SHASHLIK, VELOSAPEDA, SPASIBA !
JOURNAL ENTRY NO. 7
DAY 1 OF OUR ACTUAL RIDE TO EVEREST...... YEHAA !!!!
23rd - 27th JUNE 2007
Novosibirsk to Barnaul
We wake to the beautiful smell of breakfast cooking...... our Siberian friends continuing on the beer and offering us some to wash down our breakfast of fried bread with cheese...... and another stinking hot day of over 40* C! Man we reckon the Siberians have the short end of the stick: 40*C summers and -40*C winters, that's a difference of approx 80*C in a matter of months!!!!
We eat brekky minus the beer, and make arrangements to meet Vlad and Irra's great friends Dima and Svetta at the local “beach”, approx 25 kms east of Novosibirsk and on our way to Barnaul...... our first major stop. We get packing and try to do some work on updating the website...... to no avail...... nothing seems to be working...... everything takes too long around here...... precious $$ and time spent at the internet cafe...... zero result...... @#@$@%@!!!! Now running extremely late to meet the guys, and can't contact them...... @#$@%%^!!!!
The morning brings a little surprise. The tent is surrounded by milky udders! Ha ha ha! A farmer with his herd of cattle is passing through to the flowered meadows behind our tent which gives us a bit of a surprise, but some good footage for RTE! A second surprise awaits us...... Cavey's first puncture, bugger! Quickly fixed and then...... disaster. The tyre bead doesn't sit right and the tube blows out the side...... catastrophe, oh no! Two punctures in 10 mins, not the start we wanted on an 80km day! Tyre fixed, we load the bikes and realise that already our systems for loading are getting faster and more efficient...... excellent Stimpy! Later in the day...... a beautiful broken spoke nipple...... Cavey's 1st...... just add it to the list for the day! No wuckers mate!!!!
Now we are finally on the bikes....... properly! We leave at 7:30pm and literally ride into the sunset. The feeling of being on them is totally foreign...... on the wrong side of the road and with all the weight. The first pedals of Ride To Everest are tougher than we expected as we are competing with thousands of Russian drivers and their crazy self-imposed road rules. Speeds of 140-160 kms an hour are not uncommon, buses overtaking, pulling in and stopping is regular and dodging potholes is a must; all this within metres of our bikes, both struggling with the 65kg payload and reluctant legs.
We manage to ride the 26kms and make it to Aka Lemgorolok (the “beach”) two hours late, miss Dima and Svetta and then have to try to find dinner. It seems our first meal will be shashlik and beer! AWESOME! With our stomachs full to the brim, we pitch camp at midnight in the pine forest beside the “beach” and fall asleep to the sound of mosquito's buzzing, and our own surround-sound snoring
AAAAHHHHH day 1 of Ride To Everest...... complete!
We wake mid morning, pack the bus, I mean bikes, and charge to the beach for a swim. Watch out Siberia, here come two white whales from Oz! We shouldn't have worried, there were plenty of others around. Again the hospitality of the Siberian's is shown to us, a local family invite us for a picnic lunch with them and we spend a few hours chatting, eating delicious Siberian food and swimming. We are loving this adventure already. It seems we make quite an impression. Everyone we meet wants to change their lives and start to be more adventurous...... JUST GO FOR IT!!!!
The ride out of the “beach” is sandy and proves quite a spectacle to many of the onlookers. With the friendly Siberian family waving us off, Dyl decides to get out of shape in the loose sand, cant hold it, feet locked in...... BANG...... he's down...... stunt roll and brief lay down in the sand...... yep disgraceful dismount No. 1!!!! That's embarrassing...... "Yeh hi, we are the two Aussie guys that are gonna ride halfway round the world...... but can't even ride 50m without falling off and eating it!!"
We don't really know who ate who for breakfast but I think it was 50-50, mozzie eat me, me eat mozzie!!!! Mmmmmmmm tasty! Aggressive little beggars. Small and quick, not like the flying “suckers” back home. We pedal off into the lush green fields of the Siberian countryside, chewing on the remains of tiny critters, hit the road, clock over 60 kms an hour downhill and ride approx 42 kilometres in 2.5 hours (not bad considering we shared headwind and uphill duties). We then spend an hour in the bushes looking for a campsite, use some more of our equipment – solar panels, inverter, Exped chairkit, Aussie Survival Tool (for lighting fires) and a smokey fire to keep the pests at bay.........it didn't work of course! We retire to the haven of our Exped Sirius Extreme home away from home and crash...... into dreamland. Day 3 of RTE...... complete!
Mozzie breakfast...... awesome. Today, day 13, 26th June, day 4 of riding and we are on straight, hard, long, AND NOW WET, roads in Siberia. Out come the jackets...... they actually work a treat. We ride until dark and find a cool campsite behind a stand of trees. A distance of 63kms. That leaves approx 80kms to Barnaul, our first major destination after Novosibirsk. We are nearly there, UNREAL!!!!
Through rolling meadows we literally travel up and down to our apex...... a 2 km, 40 degree hill, I mean mountain, I mean Everest!! Hey, pipe down, it's our first one ok!!!! Go on then, laugh, you won't be in December when we're done. Ha ha ha hah ahaha aa.
Finding the hotel Dyl goes on the charge to reserve a room and Cavey spends his time getting to know the locals...... and killing them ded...... D.E.D...... ded!!!! Basically the moskies (not Ruskies) sucked him dry. Hopeful they enjoyed their last meal! The Australian killing machine in action! Shower, walk, eat, talk, recharge, drink beer, and finally, sleep. Today 83kms...... our best yet. Total from Novosibirsk approx 240km. New Russian vocab gained...... Shashlik (chunks of meat cooked on skewers over coals), Velosapeda (bicycle), Spasiba (thank you). Day 14 of our adventure, and Day 5 of Ride To Everest...... complete!
Barnaul, perched atop a small mountain, welcomes us with the police. Yep, at the top of the “hill” we find two traffic cops pulling over speeding vehicles (no worries there, unless we were heading downhill). No probs though. They draw us a map on the back of their ticket book to help us find the hotel. We carry on and ride through the quaint streets of the heart of a Siberian city. Pedaling through a city with people calling to us, beautiful buildings, even more beautiful women, great smells and no worries! This is living!
Next, because we didn't look stupid enough already, we are thrown the challenge of a 200m sharp uphill, in ankle deep sand, on 65kg tredlies, with clip in shoes...... disaster city! Needless to say we stacked it a couple of times, but we won't give in to the temptation of pushing...... we're not skirts...... we will pedal to the very end (of our lives it seems).
Out of the sand trap and onto the road we finally manage to crack on and do some reasonable k's...... NOT!! 25 kms later and day 2 of RTE comes to a halt in another mozzie infested field, just outside Iskitim, the first destination on our itinerary. What a challenge! Plus 40*C again, mozzies and midges, high speed vehicles, and slow rolling crumbly Russian roads. Arrive, put on spray...... sucked in we say to the little suckers...... literally, and we are ready for noodles and sleep.
