The BAM Road - ultimate test of man and machine

Guys,

This is FANTASTIC-----ABSOLUTLEY FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All three of you have my utmost respect. Tony, you are the man!!

I am so jealous

Safe riding

I don't like to add to the clutter, but thanks for sharing, you are an excellent writer, and I can't get enough of this report. Bravo!!

Colebatch

Very interesting review of the Russian opinion of us. I am humbled and embarrassed to admit that I would expect them to have been unfriendly.

The only Russians I ever notice are in american CSI type TV programs or billionaires buying soccer teams. Probably not a balanced view of a nation.

Makes me want to visit there now. Fekin big place though

Is it expensive for essentials - fuel, food, booze ?

We all develop certain "skill sets" depending on our situations. You guys have brought to us a whole side of Russian/Siberian culture I had never thought about, or known existed. To be one of the few "outsiders" to go through there. It will change, and maybe has changed as a result of your trip.. What an experience.
Once again, thanks for the RR! The bikini shots were nice too.
Jeff

Man-O-Man!!

Priorities before the BAM RR
1. Wifey
2. Family
3. Work
4. Perusing AdvRider RR/forums

Priorities during the BAM RR
1. Reading the updates of BAM RR

2. Reading the updates of BAM RR

3. Reading the updates of BAM RR
:slurp
4. Wifey
5. Reading the updates of BAM RR
6. Family
7. Reading the updates of BAM RR
8. Work
9. Reading the updates of BAM RR
:dg
10. Reading the updates of BAM RR
11. Repeat

This report is like a drug...I gotta have it several times a day!!
I don't wanna think about what will happen when the RR is over...I'll get the shakes.
No, I know. I'll just re-read it and re-live it!!
Thanks fellas. Incredible trip and report!

In a word, no. But nor is it dirt cheap. (places like Mongolia or Tajikistan will be less than half the price of Russia)

Fuel in populated parts of Russia was about 25 rubles a litre (50p) and in more remote places that went up to 32 rubles a litre (65p) for 92 octane fuel. 95 octane a couple of rubles more. In US terms, that's about $2.90 to $3.80 per US gallon.

Beer ... in remote places, we were paying about 30 rubles (60p) for a half litre (almost a pint) bottle. Tony tended to go for a more basic beer, and he would often be paying 60 rubles (about 1 pound 20) for a 2 litre plastic bottle of the nasty stuff.

Food ... in a roadside cafe, a meal for two as pictured on an earlier page, of soup, pirozhki, big rissole and macaroni would typically work out about 200 rubles. (2 quid each). In a more restauranty type place in a city, (like proper fish and chips or a rib eye steak with fries), will be western prices, or possibly even a touch higher - but you wont get that anywhere on the BAM. You need somewhere like Krasnoyarsk for that - 300km after the western end of the BAM.

Hotel Rooms ... cheap rooms were from 500- 600 rubles (10-12 quid) for a twin room, and more expensive ones (like Magadan and Vladivostok) were 1800 rubles (36 quid). From memory in Tynda, we had single rooms, and they were about 1500 rubles (30 quid each).

What we tended to find was that the more remote the location, the more expensive the prices. Food and hotels on the Trans-Siberian highway will be cheaper than in remote parts of Yakutia. Cities obviously are more expensive than towns and villages.

I planned for expenditure of about 50 US Dollars a day, and it worked out close to that. Perhaps I ended up doing $60 a day or somewhere around that for my whole trip. I didnt try to save money anywhere. I just spent what seemed appropriate. After hard stretches (when we deserved it) we sought out the best hotels in town, like in Tynda. And we almost never camped. You could definitely do it cheaper if you were watching pennies. Areas like Yakutia are more expensive than the average, and you will spend 30-40% more per day than in cheaper area. Everything is more expensive up North. Food, fuel, hotels, beer ...


Note: Average exchange rates during our trip were about 50 rubles to the GBP, 43 to the EUR and 32 to the USD

My take on Russians is they are like eggs. The climate and the culture makes then often appear gruff. That's the shell off the egg. Crack it open and they are very soft and warm on the inside (no I am not talking about bikinis here).

Some travellers who don't have the language will sometimes report the Russians as being gruff. But no-one who has a bit of the language has ever reported that to me. And I have never had a problem. Basically what I am saying is, if you speak a bit of the language, you will see the good side of the Russians.

