while I balanced the bike, so that does not count).  And Jean had never done it before. By the time we had done two wheels our time was down from 3 hours to 1 hour.

Last Thursday (4th May) our visas for Russia and Mongolia finally arrived so we can set off on Monday (8th May). Three weeks to drift around northern Europe and the Baltics, then into Russia on June 1st when our visa becomes active.

Bikes are now squeezed into the garage (you try fitting four bikes in when two have panniers fitted).

There was even room for  a boomerang.