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Published: October 5th 2006
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Endless Roads Eastwards....
Leaving the shores of Lake Baikal the roads were straight and the landscape became a mix of birch and steppe. Day 123, 1st October 2001
Murino - Tanhoj - Babuškin
White Rabbits! Or, so they say in the part of England I come from for good luck on the first day of every month - we need it! Didn’t have too much of a brilliant sleep but was warm, though. Was up early, made a cuppa, and packed up. Rory and Tobes decided to try and make cheese on toast on an old piece of metal they found while I stood around getting cold, and then freezing cold! I told them I had to leave and made a move because I began to shiver uncontrollably. I left as it began to snow on Toby’y tent.
The road was and the wind was slightly behind, and I made it to the first café after about 10 miles, it was cozy and warm. I ordered gretchka and eggs, and a cup of hot coffee to warm me up. The guys arrived shortly afterwards, then we hit the road again. Bleak, snow-covered mountains rose to the south and I noticed that the snow-line was pretty low. And Baikal’s dark and mysterious waters were north of us as we rode east. We
Trans-Siberian Railway
Our camping spot was next to the tracks and overlooking the lake. I wonder how many backpackers on the train wondered who the hell was camping out there! managed to find a track that took us under the railway on to the shores of the lake. It looked more like a sea, complete with waves and a sandy beach. But the water was crytal clear, and drinkable. I wet my wheels, drank to the Gods of the lake, and dropped a bit of spirit in the lake as the shamans do. I also found three quartz pebbles and a lovely piece of driftwood. Toby was brave enough even to have a paddle in the lake! But, after doing this, his knee started to pain him so much that Rory and I had to wait at the tops of inclines for him the rest of the day.
We met a German motorcyclist coming from Vladivostok, her name was Doris and she was heading back to Bavaria. Photos were taken and she gave me a BMW sticker which I promptly stuck to my bike. It was over 60 miles to the next café, poor Tobes was knackered! We ate, then carried on past Babushkin. I spotted a track that led to a good camp spot overlooking the railway and the lake and we pitched tents. It went dark at
Baikal Village
Looking back towards Irkutsk, the snow-capped range between the city and the lake that we crossed in a snow-storm. eight and we ate no supper, we just all slept.
Total Miles: 6790.27 Todays Miles: 76.93 Average speed: 11.9 Time on bike: 6:25
Day 124, 2nd October
Babuškin - Selenginsk - Ilbinka
Woke up to a wonderful day. I tied a few strands of Kathryn’s hair to the branch of a tree on the shore overlooking the lake, then spent half an hour “smootching” coins on the Trans-Sib railway tracks for fun. (Smootching - flattening coins on the rails). We set off at ten with snow-capped ranges receding behind us to the far side of Baikal. The route went inland and was quite straight and flat. We were back in the Autonomous Republic of Buyatia, and heading for the capital, Ulan Ude. There was a slight headwind but nothing to worry about. We noticed that the cafes had stopped serving veggie alternatives for me and Tobes, and that they were concentrating more on Buryat speciatities such as “pozy” which is a kind of doughy beef-bomb! Is this what it’s going to be like to cycle in Mongolia I thought?
We followed a valley eastwards where the forests gave way to steppe in places. Goats
Naughty Boys
NOTICE: It is forbidden to play on railway tracks and to get coins squashed under the wheels of trains! (But it's fun)! roamed the small villages and we attracted strange looks once again. The spot we found to camp was under the railway and in a beautiful meadow next to a birch forest. I cooked supper while Rory and Tobes collected wood to make a fire. We attracted the attention of a Shepherd who watched us pile up the wet birch wood while smiling and shaking his head in disbelief that we were actually going to try and set fire to it. He didn’t know about Rory’s secret weapon, a huge aerosol full of highly inflammable silicone-based oil that BP had given us in Irkutsk. Totally useless for our bikes, but great for lighting fires! After a 10 second blast from the now-modified flame-thrower, the fire was ablaze, and I managed to dry my wet boots for the first time in days! It was a full-moon, and the temperature was at minus 8 by the time we went asleep.
Total Miles: 6865.77 Todays Miles: 75.49 Average speed: 12.5 Time on bike: 6:01
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Tot: 0.385s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 20; qc: 104; dbt: 0.1661s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb
anonymous
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freezing
When it was minus 8, did you still sleep in separate tents to decided to cuddle up to keep warm? How cold was it inside the tent?