Vologda to Omsk
I arrived in Omsk having travelled some 10,000 kms since leaving the UK a month ago. Despite the horrendous roads in Russia at times the Mule had performed faultlessly and to date I have not used my tool kit for anything bar an oil change in Estonia. It was not without plenty of warning from previous travellers that I would face suspension and frame failure problems on these roads. So far my preparation and attention to these issues had paid off for despite having 'crashed' into many unavoidable potholes my confidence and bike have survived.
The scenery between Vologda and Omsk has changed considerably. Landscapes opened up from closed soggy pine and birch forests intermittent with numerous lakes to open very extensive farming, cropping and pasture production. There are literally millions of hectares of cultivation between Nizhney Novgorod and Omsk broken only by the crossing of the lower foothills of the Ural mountains. The deep chocolate soils are alluvial in nature and hold moisture extremely well. So despite the short summer extensive cropping with some very up-to-date machinery plants operated across this vast region. It was difficult to ascertain how agriculture worked as many local villages remained intact and I can only presume that they operate as a commune as there was no evidence of wealth as in modern machinery sheds huge grain stores etc that are common in the western world (US and Aus) cropping areas.
I stayed in Nizhny Novgorod for 2 days. My entry was impeccably timed with a miltary procession in the old town with a display of jeeps, 6WD Kamaz trucks towing what I presumed were some pretty old canons. The celebrations were something to do with the military susccesses of WW2. After 2 hours of navigating around the back streets of the old city, I found a fabulous local business style hotel located high on the banks of the confluence of Volga and Oka Rivers overlooking the new city sprawling some 20 kms to the west. It was worth paying extra to be on the views side of the hotel.
The military celebrations meant that everyone was out walking the streets and the views from the nicely landscaped walkways along the banks some 100m in height were well used by people promenading and generally socialising with friends. I witnessed the official gathering of miltary personnel and families but stayed well clear as I am sure I stood out like a cat on a hot tin roof. Despite spending considerable time preparing my blog at the business room computer it was very unstable and I lost my work twice due to crashes. So I abandoned my efforts until now some five days later.
By now I was getting a pretty good picture of the distances that were required to get across Russia to Lake Baikal in Siberia. Most of the big cities averaged populations in excess of 1M. Unless there was a bypass route it could take 2-3 hours to navigate through the centre. Directional road signs were intermittent and often extremely hard to find. This was definitely the most stressful part of travel to date.
I left Nizhny Novgorod with a good feeling and a realisation that my russian language would need to improve rapidly as english speaking locals were negligible. It was proving to be a very difficult language to even retain what I had leaned for many letters of the englsh alphabet simply have a different pronunciation and trying to get the brain to constantly translate and use the letters properly was a struggle to remember. I also realised that my daily travel distances were going to increase drammatically if I were to maintain my schedule.
By the time I had arrived at Omsk I was confident that I could ride 500kms per day if required as the roads had improved and the traffic was not so intense. Omsk is located close to the Kazakhstan border and the locals began to diversify to include Mongol, Kazkh and Asian cultures. When I arrived at a hotel after paying a taxi driver to take me to a 'cheap' hotel, I was greeted by a party of locals enjoying their Kazakh style plov on a huge caste iron wok out in the yard. It turned out the next day that these guys had been employed as workers as the small hotel that was still being constructed. Arrival was also timed to witness a car load of tarts emerge from a taxi and jiggle into the grounds of the hotel. However they quickly turned around and sped back to the waiting taxi. Not sure what the commotion was all about but I couldn't help noticing that one was at least 6'4". WOW! I did at this point wonder what I was letting myself in for.
The invitation to join the food and beer fest was made very clear and everyone was clearly happy to include me in their evening meal which I might add was great. I had read about 'plov' that consisted of fried rice and and some meat. My recollection of plov was that it was soup that is widely available through Siberia and Central Asia. The hotel owner was an enterprising guy who had incorporated a car detailing business under the hotel that employed a considerable number of young people. They allowed me to securely park my bike here whilst staying for two days. The only catch was it operated until all hours of the night as locals left their black BMW, Land Cruisers and Mercedes overnight for their weekly spring clean. Omsk was another sprawling city of 1M people but it was cleaner, and flatter than other cities I had visited. The introduction of the Kazakh influence was a good one for me.
There remains more than 2,000 kms before reaching Ulaan Ude near Lake Baikal before turning south to Mongolia and beginning my return to the UK via Central Asia. Distance wise I estimate that I have reached almost one third of the total distance of the proposed Eurasia tour.