Category Archives: Border crossing

Erik

September 8, 2013 Ben 1 Comment

I woke up first in our little room in the roadside hostel. We were just before Voronez and it was raining, again. This summer was definitely a pretty wet summer. I took a quick shower and woke Larisa. It was 7am and ready to move, we had still a lot of miles to do.

We got outside and immediately felt the cold outside. It was around 10 degrees, misty and raining. I could wish for better weather. We hit the asphalt and I had to ride with my visor open as it was damping all the time. We fueled up in Voronez and had some breakfast. Coffee and cheborek. My favourite cheborek, I will miss it!

We continued and the road was good but wet. The speed was good, around 140kph to 160kph and we advanced well. My rear TKC tyre was already well worn though. So I could not go too fast here.

We would go through the same city we came about 100 days ago, namely Donetsk in Russia. It is a town with a small but quick border crossing. We were still on the M4 when there was a huge traffic jam, I think at least 15 km. It was a good thing to be on a bike as I could ride next to the cars. Hey I could do some off road again 🙂

Sometimes it was a single lane road, sometimes a fast road. But when leaving the M4 the road got small. The dark clouds and rain was coming and going, and we were pretty cold on the bike. Until we reached the town of Donetsk in Russia by 2pm we had mostly rain.

The border crossing went smooth. The russians smiled when they looked at my passport. It was the third time I left Russia and I had a lot of other stamps too. Entering Ukraine also went smooth and we were quickly inside Ukraine. Larisa started smiling more and more now!

We had a fast road and I think it went a lot faster than the time we left Ukraine. Or maybe I was just racing a bit today 🙂

We stopped in a small cafe on the road, to have some tea and found some local girls dancing. There was a birthday party, with vodka 🙂 But we had to continue, still 120 km to go and we would see our family again. Now the final stretch started. The sun shined all the way though.

We got in Donetsk, Ukrain now, and the last miles seemed to last longer. We finally got to our destination and everybody was waiting outside to meet us. Nice! Erik was looking at us without saying a word for the first half an hour. He seemed a bit overwhelmed. But after a while he started talking, and not in Flemish but in Russian now! The girls have done a great job here, he has learnt a lot I could see.

We had a meal in the evening with the family, it was very nice but I was shattered. I feel like I could sleep for a week now. I just needed warmth, rest and my family…

Border crossing, Mongolia

From UB to UU

August 14, 2013 Ben 3 Comments

I was very happy today because we were leaving the ger 🙂 After almost two weeks in a ger I was silently dreaming of a hotel room again, or my own tent. A ger can be nice from the outside but if you live in it for a while, you will find out that you are living together with mother nature. Spiders will be your best friends here!

So we got up early. Today would be a big test for the bike. The new rear shock was in place, but also the valves had been tuned. We left early also to evade the big traffic jams in UB.

We rode outside of the city to the roundabout where we came almost two weeks ago. Now we didn’t take the turn for Olgii, but the way to Suukhbatar or the Russian border.

It was asphalt all the way, so an easy ride. It felt great to ride with working suspension again. After fifty km’s I stopped to check my cylinders for oil leakage. During the last bike maintenance I had also checked the valves and the intake valves had to be tuned.

Indeed I saw some oil on the bottom of the gaskets. I will open them again, and really dry clean them. If it does not help I will have to replace the gaskets, which I have as spare parts.

Under the way I was riding together with a CD car with a red license place. Apparently it was the ambassador of China in Mongolia. He stopped at the same place we did, and was very keen on the bike. We got another business card from a diplomate 🙂

While we stopped, there was this little dog who came by. He was really cute! We were eating some Khuushuur we had left over from Broadway’s in UB. So we treated him.

We reached the border of Russia with about 2 liters still in the tank. I know the Russian fuel is a lot cheaper so I really pushed it on. The border crossing was easy. First we could overtake all the lories. Then we had to do the usual paperwork. Passport control and bike control on the Mongolian side. We were out of Mongolia in like 30 minutes. There was Polish jeep and a German van, but they had to wait in line behind the other cars.

