ENTERING A WORLD OF PAIN!
JOURNAL ENTRY NO. 9
What a weird way to start our adventure in the Altai Mountains! Let's list the string of events: wet campsite – nothing unusual; mozzies – nothing unusual; locals and us ingesting “beverages” - nothing unusual; young siberian guy leaving us with 2 women around the fire (he went to get beer) – sort of unusual; taking 2 hours to return – unusual; 2 women cracking onto us – not unusual; young siberian guy returning then stealing a borrowed shirt of Cavey's – unusual; women complaining when told to leave – not unusual; seeing older woman from party next morning and questioning her about missing shirt and being totally ignored – unusual. Our first really weird, totally unusual, negative experience so far.
6th - 13th JULY 2007
Climbing the Altai Mountains
We have been warned a few times about Siberian's, but so far they have all been awesome! Oh well, put it in the history books and we can move on ......and up ..... that is!!!
Stopping at a roadside pub for a hard earned beer (hey, we are here for good time, not a long fitness session) we watched some live drama's that were on (we must say ours were better) and took a walk on a massive suspension bridge. On leaving our “respite centre”, we noticed a huge bear chained up in a tiny cage. No animal should have to endure that, especially a wild one! It was crammed in, poor thing – we couldn't even bear (no pun intended) to take a photo, so away went the camera's and we pushed on to find a campsite.
As we climbed higher into the Altai, we were keeping our eyes open for “Medavuka”, (a honey – based, fermented alcoholic beverage) to no avail. Man we'd love to try some of that stuff ....oh well, next time!!!
The positive from all this polava, meeting Udo, a young German guy who has been travelling the world on a Triumph motorcycle for the last 7 years. AWESOME job dude!!! We carried on for 10km's, set up camp and swapped stories for the night.
Fixed and back on the road Cavey then gets a flat ..... another one ...... not his day really. Having lunch, fixing bike spokes and flats is not the way to clock up k's. We finish lunch and return to the bikes to find Cavey has ANOTHER puncture. BUGGER!!! He finds a tiny piece of steel wire poking thru the tyre ..... Culprit. Ratio so far: spoke nipples – Cavey 4, Dyl 0; flats – Cavey 4, Dyl 0.
We found one and were relieved to notice that the blood suckers had not followed us for a day – YEHAA!!! 10 mins later our nightmare was relived – their close cousins, the midge, mauled us to bits. So fierce was their attack we were forced to retreat to the tent to eat our dry noodles in safety ......again. Bring on the DDT!!!
The scenery, changing from open pines to forested mountain sides and swift, clear streams, put a fresh smell into the air. Awesome sunsets and stunning backdrops made riding through this area an absolute pleasure ...... except for the mountains. Kilometres and kilometres of gradual climbing, no downhill. Kilometres and kilometres of steeper, more intense uphill. Still no downhill. Great sealed, melting roads, a flat plateau, and finally...... a huge down hill!!! YEHAA!!! And so Cavey blows his 3rd and 4th spoke nipples – CHUNKER!!! .......what a way to celebrate hey? It seems the alloy nipples are not made for the extra weight ..... and then a Caveman on top of it all .... ha ha ha!
Massive mountains in this area made us work for every kilometre. And we did!!! We decided to break the humungous ones into smaller stages, 500 metres, 300 metres, 200 mtrs, and this proved better. At least now we were making progress.
Then disaster strikes again! Fanging it down a beautiful downhill section after a solid couple of days of climbing, Dyl hears a noise at his back wheel. Thinking it's a leaf or piece of rope from his luggage keeps the brakes open. Finally, the smell of burning plastic brings him to a stop. He finds his Exped Drysac, containing his brand new, $600 Lowe Alpine technical outer shell (rain jacket) fried and shredded in the back tyre .......NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! Dyl cries his eyes out. He's only worn it once!!! Cavey films it all (after the burning bit). Great combo really.
Tears over (girl), we wind our way down through the mountains getting ever closer to Mongolia. We gave the bikes a nice wash in one of the clear streams – our first major water crossing, NO WUCKERS MATE – to get to our campsite on a beautiful, stream-side grassy knoll. We re-wash the rigs and climb our highest mountain pass to date. Not sure of exact altitude, but over 2000 metres ..... easy. We struggle up it, our transport wanting to move with gravity – backwards, finally bomb it down the other side, set-up camp and retire to the sound of a crackling fire.
Both of us sit bolt upright in the middle of the night for some unknown reason, only to find all of Cavey's riding gear, and food bag, had been knicked!!! Clip-in shoes, Descente riding shirt, Descente riding shorts and his food bag containing his much beloved titanium spork – ARSEMEHOLES!!! Two disasters in 2 days.
But, within 5 hours, the generosity of the Siberian's prevails again. 3 am – gear stolen, 8 am – a family camping nearby give us 5kg's of food, and thinking ALL his clothes had been stolen, try to dress Cavey for a -40°C Siberian winter ...... in +40°C heat!!! Unbelievable, what a blessing!
3 more days of riding and we are out of the mountains and onto the grassy Steppe that will take us all the way to Mongolia. Up and down these massive mountains our GT Avalanches have performed seamlessly, except for the spoke nipples (which is due to Cavey's lard arse) which is understandable as they are not a traditional touring bike made to carry this weight. As we lose weight (and possibly equipment) they will come good. Gear changes under load – no probs; steering and responsiveness – no probs; handling – no probs. These bikes are FREAKIN' AWESOME!!!