2017/08/23

Day 25: Irkutsk - Krasnoyarsk

Today I was riding more than 1,000 km, a very long day!

Actually I wanted to ride about 700 km today and do camping somewhere. After about 300 km I had a first photo break as a - very young - Russian couple on a motorbike (names I don't mention here) stops for me. We talk a bit with the help of Google Translate and they ask me if we want to go together with them to Krasnoyarsk. The Russian motorcyclists are used to long distances - the dimensions from east to west are really huge and so they are used to longer distances. They have made the iron-butt together, that means 1.896 km in less than 24 hours!

We are going well and we're doing a long distance, despite breaks for eating and refueling. As a guy in grandfather's age I can still keep up well. Somewhere during the day, I'm getting to the 100000 km mark with my bike. Short break for celebration and taking a photo. We ride through areas with a lot of agriculture and through coniferous forests. The vastness is gigantic and can't be reproduced in photos. A beautiful sunset - but finally it's after 10, until we arrive.

Amazing! We parked our bikes in a guarded parking, take the things we need and are gently received by a couple who is also part of the biker community. The biker community in Russia is extremely well connected, very often there's the possibility to stay at private places and the motorcycle clubs maintain so-called "bike posts" where bikers can stay for free. We get some food from our hosts - incredibly nice. Only communication is difficult. No one speaks even a word in English or even German and I'm not able to speak Russian. But it is an exciting experiment and so I will stay here tomorrow and spend a day here.

Oh, what about my shock absorber? I can ride and everything else will be solved after my return. Thomas from Twowheel promised to me.