Next was the Russian border. It was the third time in three months! There were a lot of Mongol cars before the checkpoint. As always they put themselves in some kind of zigzag way so you pass them very hard. I asked politely if they would move their cars 20cm or so, but no way! So I just went over the grass and then they all started to horn, funny 🙂

The checkin for Russia went smooth as well. We just had to create a new document for the bike, my previous was only valid until 5/9. Our luggage was not checked.

We rode into the first city looking for benzine and found 95 easily. Next we saw this large military base, and under the way a lot of tanks and infantery units training.

After riding 420 km or so I was starting to fall a sleep on the bike. Not so good, so it was time to stop at a stolovaya. Luckily there was one.

Once in Russia I think the landscape has changed a lot. We saw this big forrest with soft sand, hills. It was a robuust terain, but beautiful.

Before reaching Ulan Ude we also witnessed a nice lake. Suddenly it is in front of you.

In the evening we reached the city of Ulan Ude, and just before the city we saw the road split. Following east would lead to Chita and further on to Yakutsk or Vladivostok. Following west would bring you to Irkutsk and lake Baikal. The latter was our destination.

We rode into town and checked in our hotelroom. It was a ride of 570km today. The bike had done fine, we were in our final country of the trip.

During the trip we had lost some time here and there. Now the big question is will we go to the dalnii vostok or the far east or play safe and stay at Baikal and head home afterwards. It will be decided in the coming days…

Border crossing, Mongolia

Mongolia

July 26, 2013 Ben 2 Comments

In the meantime we are both safely in Mongolia. We have ridden more than 13.000km so far. Since the last post we have been through Tajikistan and the Pamir, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan. Central Asia was amazingly beautiful and an experience of a lifetime. We will never forget it.

We have been back in Russia but in Western Siberia now, and via Barnaul to the beautiful Altai mountain range. We have a tough choice at this point.
Both of us are pretty tired. We want to see Baikal lake. But how to get there? Through the nice russian roads with asphalt.
Or should we try Mongolia?

Larisa does not need a visa for Mongolia, and I have a visa, but I need to enter before the 1st of August.
Well we went all the way through the Altai, and at the end of it you have the Mongolian border.
So why not try it? We both agreed to give it a try. But you must know, Mongolia has almost no roads.
The asphalt road literally stops when you enter the country.

We made a very quick entry of the country and rode in an our in the evening and rain over a mountain to the city of Olgii.
Yesterday we have ridden from Olgii to Khovd. The weather was good. Blue skies again, but there was water on the road.
We had to cross several small rivers, but no problem. The only downside is that we are riding on the same tyres we put on in Volgograd, the Heidenau K60.
They have now about 9000km on them and the back is nearly worn. I should have put the TKC 80 set on which was waiting for us in Barnaul. But we were not sure to go through Mongolia or not. OK, now it is more changeling 🙂

Mongolia is a special country. The nature and landscape is stunning. I feel like watching a movie all day long when I ride here. Eagles are watching us when we ride through the steppe and mountains and sometimes they come really close. You have to know in this big country the average is 1 man on 1 square km. So you can really be alone here.
The food and drinks are something here. The tea is milky with a salty taste. We had the national dish which is called Tsuivan. It is a mix of macaroni, potatoes and beef. Quite good, but the macaroni was not so good like the one I had in the Pamir in Jelandi 🙂
Then you have communication, I mean talking to people. We both speak Russian and English, but here it is almost no help, you have to speak Mongolian, which is almost not understandable. Sign language does the trick here. Getting money from an ATM in Olgii was easy, and we could even buy a Mongolian SIM card, from an operator called Mobicom. I now have 250Mb credit 🙂

The offroad is a paradise so far for me. Sometimes difficult, sometimes easy. The BMW is doing a great job, the ESA is really great so far. The only thing we have to do is inflate the tyres now and then, now actually on an almost daily basis. It is like buying fuel and water. The fuel by the way is expensive here. 2000 Togrog for one liter, which is almost double than in Russia. Larisa is doing a great job in the backseat. But I think she will be happy when we reach civilisation again in UB and finally Irkutsk. We are both missing our son Erik as well.

More detailed posts of the travel story will follow later, when I have more time to write. Maybe on the transsiberian from Irkutsk to Moscow 🙂

Greetings from Mongolia to all our family and friends!

