VLADIVOSTOK..ITS A LONG WAY HERE!

 DRDRDRDRDRDRDRDRDRDRDRDRDRDRDRDRDRDRDRDRDRDRDRDRDRDRDRDRDR
Douglas Isle of Man to Vladivostock by DR650 Completed

People on their own are getting nowhere
I'm on the road to see
If anything is anywhere or waiting
Just for me

Vladivostok......Its time to go home...

The rain runs down the inside of my visor where a breeze catches it and it flys backwards and joins the stream from my nose. We hammer up a slope and catch sight of a weedy Vladivostok sign  on our right and some sort of statue appears through the spray across the six lanes of hammering SUV's and toyotas  on the other side. I punch the bluetooth "f!@ck it this'll do let's pull over and get a pic". It's our final day on the road.....and the wettest and one of the most forgettable. My bike fell off it's stand during the night and drowned itself in its own fuel making for lots of prebreakfast fun. We then battled holiday traffic all the way including passing another possible fatal accident before doing a  couple of hours in the rain. When we hid Vlad we got caught in a monster traffic jam. Then  hotel we arrive at is booked out, the next we book in to raises the price at the last minute......it's time to go home...

  Mate are you sure that's Vladivostok on the sign....no but my wet crutch says that'll do!

The original dodgy map.....all done...tick.

Taken just before boarding the Ferry at Douglas. Already had done over a thousand K's since London and around the TT circuit.

Twenty thousand and twenty five K's Douglas to Equator hotel in Vladivostok. Oh and about ten metres air time whilst cartwheeling near Astrakhan....  

This is Yuri and Svetlana from Links Ltd the shipping people in Vladivostok. Anything to do with shipping of vehicles in Vladivostok see these people. So easy to work with and great service. 

Every night I walk around the city

Seems like I'll never know

That feeling of being together

When I go

Vladivostok on a sunny Sunday

Ok we're in exotic sounding Vladivostok so lets take a walk. Straight out the hotel door,  across the carpark and cut down some stairs..wow!

Down around the corner onto Svetlanskaya street rewards us with several K's of upmarket shopping and a great inner city feel.

The Russians have hit on this nifty idea....a mall...one that attracts people...not shoppers...it has heaps of seating, fountains, maintained flower beds and is spotless. Oddly enough the heaps of people enjoying the surroundings were doing heaps of shopping.....Adelaide take note!

What's the chances of this, an Adelaide Crows towel in a shop window in Vladivostok Russia....and it seems to have a buyer.....Ron...is that you....

The Russians do great statues and Vladivostok doesn't disappoint. 

Pretty sure this guy would've been a DR rider if he wasn't into ships. This statue was right next to our hotel and we had to pass it multiple times up and down the steps.

 So clean and tidy.Vladivostok contrasts with rural Russia just down the road.

There's a naval museum and parks along the waterfront including this actual submarine museum.

So in we went...there were more hatches and the space diminished as we went along so Ron backed out halfway. I'm sure we could have covered him in lard and squeezed him through!

Back near the hotel it was full holiday mode along the waterfront including a bunch of Hare Krishnas doing their thing....just like Rundle Mall in the seventies!

So whats the last thing you would do in Russia....go to the beach right! All up Vladivostok seems a pretty good place.

And it's a long way there

it's a long way to where I'm going

Precious and Blue

Take two budget six fifty trail bikes, beef up the springs for the extra load, wack on big tanks, carriers, redo the seats, leave the engines stock and ride off into twenty thousand K's of adventure. Any bike of any description is gonna be a compromise on a trip like this. Easily the most common bike we saw on the road were BMW eight hundred twins with twelve hundred GS variants close behind and a couple of Dr's and the odd KLR six fifty as well. There is good reason for this as adventure bikes around the eight hundred cc mark seem a sensible compromise, and while not fun or ideal in serious offroad conditions seemed unstoppable with careful offroad riding and great on the open road. Let's be sensible, probably seventy to eighty percent of this trip were on passable to good sealed roads and hammering a six fifty single down a German autobahn is an exercise in mental patience for anyone.  Ideally five, six hundred K's are the comfortable maximum for everyday DR travel while in mid Mongolia we were cheering to get two hundred.The DR's got a little breathless over four thousand metres in the Pamirs but we just dropped  a gear and carried on. I am an admirer of modern engineering of all brands and being able to buy any bike off the showroom floor, turn the key, and ride off into the sunset in all conditions practically trouble free is a wonderful thing. The Dr's may be an air cooled dinosaur but are a great budget compromise if you can balance the lack of comfort/power factor against light weight, reliability, economy, simplicity and price. Sure Precious loosened off her primary nut but chuck her on her side, nip it up, give her a flush and off you go. Blue likes to a knock back a bit of oil, shed numerous bolts (which her owner always seemed to have replacements for...hmmm) and her rack met several welders on a professional level but she still ran perfectly well and nothing actually fell off! We had to run them on crappy eighty octane in the dirt in Mongolia and I'm sure the blackmarket fuel we bought in Uzbekistan was eighty but they still ran OK with only the occasional ping under duress. Their chains are still in good nick, they always averaged over twenty to the litre,they don't leak, they only do about a wobbly one forty five over the mountain on the Isle of Man, they survive carwheels well, they're fun in the dirt but most of all...... 

