Vienna to Magadan - BAM Road and Road of Bones

An Adventurers Dream

Well this is the start of my first ride report on the ADVrider Forum. I have not really planned to do so, because I did not know any of you guys and you don´t know me either. So I thought you might not be interesed. But guess what - I don´t care

Before I went on my trip, I read many ride reports that helped me planning my trip and my route. I did not really ask for help, just the information that is on the forum helped so much. So I thought I will give something back and write down my story plus a few notes aboout stuff I was not able to find out upfront. (but found out by myselfe now)

So for the start of the story, here is a short appetizer. So you can judge within a few minutes if this will be an interesting one for you or not.



But before you just skip this report - beware - I will disclose the well hidden secret why adventure travellers all over the world are buying BMW´s for their adventure rides.

And here are some facts:

Rider: just me (and those weird voices in my brain appearing from time to time) + a few nice guys I met during the trip
Bike: an old worn out BMW 650 Dakar which I bought just for that trip with 135.000 km on it when I bought it for not much money
Route: Basicly the shortest way from Vienna to Magadan which took me EXACTLY 13.000 km + 100 meters
Days: 21 (19 riding days)

30% of the ride was on tarmac
30% was on gravel and sand and mud
40% i did not see what I was riding on

more to come ...

wow, cool vid. I'm in. For attaching video, click on the "share" and then click on "embed",then copy paste the link.
. <iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/h1ikZ-Dtc_M" allowfullscreen="" width="420" frameborder="0" height="315"></iframe>

Great video xdream.

What helmet cam were you using? What format did you shoot in?

That's some of the best quality helmet cam footage I think I've ever seen.

Adam

This looks like it is going to be pretty epic ride report

Some neat country over there from what I've seen in the reports. And that is quite statement about the bmw(I like my dakar very much too)

Thanks. The Cam is a Gopro HD. So nothing really special. Maybe I just used it right

It shoots in mp4 format. and i have put the video together with the Live Movie Maker from Windows.

So here the story goes:

I left Vienna on the 29th of July at 10:00 am. My plan was getting to Poland to the border between Poland and Belarus. Everybody told me NOT to go to Belarus. So I decided to go there.

I arrived at the border at around midnight after 900 km of riding. There was a lot of traffic and people told me before to expect up to 10 hours waiting time to cross the border. So I thought gettin in line now would be better than stay in Poland overnight and stay in line the next day.

Nobody complained when I passed all the cars and so I got out of Poland within only 10 Minutes. Then it started gettin funny. I passed all the cars again. Again no complains from anybody waiting in line. So I got to the border to Belarus quick. A stamp here, an insurance there, pay insurance at another counter. Pay insurance for bike, pay another insurance for medical whatever, get a stamp for whatafuck, pay for that stamp, get back to get a stamp that you paid for dontknowwhat. Get to the guy at the boarder again with all the stamps and papers and then get to another window to show them your papers. Then get to the customs and get another stamp and pay. And then --- I´m in? Yes!!! NO!! Give back half of the papers I stamped. NOW I´m in Belarus I think I paid money about 20 times to any office chick. Overall it costs me around 7 Euro And it took me just about 2 hours. That was perfect. And by the way, even if it was a lot of stamps and insurances. Everybody was really nice and helpful.

Well then - I was in Belarus, it was 2 o´clock in the morning and I did not have a clue where to go, so I went to the next city (Brest). Streets were dark and there was not a person on the road. I stopped at a traffic light and a small van came up. 3 guys were in the Van and waved at me and showed "thumbs up". I asked them for a gastiniza (hotel). Lots of talking. I did not understand much, but I had to "high five" at least every minute. *lol*

Then they asked me to follow. We drove about 10 minutes. We got out of town and were driving somewhere out to the woods. I thought to myselfe "nice. 10 minutes abroad and I get raped by 3 guys, fucked in the ass, killed and get robbed afterwords" (order may vary). Everybody told me this will happen- but I did not listen. I thought I knew it better than everybody else.

But suddenly we came to a Hotel which looked like a prison, but it actually was a hotel and I got a room for the night.

What a first day

pictures to follow ;-)

Fantastic video!

It looks like that bike spent more time in the water than on dry land.

We want more!!!

This is the proof that 2/3rds of the worlds surface is water, only 1/3rd is ground

In Sibiria it´s 2/3rd water and 1/3rd bridges

In!

Subsrcibed.

Great video, looking forward to the RR.

Wasnt there any stamp to proove that you got all the stamps, or maybe a stamp to ensure that you have the stamp that proofs the stamps that.........

I saw that video a few weeks ago and now I'm very much looking forward to this report.

kick. ass!

Subscribed.

a great achievement, this trip alone and in this short time. inconceivably
many thanks that i could be thereby, when you showed the pictures and videos.

guess I have to continue here.

Here are the pics of the first day:

This is the BMW 650 GS Dakar. I bought it with 130.000 km on it. The plan usually was to buy a cheap bike - because I did not have an Endurobike before - drive it to Magadan and just leave it there. The big Tank and all the other extras were already on it. i did not invest much in the bike. This is also all the luggage I took with me. Light and fast was my credo.



at the border to Belarus. Nice and easy to cross.



First night in Belarus.

Because I did not have mucht time, I wanted to get to Krasnojarsk as fast as possible. So I started very early only after about 5 hours of sleep. I did not know anything about the roads in Belarus und further to Moscow. Everybody was telling me that I will get stopped and fucked by the police a lot of times. But nothing happened. So I got to Moscow the same day without any troubles.

Vienna - Moscow. 2.100 km in 2 days.

I know, it´s a pitty to rush through countries that fast, but I did not have more than 3 weeks of holiday and I wanted to get to Magadan. It´s not that I wanted to do a race or be "faster" than others.

The Hotel the next morning. Looks more like a prison,



But is was secured very well by a very scary dog



The road in Belarus was perfect. No traffic, no police. Just me (and rain).



Russian language is very easy (I started to learn russian 6 month before I started my trip) Omelett means Omelett in russian So that was my breakfast for the next 3 weeks.



Got into Russia after 600 km of straight and perfect road. The road to Moscow was quite the same. Just more Police on the road, but they did not stop me once.



Got into Moscow at night (after riding hours in the rain). Crazy driving on the roads in Moscow. I don´t think they know anything about lines on the street. I stopped at a police stop and asked for a hotel. You should have seen their faces. I think I was the first person ever to stop on purpose and not get stopped by them. They were leading me to a nice and cheap hotel. it was dark by then. I went to bed after I got something to eat at a supermarket near the hotel.

Lovin this.

Hell, I just fell off one of the bridges watching the video.

IN

Great video,hope the same for the pics!