Day 44 - 49, Novosibirsk to Mariinsk, about 500 km

Day 45, 75 km and a lift of 40 km

I slept in a nice forest only some kilometers outside Novosibirsk. Next morning I continued.

Now the landscape was a little more varied; there were hills and lakes. 

After some hours I stopped in a little town where six Babushkas crowded behind a stand were it was possible to buy fruit and vegetables.

I bought some tomatoes, cucumbers and also bananas and an apple. They persuaded me to buy even a bottle of fresh milk. Although it was a hot day I did so. I tasted and it tasted like cream! I guess there must have been 5-6% fat in it. I ate my second breakfast: muesli with creamy milk. At lunch I cooked noodles in milk but there was still very much milk in the bottle so I drank a lot of tea with milk.

This I regretted soon. My diarrhea, which I thought I had got rid of, was there again...

After an emergency situation, when I had been forced to jump off the bicycle in disappear in a wood for 15 minutes, I thought it maybe would be good for my body to rest some hours or a day. The last days I have had the feeling that I could not get rid of my stomach problems without giving my body a rest. My plan was to stay in Novosibirsk a day and therefore I had contacted several hosts of warmshowers AND couchsurfing, but nobody was at home.

As I continued on my bicycle I thought even to work as a volunteer maybe should be better for me. Suddenly a little truck stopped in front of me and the driver, Igor, asked if I wanted a lift for 40 km. I agreed and soon I sat in the front seat next to his girlfriend Tatjana. They were very nice and after they had heard that I had built my own house, Igor said that he was building his own house right now. But he did not do everything by himself, he had five workers who right now were doing the brick – work.

He was a businessman who owned two mobile cranes and right now he had many jobs with his cranes so he usually worked 14 hours a day, seven days a week. One of these cranes could lift 16 tons 26 meters up in the sky!

I was very curious about his house and when he asked if I would like to see it I was very happy. He also invited me to stay in his garage until the next day.

So he showed me his building in a small town called Bolotnoe. It was a huge house, built with bricks in different colors. The first floor measured 200 square meters and it was almost finished. There was a cellar under and there was planned to be a second floor also. What made most impression on me was that the thickness of the walls were 55 cm, They were built of different kind of bricks with insulating plastic foam (frigolit) in the middle. Igor said it was a sandwich construction, good for minus 40 degrees.

Igor worked for many more hours in the evening but then he came to the garage with his big crane and asked if I wanted to see Siberia from above. He brought a platform where I and Tatjana could stand. I was not sure if the “strops” really would be strong enough for the weight of us and the platform, since he had bought them the very same day and he never had tested them. But he though we would be good objects to test them with. Then he lifted us up in the sky. It was very scary but also funny!

As soon as he had let us down (in a speed that reminded of “Bungy Jump”) I shared the video I had been taking on Facebook.

Afterwords we sat on the couch in the garage, talking until after midnight. I said I could sleep on the couch in the garage but when he an Tatjana had gone and closed the big doors I realized that there was no ventilation and that his machines smelled very much gasoline. I tried to sleep anyway but many times I awakened and felt as if I was choking in the odors of gasoline. So finally I took my laying pad close to the doors where the air was a little better. There I slept on the floor.

Day 46, 80 km

Next day I got up early to wash my clothes and shave myself. Tatjana came with breakfast and when Igor came he told me that I could help him to fetch some sand near a bath lake, about 20 km north of Bolotnoe. He only had to do some things before. While he did them I showed Tatjana pictures from my journey and my family.

Then we went to the lake with his little truck. On the way we also picked up his 18 year old son, who should help us.

The sand was on a much deeper level than the way for the truck, so we had to throw it up in three steps.

When we had loaded one ton we took a bath in the wonderful lake.

Igor invited me for lunch in his flat and then he showed me pictures of China and Thailand, where he had been recently on vacation. He also tried to teach me some Mongolian and Chinese. Then we went to the garage to get my bike.

Tatjana had bought a new tube for it! Yogor insisted to drive me to the main road where he said good bye and even gave me some money for my journey!

Although it was already after 2 pm, the afternoon I continued 80 km and discovered that I had no more problems with my stomach!.

Igor had told me that it was six weeks since the last rain, so the woods around are quite dry. Actually I passed a fire in the afternoon.

Day 47, 105 km

This day I passed another quite big town called Kemerovo. Because my Internet did not work any more I visited the main office for Beeline, my Internet provider. There were three long queues in the office and it took quite long time until it was my turn. Finally it was my turn and I actually got an English speaking seller. It took quite long time for him to find out what the problem was: actually it was my fault: Two days ago I had transferred money to my internet account for a new month, but unfortunately I transferred it to the account of the sim-card I used in Moscow. When I came to Nizhniy Novgorod it did not work any longer and I bought a new one.

The seller solved the problem by giving me a new sim-card to the Moscow account and he actually made it work. But my visit took about two hours and the queue in the office was very long when I left it.

After Kemerovo the landscape got even more mountains and on my map I saw that I was passing the northern outposts of the Altai mountains. I found a good place for the night on a hill 40 km from Kemerovo, not far from a huge communication tower. I hoped Internet should work there because I wanted to ring some phone calls with Skype – but it worked very poorly.

Instead I found three bushes of red currants, which I mixed with honey, muesli and Russian Kefir. It was delicious!

Day 48, 140 km

This day I started already at eight. I passed a very beautiful landscape with many hills and the road now was not any more as straight as before, but there were new views after every bend. 

The forest was not only birch but a mixture of many kinds of trees. I did not pass the town Taiga (which was about 50 km north of Kemerovo), but a little village called Krasnaya Taiga. 

Why it is called “The Red Taiga” I don't know, I think everything was quite green.

I also rested somewhere and watched a family harvesting their hay.

Finally in the evening I arrived in a lovely little town called Mariinsk. 

There I bought some groceries and in the end of the town I found a good sleeping place. Internet was good enough to make some phone calls with Skype!

Day 49, 110 km

I slept like a stone that night. In the morning everything was misty although it was quite warm. 

The road again followed closely to the railway and several times it crossed it. 

In the middle of the day I ate at a cafe and hoped I could update my blog but the Internet connection was not good enough. In the afternoon I found a river where many teenagers had met to take a bath. 

I joined them and told them about my travel. They were interested and as usual they wanted to take some pictures together with me. So I gave them my “business card” and said they could read my blog.

In the evening I slept in my tent on this place: