Russia 2010 - to Siberia until Lake Baikal

Roughly 20,000 kilometers by motorcycle in 6 weeks.

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After the journey of 2008 I've hit the road again together with Volker (a fellow rider of that time). This time both motorcycles of the make Honda: Volker with a Transalp, and myself with an Africa Twin.

Ready to start.

Along the way in Austria: a "fruity" roundabout ...

... and some waters with an internet-technical name.

Jump to Ukraine into a recently built motel at the highway.

The bridge across the Volga between Saratow and Engels.

Almost everywhere: Birch-trees at the side of the road..

Oh yes, there are a few kilometers remaining to go.

Bilingual signposting in the Basque, er, Bashkirian count(r)y.

A roadside picnic place (what cannot be found very frequently).

There a truck was somehow feeling a bit hot. (From the right the fire-brigade is driving into the picture.)

In a national park in the Urals mountains.

The border between Europe and Asia is reached.

Chelyabinsk, the first larger city in the Asian part of Russia.

Somewhat farther the junction to Kurgan (the next larger city).

Russian roundabouts should be approached with caution ...

... for the very individual right-of-way regulations.

In Omsk it's time to change the carried-along tires - with the help of local motorcyclists a suitable workshop is found, which in the early evening also serves as motorcycle meeting point.

An excursion to the city center ...

... brings the observation of a sometimes not very strong pavement.

Our accommodation in Omsk.

And then our local friends said "tomorrow we are heading off for a great Siberian motorcycle meeting - would you like to come with us?"

At half distance towards there, overnight accommodation in a simple typical timber house in the center of Novosibirsk.

Arriving in Kemerovo at the site of the meeting with the (translated) name "Full throttle!!"

The motorcycle - the friend of the humans!

On the meeting site (with hundreds or thousands participants from roughly 2000 km around).

Except ourselves one(!) more West European is there: Ian Coates with his Africa Twin from England, travelling around the world since approximately eleven years.

This Africa Twin belongs to a Japanese guy - and thus (beside a group from Kazakhstan) all foreign visitors are enumerated.

Here we have - just like in the previous picture in the background - one more Africa Twin that's resident in the country (what we hardly had seen 2008 two years ago - whereas Yamaha's 750 Super Ténéré, which we had seen at that time quite frequently, now seems somehow absent).

But Yamaha's Vmax is much more frequently visible. The majority of the Russian motorcyclists prefers naked to sporty Japanese four-cylinders of all sizes of displacement or as well cruisers up to the Goldwing. Whereas dual-sporties are not so frequent.

Remember the attending motorcycles. Perhaps you'll see them again some thousand kilometers later.

A typical general store in a village at the road going east.

So let's sit down at the picnic place right in front of it.

Typical rural timber houses.

Some plants at the roadside.

"You'd better take the road through the city" was what a local had been recommending: this is the bypass road of Kansk (with the official long-distance highway numbering in the tree at the left).

Between Kansk and Tulun some sections of the highway are merely a provisional gravel road beside the Trans-Siberian railway (however, the works for a "full-featured" highway are in progress).

The locals (meaning also the non-motorcyclists) are often very much interested.

Here two (British-Dutch) dirt bikes can be discovered.

Less than hundred kilometers remaining ...

Continue to part 2

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