they got us here!

Precious and Blue corralled and enjoying a well earned rest a the Equator Hotel in Vladivostok.

      

and it's a long way there

it's a long way to where I'm going

Some life on the Russian Road...
Getting up
I fumble for my glasses...mmm not on the bedside table cos there is none....was last night....or was that the night before......must be under the bed....ok now I can read my watch.....where's that now...which bloody button is the light on it.....hmmm....six fifteen .....first fire up the GPS and have today's map ready to go.....beep ...beep beep......beep
now time for a crap and a shower before breaky. Unplug the Sena bluetooths on the way through......Ron ya want the dunny before I make it unusable......no break in the snoring so all good. Now how does this bloody shower work ....hot on the left or whats this knob aaaar crap its going all over the place shit shit shit how do I.......whats with the no shower curtain thing anyway....aah !@#$ now my jocks are wet....Ron ...watch ya don't go ass up the floors wet again.....weird shower again.....yep....what about dunny paper.....yep but its Russian grade...again.

Truckstops.....home of the showercurtainless shower and the hot tap that delivers warm for about thirty seconds or patiently waits till you've soaped up and then stops...till tomorrow

Breaky
What have they got for breaky......I dunno the menu's in Russian again......any pictures....nup...whats Russian for pancakes again....um....try baaasier......nyet.....try um karsher.....nyet....eggs erm you know erm bock bock bock .....nyet....hang on, point to what that blokes eating....what that bloody meat thing again.....ok....da da....tap tap tap on the calculator......two hundred eighty rubles mate bargain...oh and two nescafe....nah nah not chai, nescafes.....da da......breakfast sorted

There's one other person here.....so we'll be having what they're having. Ron's got that hungry labrador stare again.

Fuel Stop
I'm standing next to my bike staring at the little barred window with the middle aged Russian lady behind it.  I've put a thousand ruble note into the little box that disappears back into the slot in her office, I've got the hose in the tank and I'm pulling the trigger ..... nothing....PUSH THE BUTTON.....much yelling and gesticulating in Russian from the window.....JUST PUSH THE BUTTON...ninety five I want !@#$ ninety five.......more gesticulating.....you want me to hang it up again.....da da.....ok.....PUSH THE BUTTON ....PLEASE....oh....we have fuel...at LAST!

Ok I've hung it back up........NOW PUSH THE BUTTON!

Toilet Time
Ron on bluetooth.....mate I gotta go soon......why didn't ya go this morning......I didn't feel like it......mate neither did I but ya just give it a big push......cant do that.....what about the woods......not keen......I like it.......nup cant get used to it.....ok.....um your call
Next fuel stop
You're not goin in there.....yep got no choice.....no way it stinks....got no choice.....there's no door....got no choice I'm so desperate I'm touching cloth back there....wonderful ya got paper....yep.....ya got wet ones...yep.....don't touch anything....nup.....those boards don't look safe and the hole's huge, don't drop anything.....huh...well I mean keys or anything...

Oh how cute.....don't go in there.........ooooooh no.......gross....what's that on your boot......

Hey everybody don't you feel that there's something

But you know in a moment it is gone

The Mongrel GPS

Ok ok I'm sitting in Vladivostok and I wouldn't be here if not for the bloody gps. Its a Garmin 660, I bought it new off the net and I chose it a) because it's for motorbike use and b) it loads music. It was pretty expensive and, well, compared to other devices around now you don't get a lot for your money. I downloaded OSM free maps from Turkey onwards and they were OK but needed careful checking if used for routing. The music is a godsend on boring days but sound quality using MP3 is pretty ordinary. On hot days over mid thirties the unit quite often died or just slowed down....which was crap. When I cartwheeled the bike the unit took such a smack it broke it's ball mounting right off but only sustained a couple of deep scratches and still worked so it's tough. Only a nutter would leave home without a form of GPS but times have moved on and a large percentage of travellers were using and preferring mobile phones using numerous offline apps for maps and accommodation which automatically update with wifi. Makes a lot of sense in 2014.