Terry spoke no Russian yet got off to a flying start in Vladivostok, but it helped that he had met up with a couple of Russian bikers who spoke some English.

Tony speaks a little Russian, but he has a long standing Russian girlfriend, so I suspect his basic Russian combined with a pretty good idea of the culture and way things are done has meant he has always enjoyed excellent Russian hospitality.

Proud that we made you grounded from riding the BAM?

I cant be proud of that.

I used paper maps. I had scanned, blown up, reprinted and laminated some printed russian maps.

I know the Poles we met en route had a more sophisticated in car system, that included scanned maps, calibrated into OziExplorer software, and running on a large screen laptop ... so they effectively had a largescreen display of scanned maps (probably the same as mine) but had the GPS working with it.

As mentioned before, when it comes to the BAM Road, GPS is not the most useful thing in the world. You just follow the rail line.

I was just using Garmin World Map and my printed maps. From the combination of those I was always able to estimate within a mile or so where we were on the maps, and how far it was to the next village.

The more detailed printed maps were like this (covering Kuanda, Vitim Bridge, Taksimo and Severomuisk):



While more general road maps were like this (covering Kuanda to Novy Uoyan) :



Note that with these maps, most of the towns marked on the maps didnt exist. Once upon a time they did, as construction towns for the BAM railway, its bridges and tunnels. One the infrastructure was built, the construction towns were abandoned, but live on through non-updated maps.

I had an afterthought about this ... I don't really recall too many things named after or in honour of foreigners by the Soviets, with just a handful of exceptions. All of the exceptions I can think of were ideological allies - founders of communist theory, rather than mere political allies like Kaunda. Soviet support for people like Kaunda was merely politically convenient. The idea that they could have named a river in their heartland after a guy like that just wouldnt fly.

There is a city named after Italian communist Togliatti, and of course there is a lot named after the German fathers of communism, Karl Marx and Felix Engels. Occasionally you see stuff named after the Polish / German socialist Rosa Luxemburg. But most things that were named after people were named after "Heroes of the October Revolution" ... i.e. Soviet citizens who helped the rise to power of the Bolshevik government, thru fair means and foul.

well ... lucky I didnt post the earlier foto of me sipping bucks fizz thru a straw.

Real men drink what they damn well please

gale

QFT

Another nice sleep in and warm shower to start the day in Severobaikalsk. This civilisation stuff can really grow on you - makes us wonder why we ever headed out into the real wilds of Siberia.

Today would be a relatively short ride - 340km on prepared roads. A mere 6 hours or so. We left Severobaikalsk around 10:30. By 1pm we were passing the point where the Zhigalovo Road meets the BAM road ... a point Tony and I got to exactly 2 months ago to the day, on our way up to Yakutia.

It was strange to ride a road that felt familiar. Almost every point in the road gave me flashbacks to 2 months ago. Its incredible how much data can be stored in the brain ... all HD quality video replays from 2 months ago came flooding back.

We stopped in at the same railway canteen at Magistralny for lunch. Tony had been complaining of a soggy rear end ... I pointed out he was of pensionable age so it was par for the course. He however wanted to look at his tyre pressures and wheel bearings ... before realising his rear wheel axle nut was loose. Phew!, at least thats easy to fix.

Onwards and upwards to Ust Kut ... about 3:30pm we passed the spot that was total and utter muddy bog 2 months ago. In the cloudless blue sunny skies of today, riding it now was a doddle. It was almost dry. But it was still easy to imagine how it would look after a days rain!
Todays road:


The same stretch 2 months ago to the day:



In the final few dozen kilometres into Ust Kut, Tony had flashbacks to Yakutia and his 15 punctures. He had two rear wheel punctures, to add to one he scored last night. All up he is now up to 18 punctures. I think there is a good chance he can get 20 by the time he gets back to Denham Village in west London.

I had ridden ahead to Ust Kut to take care of other business and sat in front of the hotel eating shashlik in the sun. Eventually the two stragglers arrived and checked into the Lena Hotel.

There was now less than 700km of the 4280km BAM road to go. Just over a days ride to Taishet and the end of the line.

I hate to see the ride end. I've enjoyed every post and look for them religiously.
Thank You so much for letting us tag along and open our own horizons and the world in general.
I'm sure there is many like myself that never gave Russia a thought as an ADV destination. Thank you so much!!!

Usually I don't post on RRs but for this one I'll make an exception. Why? This is the best ride report ever! Just bearly edging out sambors Afghanistan report, close but this is the one.

incredible.

