We left Ulan Ude in the morning. From here we had to ride about 160km before we could see the lake. No problem as it was all asphalt.

We made a quick stop before the reservoir in the forest. The mosquitoes came out quickly so we moved on quickly as well 🙂

Then all of a sudden we saw it. It was enormeous, bigger than expected in our minds. This is like a sea, not a lake. From now the road would follow the lake for a few hundred kilometers. The railroad was also flirting with the lake.

At a good spot just after the town of Babushkin we found a good spot to get in! The water was pretty cold and the waves were big. We stayed here for some time and had a nice swim in the lake.

Some truck drivers also stopped here and we had a chat with them. They gave us important information. In the far east it had been raining for almost a month and people had to be evacuated. Everyone who follows the news knew this. This is the area of Chabarovsk and further. But we were not going to Vladivostok.

   

One of the drivers came from Tynda and told us there was a lot of mud on that track. When its dry its dusty, now it was muddy. It was not very motivating for us as we still had the option of riding to Yakutsk. Larisa was happy with this information. It looks more and more we are not going to the far east.

The sun dried us up, so it was to move on and follow the lake to the west. On the way there were people selling berries and smoked fish. We also saw our friend Jan from Czech Republic again. He was going to the next big town to put his bike on the train to Vladivostok. It was a surprise to see him again, the last time was in UB!

There were also some roadworks, but this was very limited.

We made another stop in the town of Slyudyanka. This is where Jan would take the train. From here it was a mountaineous road to Irkutsk of about 100km. But it was a dangerous road. Here you could use the power of a heavier bike. There were many curves and in every curve there was the danger that a car from the other direction would be in your lane. We had this several times, some of them even swirled out onto our section of gravel. We reached Irkutsk in the evening and went looking for a hostel.

We found a good hostel called hostel Irkutsk. In the evening we met with Dmitrii who had my set of TKC80. Unfortunately we were not going to need them anymore. But the set of Heidenaus had been on since Volgograd now. We were riding with this set for 12.000km with a load of about 450km. They have brought us through Central Asia and Mongolia. I can only recommend these tyres.

The next day we would fit the TKC’s and check also our Belgian colleague motorcyclists Seb and Kim article about putting the bike on the train.