Border crossing, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan

The ride to the Lenin Peak basecamp

July 3, 2013 Ben Leave a comment

It was early in the morning when we woke up. The location was one of the lovely places we had on our trip. High in the mountains near a beautiful lake. The lake was very salty and cold though, a morning swim was out of the question here 🙂 For most of the year the lake is even frozen.

Our goal of the day was the Lenin Peak basecamp. This is one of the plus 7000m peaks in the area. We tried to see it from the lake using a compass, ruler and map, but could not find it. At least we knew it was out there in the distance. The trail to climb it however starts from Kyrgyzstan, about 50km west from Sary Tash.

We had our last Tajik breakfast. Well in fact I should say maybe our first Kyrgyz breakfast because the people in the town were almost all Kyrgyz. We were ready to set off and climb higher with the bike. The bike had no problems with the altitude as well. Our Oddysey PC 535 battery did a good job.

The views when riding were amazing. We rode close to Chinese border and were headed for the Tajik-Kyrgyz border post which is on the crest of the Kyzylart pass at an altitude of 4280m. It is known that the guards can be a bit corrupt here, but we had no problem at all crossing.

There were some small rivers to cross during the way, but nothing special. When we almost reached the summit of the pass we stopped for a moment to glance back on the Tajik landscape.

We said goodbye to Tajikistan and entered the border post. Everything went very smooth. Now we were on the way to the Kyrgyz post which is about 20km downhill. It can be a little muddy and wet, but we had no problems. There was also a collapsed road. The crossing on the Kyrgyz side went even smoother. I think it might have been a record in time. Before we knew it we were in Kyrgyzstan and you could know you are in a different country.

It immediately looked a bit like Mongolia to me. Steppe with grass, horses, yurtas. After a while the gravel stopped and we were on a asphalt road with some potholes. We did bad road stopped we were on a new asphalt road which was perfect!

We headed into Sary Tash to buy some drinks, but fuel was not needed. The GS was really economical and at times I would have to fuel up after 500km or even further. We asked about Lenin Peak and took off. We just had to follow the perfect road for 50km in western direction. On the road I had to be careful for horses, cows, sheep, people. But it was good to be on good asphalt again.

After 50km we got in the town of Kashka Suu and we turned left. The asphalt stopped again, and there was a small track now through the fields heading for the Lenin Peak basecamp. It was a beautiful track and we saw some yurtas on our way. We were in the glen between two mountain ranges.

After some time we noticed a green Ural sidecar in the distance. I first thought it was a local but getting closer I saw he was wearing a nice goretex jacket. We had a chat with Axel from France. He would be some in Kyrgyzstan and was also on the way to the base camp to make some snaps. I was a bit jealous as he had so much room to carry stuff, he had a great camera for example with him. He wanted to take some snaps of the peak to show his friends who have climbed the mountain last year.

We decided to ride together to the base camp and camp at a good spot. It was good to be together as the terrain got a bit more difficult with some watercrossings. In the evening we got at the camp, but it was pretty quiet. Actually only the first team to climb the mountain was onsite.

On the higher side of the camp we found a nice spot. We put up our tents and got ready for the night. It could be a cold one as we were at 3600m. I was not tired enough and decided to go for a walk. I took the bike and rode as high as I could. Under the way I passed the dark side of climbing with a monument to remember climbers who had died climbing the mountain.

When it got too steep, I left the bike and started walking. It was a nice trail and I was alone with a view on the Lenin Peak. I kept walking until I hit a river which was really hard to cross. In the evening there is more water. As it was getting dark as well, I went back.

We had some food in our tent and called it a day. It was a great location again to sleep. Personnaly I am a fan of nice flats with views, but this beats it by far.

Border crossing, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan

Saying adieu is always hard

June 22, 2013 Ben Leave a comment

Today we were leaving Tashkent but also Uzbekistan. We have had a great time in this wonderful country. But as always there is a time of coming and going…

It would be a long day on the bike today, read on, and see why.

We had already packed our stuff the evening before. We went for breakfast around 7 am and said goodbye to the hostel. The first stop, like in Bukhara and Samarkand, was the UzGasOil station. We found even 95 octane here and at the best price we saw yet. The bike will be happy with this good fuel 🙂 We also filled our two camelbags as we heard Tajikistan would be the warmest country we would see.