I'm in for the DVD!

Yes a 100% for the ride and the intercultural lessons. This rr is opening a new world for many of us.

This is the one!

KL

Tony and Terry checked into the Lena Hotel in downtown Ust Kut. I had ridden ahead of them to get to Ust Kut in time to sort out a boat trip back to Lensk.

I still harboured a burning ambition to get to the Arctic Circle in Asia. Tony and Terry were short on time and had to head back to the UK, but I thought I just had enough time before the seasons changed to try one more time to get North from Udachny.

It would be some time before I could finish the BAM Road .... that would have to wait.

The plan was ambitious, and it was solo ... and on a map, it looked like this ...



The blue line is the Trans Siberian Highway
The pink line is the BAM Road
The green line is what we had ridden to ust Kut and what I planned to ride north of Ust Kut

Tony and I had ridden up to Udachny 2 months earlier (new thread to come at a later date) in an attempt to be the first guys to ride up to the Arctic Circle in Asia, by bike. We reached Udachny, the Northernmost town fed by our road, but the Arctic Circle was around 18km (11 miles) further North from Udachny. We had managed a half dozen kilometres North from the town but it came to a depressing halt at a vast flooded river. We were forced to turn back, with only 7 or 8 miles separating us from that goal. Now, at the end of the summer, the river levels should be lower. I wanted to give it another go.

The Arctic Circle crosses 3 continents, Europe, North America and Asia. In Europe, the Arctic Circle is barely worth of a mention. German retirees in their RVs head up the coast of Norway every Summer in their tens of thousands, heading for NordKapp and cross the Arctic Circle comfortably on immaculate asphalt roads. In North America, its more remote, but heading up the Dalton Highway to reach the Arctic Circle is still something popular enough to base a local tourism industry on. In Asia however, its different. You have to get up to far Northern Siberia - and there is no tourism there. The Arctic Circle in Asia was virgin motorcycling territory. Or at least it was when Tony and I tried it in June - July.

Now was the end of August. I had received news that Mac Swinarski and co had crossed the Arctic Circle by barge on the Kolyma River a few weeks earlier, heading North from Seymchan (thousands of Kilometres to the East) ... and had then ridden their bikes back south across the Arctic Circle on the Road to Egvekinot and ultimately Anadyr. Despite this news, I was however determined to find a way to ride up to the Arctic Circle by bike, if indeed it was possible. Tony and I had come so close last time, just a handful of miles. I wanted one last shot at it.

- - -

A few handshakes and hugs could never be enough to say farewell to the two guys who have partnered me along this BAM Road odyssey. Tony has been with me for almost 3 months ... initially just planning to ride Altai, Tuva and Lake Baikal with me over 3 weeks, but that grew into 3 months across some of the wildest roads in Siberia. I am unsure how it will feel to be riding without Tony. It was in Central Asia the last time I set out on a day's ride without waking up Tony first. I dont think I have met a guy with such understated determination. No matter how tough things got, Tony just put his head down and got the job done. What he lacked in technique he made up for in abundance with balls. The guy is all about balls. If you see him, offer to shake his balls!

Terry has been a different asset on the BAM road. Apart from his ability to have a laugh, his vast off road riding experience going back about as long as I have been alive, was put to good effect on the tough BAM road. When the going got really tough it was great to send in Terry up front to show the best line though. I learned a lot about line picking from watching Terry carve up the toughest tracks. Terry was also the first person we turned to if anything mechanical or technical was amiss. 'Terry, what do you reckon?'. Terry and I rode at similar tempos and for long stretches it was just Terry and I riding together, followed by a wait for Tony.

I will really miss those guys. In 2 weeks or so, they will be back in England, and I will be where they are now.

Maybe I am mad to head up to Udachny again.

I loaded the bike onto the boat for Lensk at an obscure loading point, via the boats narrow steep front gangway. But as it happened, after loading the bike, the boat had to dock briefly at the main river port anyway, next door to the Lena Hotel where Tony and Terry were staying. I called the guys and told them to bring a few beers down to the river bank. We clinked beer bottles for the last time down on the shores of the Lena, and my boat pulled away into the darkness, set for 1000 km on the River Lena.

Absolutely cool ....... I am drawn to your ride report like a moth to a light.

THANKS GUYS .............. I am looking forward to the Artic circle adventure

More teaser pics if you got any

Soto