It's a big call, but I swore at this more than anything I have ever owned.....an awful lot of which was from my own ignorance and impatience....buuut I am in my chosen destination having travelled twenty thousand K's of cities, freeways, backstreets and dirt tracks  from where I started......so it was ok....just ok

I live for the day when I can hear people saying

that they know and they care for everyone

The Media Centre

Punching out this blog has been mega time consuming, a challenge, and fun. I haven't written anything but work stuff and wedding speeches since I left school in 1976......hmmm....well anyway....so presenting and committing legible thoughts and experiences to print with what brews between the ears, on command from some pretty dull senses, mixed with a dodgy imagination, was a challenge. These are the devices that helped me do it. A Google Nexus 7 tablet with Chinese eBay keyboard , an Olympus TG2 camera, a pile of leads,  powertech plus 4 outlet 2.1 and 2.4 usb adaptor aaand that's it.... which is good cos I had to learn how to use all of this stuff before I left!  

Yep that's it...bringing the grand plan to the world starring Ron and Dean!   

But I feel that I've been here the whole of my life

never knowing home

My mate Ron....the man in the mirrors

Ok first up lets get something clear here, Ron and I are complete opposites except for the fact we both like motorbikes. There's not much he does or thinks that either totally baffles me or gives me the shits. The fact is he's a good guy who always means well, and he's a mate, and that's all there has to be. Ron doesn't do planning, doesn't do technology, doesn't do fashion, is baffled by any extra effort on any scale, and turned up for our global ride without even a watch....huh. He's way more careful, friendly and courteous than me, and for some reason is oddly nervous at borders and around people of authority. At the start he was given a couple of jobs, cooking and bringing a stove, and bringing a working phone. Well the stove never did work and along with all the cooking utensils disappeared quietly early on and the phone which came from a garage sale (of course) was a complete dud as well...... "aaaaaaaah"....."aaaaaah" (that's better) and that was any extra effort out the way.  He was to bring some tools as well but erm hmmm nyet. Thing is besides being a superb rider he is a real people person through and through, which I'm not. If he wasn't scooping up children in Mongolia or walking with herdsmen in Kyrgyzstan, laughing with truckies from everywhere he'd be entertaining travellers in places like the Oasis in Ulan Bator or  Craig Ny Baa on the Isle of Man with all sorts of bullshit stories about Australia which had me just smiling, cringing, and shaking my head. He never ever complains, is always on his bike ready to go, and is always behind you ready to hand you a spanner (my spanner that is!) or a hand up when you're upside down in the shit.

 Thanks mate for being part of this crazy adventure and being 

"the man in the mirrors".   

Ron and a herdsman in Sary Tash......the herdsman is congratulating Ron on winning the international award for longest continual wearing of a port power Tshirt. 

Ok....give the hat back....

Its a long way, it's a long long long way there

I'm gonna keep on tryin, I'm gonna keep on tryin yeah

I'm gonna keep on tryin keep on tryin 

My home hero

 I've been married thirty three years....and I've been a motorcyclist even longer. I've had a few big accidents and broken multiple bones over the years so much so I should have a photo album just for xrays. Marianne comes from a totally non motorcycle background and for the thirty six odd years we've known each other has raised three great kids, battled the bank account and looked on as her husband has crashed and burned multiple times, bought, sold, blown up, sworn at, lost money on and repaired an endless parade of weird and wonderful vehicles (down to my last five bikes and gotta hit carsales when I get back....never had a Porsche yet....mmmm or a Jag....MG?). When I ran the grand plan past her she just rolled her eyes and waited for my sales pitch on the how long and how much bits and nodded with the usual "just be careful". She has just worked through a miserable Adelaide winter, watched her husband bounce around half the world sometimes on his head, kept an eye on the diminishing finances, had the hot water service die, watched my enemies the garden weeds regroup and attack, and had her first two grandchildren arrive, all on her own..........my hero!    

Marianne with grandchild number two Sophie.....apparently Sophie is to stay away from motorcyclists, car enthusiasts  and dreamers in general......yawn

(But she is signed up for Adelaide Crows membership!)

