Day 54-61, finally Irkutsk, 870 km

Day 54, 125 km

I passed many typical Siberian villages that day. All houses are more or less gray (old wood) an were placed in a row along the way. After about 500 meters there is a shop in the same size as all other houses. If the village has a length of 5 km you could find 5-10 different shops. In some villages there were also different kinds of animals eating the grass along the road.

After a while I came to a part of the way where ther ewas no asphalt yet. 

The buses I met could look very old.

I twas quite hot an it was a very steep hill (12%). The stones on the way were big as golf balls and there was much traffic. Besides from this I was haunted by a cloud of big biting flies (a new sort which made very itching bites). Although I had good use of my repellant at this place I thing it was the most difficult passage I have had. The dust of the cars and lorries made that I could not see and hardly breath either.

In the afternoon I finally found a beautiful lake where I could take a bath and wash away all dust that had fastened in the repellant.

There were many people at that place. Since I was considering to sleep at this place I begun to take contact with people and tell them about my journey. This was my method to get strangers to friends and eliminate the risk to be rubbed at night. But at this place there were some teenage-boys who were very interested in all my technical stuff. They took this picture of me:

I let them ride my bike.

They also had an older friend (or brother) who wanted to sell me a new digital camera with unclear origin. As I said that I did not want to buy it (although he was willing to sell it for half of the price he introduced), he looked very disappointed. Therefore I decided to load my bicycle again and continue some kilometers to a safer place. I found a very beautiful wood.

Day 55, 110 km

The road was new and lead through an area with a lot of sand. I think there must have been many deltas when the ice was melting about 10000 years ago.

Many of the villages did not have houses with water inside. Instead they had barrels along the street which were filled up by the "water-car". The driver was very kind and filled also some of my bottles with cool fresh water.

At a cafe I found a funny sign in the toilet. Russian people seem to be so used with Russian toilets (a hole in the floor), that they climb up on a common sit-toilet!

Now the way had several parts which were under construction and the new way was not opened yet. I took the chance and tested if I could ride on the new, unopened way, because I wanted to avoid all dust. Actually I could and it was a great feeling to have the whole road for yourself. But then I met many workers. I thought they would become angry with me, but they did not. Instead they became interested and happy to see me. Finally I came to a big bridge which was under construction.

 It was interesting to see how the steel construction was moved over the valley on rails.

A worker told me that all steel did weigh 750 tons!

Form the new road there were great views down to the old villages.

Day 56, 100 km

Again I had headwind this day. And there were many hills too. So this day I made two records: the lowest average speed (13,8 km/h) and the highest maximum speed (66,6 km/h). I made this speed after I had taken some photos of a traditional wedding.

I passed the group when they took some pictures at a Russian monument (which is typical for Russian weddings).

Two minutes afterward I rode downhill at a very high speed (66 km/h), at the same time the whole caravan of cars were passing me.

At noon I filled all my seven bottles with drinking water at a cafe. There I found a funny sign inside the toilet door:

No feet upon the toilet! Apparently Russians were so used with traditional Russian toilets (a hole in the floor) that they climbed upon toilets which were built to sit upon.

In the afternoon I met an interested and very kind family from Eastern Russia, who were on car-vacation. 

They were very interested in my journey and I got a delicious piece of smoked fish from Sascha and his father. 

In the evening I got a shower of rain. It was the first rain I had for almost seven weeks! Then I found a beautiful flower meadow where I could sleep in my tent.

Day 57, 110 km

Again I passed several parts of road without asphalt. 

If possible I tried to take the new roads and often I was happy. I could pass this new bridge as one of the first vehicles.

The landscape was very beautiful with villages in the valleys. This village was special I saw already from far away, because it had a water tower. 

1476 km west of Novosibirsk, which means only ca 415 left to Irkutsk!

And I was right, in the cafe I found drinking water in the tap. (Most cafes did not have any water, they carried the water inside in barrels).

In the afternoon I passed a quite big town called Tulun. It felt strange come from the Siberian out-land directly into a city where you could buy the latest models of televisions and laptops. Although all houses around looked as shabby as everywhere in Russia. And as everywhere you could see animals along the street.

Day 58, 120 km

I had a good sleep and it was beautiful weather with no wind at all. I really enjoyed the beautiful Siberian landscape and the good, quite new roads. When I came to a river I took a bath (as several inhabitants) and made a short video:

In the evening I stopped at a cafe in Zima where I wrote some important emails. After a bridge I found a wonderful sleeping place 1 km downstream the river. There was an ongoing renovation of the bridge so it was still noisy when I went to bed but I thought they would soon stop with the job. Unfortunately they did not stop before six in the morning and I could hardly sleep that night.

Day 59, 95 km

First at 6 in the morning it was quiet! But then I could not sleep anyway so I went up and made a fire and cooked for the first time my porridge and tea on the open fire. I had a long breakfast and took a bath in the river. Then I continued. 

Along the way I could not only find litter but also dead which looked as if they had been there several years.

Is this a Siberian wolf?

At noon I came under some rain so I stayed at a cafe and ate Pelmini. Now there was more traffic again and closer between the villages. But still it was not difficult to find a good sleeping place in a forest behind a hill.

Day 60, 120 km

The fog of the morning soon disappeared. I stopped at a cafe to fill up my Internet account to make a phone call to my host in Irkutsk. Unfortunately the connection via Skype was not good enough but a nice lady borrowed me her phone to call him. I told him that I would arrive next evening.

Now I had been biking several days towards southwest, so the climate seemed to become warmer. Here I could find giant fields of corn, where the plants already had blossoms.

Suddenly a car stopped in front of me and the driver, Artem, asked me about my trip. He said this was a story for the media and called a friend working on the local television. We decided to meet next morning in Angarsk, the last town before Irkutsk. I continued to this town before I slept in my tent close to the river.

Day 61, 90 km

Next day at 10 we met at the central square.

Artem was there in his best suite and translated from English to Russian and vice verse. 

For me it was not so easy, because he sometimes asked several questions at once and when I had answered the first of them he translated it. But then he asked new questions about my answer.
You can see the tv-report here.

Finally I continued to Irkutsk. I had discovered a crack in the rim of my back wheel which I wanted to replace. From Artem, who was a sportsman earlier in his life, I had got a contact to a bicycle repair shop in Irkutsk.

Irkutsk Is a big and beautiful city. 

At 3 pm I found the shop. They could help me with a new wheel but it was very expensive (3500 rub) so I said I would think about it until next day. I want to look at other shops first and see if I can find a cheaper solution.

In the afternoon I did some sightseeing in the city.

Then I visited the Waldorf school of Irkutsk and got a guiding of the teacher in Russia and history, He spoke perfect German.

In the evening I rode to the Airport where I met my host which was the motor bike club “Black Bears”. They are really nice guys! Finally, after three weeks, I slept inside a house again.