After leaving the city of Tashkent on the A373 to the south, there is a checkpoint just before the road splits to the border crossing of Oybek. We had this crossing mentioned on our documents we got when we entered the country coming from Kazakstan. The police stopped us again. They asked for our documents and left in their car with our documents. We had to wait for 20 minutes or so when they came back. They said they made photocopies for us we would need at the border.

When riding to Oybek we passed a big water reservoir called the Tuyabuguz. We wanted to go for a swim but there was no time unfortunately.

We arrived early at the border of Oybek. The police were very friendly and gave us water. But then we had to check out of Uzbekistan. We remembered the check in which was not the easiest one. We now had to declare our belongings again, and also how much money we had on us, and comparing this to the check in paper, you should be able to see how much we had spent in the country. I was lazy and just filled in something like $500. Not too smart I realized afterwards as they were able to check it and confiscate the difference. The whole idea is that you don’t go to the black market. But luckily, it just took some time to get everything processed. We had a luggage inspection also. They wanted to see the contents of all our luggage. Nothing special was found, so we could finally exit the country and ride to the Tajikistan border.

At the Tajikistan border, we saw two Spanish guys we would meet later again in Murghab and Karakul. We had to show our passports, then ride through a slippery water pool and go to the next point. Apparently I rode a bit too far, and a guy started shouting to me. He said I would get a fine, but his colleague calmed him down, so there was no fine 🙂 But I had to move my bike back. More administration was being done and after half an hour or so we could finally get in Tajikistan!

We immediately noticed the high temperatures, it was like in Tashkent, around 38 degrees. We stopped in the first village called Buston to buy benzine, water and a Tcell sim card. The Ucell sim card of Uzbekistan had done its work well. Finding fuel was not a problem anymore.

We rode further towards Khujand and drove through the city. In the meantime the temperature had already risen to 42 degrees! The water in our camelbags was almost not drinkable anymore, it was hot water. The air felt really warm as well. I knew we were headed for the mountains, and the higher we would be, the cooler it would be. So I opened the gas a bit. Not too smart again, as there are quite a lot of police with speed guns in this part of the country. I was stopped again. The maximum speed on the road is mostly 60. I was a good bit above it, but luckily I only got a warning.

Soon we started to see the mountains in this beautiful country. The roads were also very good and it was a nice ride. The only thing I was wondering about was the condition of the tunnels. We arrived at a first big tunnel called the Shakristan tunnel. I stopped before the tunnel to talk to a few men I saw. They said everything is fine here. After the tunnel I stopped again to talk to the workmen.

We had to ride a few mountain passes and the first one was the Shakristan pass. It was a nice pass, but you had to be concentrated. Patches of road were missing, and the abysses were very deep. Mistakes were not tolerated here and would be unmistakably lead to death.

Our goal of the day was to camp at the Iskander kul lake where the president of Tajikistan has one of his datchas. After the mountain pass we stopped at a chaikhana to get some supplies for the night. Basically this means water for us, as we have packed some trekker meals from home and had still a few left.

It was getting darker and we still had a few miles to cover. We passed by Ayni. Here is junction with a road which leads to Penjikent and the Fan Mountains. Further this road leads to Samarkand, but as said before, this border is closed now by the Uzbeks.

We were approaching Anzob but it was not for today. At the village of Zeravshan we took an offroad road for about 20km which leads to the Iskander kul lake. At points this was not an easy road, with steep climbs and big rocks. But we managed. It was a very scenic road as well.

The sun was going down when we arrived at the lake house. We saw a bicycle and a guy. He had a nice Ukrainian flag on the bike, what a coincidence. He had two more friends and we decided to camp fogether that night. The turbaza or soviet holiday camp which was a bit further was rather expensive with 30 somonis for a tent. We decided to ride on to find a better place. It was already dark at the time and we were still riding offroad. Luckily I had a good xenon light as it was only a small dark road. On the road I even saw a scorpion like creature.

We finally arrived at the other side of the lake which appeared to be side of the presidents datcha also 🙂 We found a nice spot to camp and put up the tents. I made a little campfire and we had supper. The 3 ukrainian guys were called Andrei, Sergei and Yuri and were from Kiev and Odessa. We were all pretty exhausted and went to bed under a nice starry sky. The altitude was around 2000m but it was not too cold.

Expedition East – Экспедиция Восток