I had a strange dream last night. In winter time I go mountainbiking now and then. In my dream I was riding in Oudenaarde in Belgium on a very muddy stretch and the bike was going all over the place… Was it a sign? The talk with the russians of last night had made me thinking at least!

Our clothes were almost dry, but not our boots. No big deal as we would have probably more rain today. One of the russian also said last night it would be sontse today, 100%. We went to have some breakfast first and check the weather.

It was really misty today, you could see maybe a few hundred meters far. The hotel was also situated in the beginning of a forest, so it was a nice atmosphere.

After having a nice blini breakfast we packed the bike. We met the local butcher and he gave us a nice bottle of fresh cow milk. I like milk a lot and it was really good.

We left the gostinitso and about after 500m the asphalt ended and the gravel started. It was actually nice, it was misty, there was the big forest, and it was not raining.

We followed the road through the forest and the road was ok. My dream was a bit over the top surely. After half an hour or so we got to the Lena river and there were nice rocks on the right bank of it.

We stopped at a small village which had a bridge over the river, and there was a sign to… Wait, was it Magadan? No it was Magdan, and it was 70km further. I was talking to a local guy in a lada at the bridge and Larisa made some pictures of the Lena river.

 

We followed the nice gravel road towards the town of Zhigalovo. We noticed some cows doing a rivercrossing 🙂

It was around 2pm when we reached the town of Zhigalovo. We are not quite the early birds anymore and we made plenty of stops. We filled up the tank and checked the map. Now we could take a rode back to the Transiberian highway or M53, or we could continue north towards the BAM road.

We stopped at a local cafe to discuss the plan. It was another 270km to the next town following a gravel road, but a worse one then the one we had in the morning. We didn’t actually talk about it a lot, and just rode on north.

We first rode through a few small towns, before we entered a vast forest. It is hard to describe how beautiful and big this is, I think you can only know if you are there yourself. Under the way we didn’t see too many people anymore, just an occasional truck driver and jeep.

 

After a few hours in the forest we saw an exceptional tank like vehicle. We stopped and had a chat with the two guys driving the tank. They told us they were looking for gas in the area. They also told us this place was full of bears so we should take care and not sleep here. I was actually planning to camp somewhere in the forest, but it became almost out of the question now.

 

The rode got a bit rough with many potholes and some muddy stretches. It was also getting later in the day. Near the evening we reached a post, with a guard dog and two security guys. It was a gazprom post, and you could not go in. They also told us not to camp here in the forest and to continue to the next town. Not only because of the bears, but also because of the water. If you watched closely next to the road, you saw the swaps.

Camping in bear area, you should know what to do. I know you should also keep your food separated from your sleeping place, hang it high in a tree 100m away from the tent. But what if you have a confrontation? We did not have bearspray and I was not armed. If you have the bad luck to meet an agressive bear, you should be armed or it can be game over quickly.

So we pushed on. Luckily the road improved, so we could increase our speed. The sun started to set, and it gave the most tremendous light over the forest. It was just amazing to watch, we both enjoyed a spectacular sunset. When it began to get dark we passed an abandoned town, with a truck graveyard. We were getting closer to civilisation now.

We had to do another 80km or so, but the last part of the road we could ride around 80kph. It was getting dark now and Larisa was already fearing that wolves and bears would be waiting for us on the road 🙂

We got out of the forest finally and it was a good feeling I must admit. We saw a sign now, to the left was Ust-Kut and Magistralnii, to the right was Severobaikalsk. You should go right here if you want to continue the western BAM towards Tynda. We were already heading home so we turned left to the town of Magistralnii. This was still 20km to go, but it was asphalt now.

Well at least it was asphalt for some 5km or so. It turned to gravel again soon. I heard by the sound that I was riding on big stones at times. Just before the town, we had to go under the rail bridge and there was a big pool. It seemed pretty deep. It was already 10pm and I didn’t want to walk it. So I just rode through it, but it was deep! Luckily the engine did not stall and we reached Magistralnii all ok.

Unfortunately we didn’t find a room right away, but we ended up in a small place run by an Ukrainian guy called mria. He was happy though to meet a fellow countrymen.

He gave us a good diner and bed, we slept like roses.