Been away for such a long time

And got to know this town

But I don't seem to matter much to anyone, who's around

is there anybody around?

Highs and Lows

High.....Going home on the bus from the map shop with the laminated world map.

Low.....bike falling off its stand outside the Beatles museum in the pouring rain.

High.....lapping the isle of man circuit and recognising bits as I wobbled round.

Low.....climbing a million stairs with all the luggage. Top floor room, at the end...

High.... having one of the best meals ever near the Blue Mosque in Istanbul.

Low..... the flip side poverty in Turkey and beyond behind the glitz and flash cars.

High..... The Georgian Military Road.

Low.....Watching Ron nearly have a heart attack in Kyzlyar

High.....All the paperwork and visas working so well

Low.....chucking it away and almost ruining the trip near Astrakhan.

High.....well I wasn't dead...and I could still ride....result!

Low.....the crap roads in the Stans, in ten years time there will be freeways everywhere.

High.....seeing how you can have nothing but still be happy and generous.

Low.....Exploring multiple forms of gastro...you name it I've crapped it out.

High.....meeting friends on the road, Beth, Shalom, Jamie, Kim, Ken, the Compass crew.

High and low.....having two new healthy grandchildren...but not being there.

Low.....I gotta get better with food.

High....Barnaul to Olgi.....oh yeh.

Low....camping in the Altai with no stove or matches.....Ron!

High.....reuniting with Beth and Shalom and Jamie in Olgi.

Low..... bloody punctures

High.....getting email photos of grandchildren 

Low.....listening to the clutch primary rattle all day in Uzbekistan

High.....crossing mid Mongolia on dirt with friends...definitely a trip highlight.

Low.....the hole in the tyre bugging me all the way till the end.

High.....meeting and camping with the Compass Expedition mob

Low.....after Lake Baikal the brain knew the challenge wasn't there

High.....Doing the blog and getting comments...awesome thank you

Lowest of lows..... people perishing on the road....

High and Low....sitting in a crappy hotel room in Vlad.....trip completed tick.

AND A MILLION MORE THAT WILL POP OUT OF THAT OVERSTUFFED FILE DATED MAY 24TH TO AUGUST 24TH 2014 FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE. I DID NOT IMAGINE FOR A MOMENT THAT EVERYDAY WOULD BE SO FULL OF CHALLENGES AND MEMORIES.  

Every night I walk around the city

seems like I'll never know

The feeling of being together

when I go

High......Mongolia

and it's a long way there,

 it's a long way to where I'm goin

High......The Georgian Military Road

and it' s a long way there,

 it's a long way to where I'm goin

High.....the Altai

Everybody knows it's a long way there

Oh, everybody knows it's a long way there

Mmmm it's a long way

High.....the Isle of Man 

Drivin around's kind of gettin me down and I know, and I know

It's a long long way there, it's such a long long way, long way

High.....strangers who's only motive is generosity. I gotta change....

Hey everybody, yeah, 
don't you feel that there's something...

High.....we all need friends....and we found them.....or sometimes they found us!

 Feel it.....Feel it!

It's a Long Way There

 Little River Band

Final Reality Check

I'm sitting on a step outside yet another truckstop a few hundred K's before Vladivostok. Ron's topping up his oil for the zillionth time and we're both covered in dust and mud from roadworks. I'm staring at the bent spoke in my front wheel trying to remember where it happened......"ah in Almaty.....went to leave the hotel and I left the security cable on and bent up the speedo cable as well. Had to loosen all the front wheel  off to realign the speedo drive with the usual crowd of onlookers witnessing my stupidity whilst sweating my ass off again in the heat"..... so much stuff to remember. Everything I have is scratched, worn,lost, scarred, faded, bent or broken from three months and twenty thousand K's of travel starting on the other side of the globe. The bike which was immaculate is a mess, most of which is my fault. I'm still carrying a huge swollen hip, dodgy ribs and I buggered my back this morning picking up the bike. Common sense would question the sanity of all this. 

Where's the balance? The offset to all this pain and expense?......

"We off mate.....oils all good?"...."yep"

I fire up the DR, get it sideways in the gravel for fun before hitting the bitumen and wind up to a hundred K's in fourth before finally slotting fifth to cruise. I punch the bluetooth.... "all good mate?"....."yep all good"..... and slide back on the seat with the bloody spare tyre in my back again. I scan the today's fresh new horizon, check Ron in the mirrors, and settle in........

...who knows what could happen today...hmmm...

...yep...that's why I'm here...

Life is for living....go to it!