It was a day of two lots of “ 360”. The first one was one of 360 degrees. We leave Rubtsovsk bright eyed and bushy tailed with the idea of an early border crossing just 20 km down the road. Good idea! But! Firstly the GPS seemed to be playing up and giving false signals. Something to do with the proximity of the border I rationalise. Secondly I had a mindset problem in that I thought we just carried on the same road as yesterday to the border. Not so! We went round and round the town in ever diminishing circles. Then I used Maps.me to find the “correct” way. Maps.me is now in deep disgrace!
We go for 70 km. “ No worry “ I said to myself, we are running parallel to the border. I still think we are near a crossing. A sign says “ Border 20 km “. 40 km later we find out that means the border is 20 km away- not the same thing apparently as a actual border crossing! We stop at what I think now is a road to a border crossing for locals only. No go for us ! So we have to backtrack all the way to Rubtsovsk over rough roads again.
So 200 km and 5 hours after leaving Robstovsk we are hot, tired, and yes - back in Rubtsovsk! We had missed the correct road by about 200 metres! So 360 degrees circle was the first 360 of the day.
Suitably chastened we head out on the right road to the border. We were told by others to allow 2 hours for the crossing formalities. It was two hours and five minutes. Then another half hour for insurance. I still don’t know if it is compulsory or not. On the Russian side there was a “fee” of 1500 roubles. It went straight into a pocket of the lady demanding it. No receipt , no explanation, no nothing!
We aim for the town of Semey for the night 330 km short of our proposed destination of Pavlodar. We see a county pub/ truckers stop. Then we don’t believe our eyes. There in front of us on his bike is Tsutomu - our Japanese friend who is riding on a 110 km Honda “ postie bike” across Russia and back He was on the Vladivostok ferry with us. Then we have met and re met and re met at various places on the way with the last place being just north of Ulan Bataar in Mongolia.. That was him in an earlier post there doing a passable imitation of a haka on rhe side of the road. He has a top speed of about 70 km per hour and routinely does only about 50 km per hour. We are just so delighted to see each other
He likes ballroom dancing too -
We agree - Small man- small bike. Big man - big bike !
Although Tsutomu’s English is limited we talk stories of the road, laugh and giggle and look at photos over a shared meal. In a strange land it is all a very nice warm feeling to be able to share “ the brotherhood of the road “
So to be a little cryptic the second “ 360” of the day was the 360 km we put on the clock in a fristrating day but with a good ending.
Day two dawns. It is off to Pavlovar which is about 350 km north. It is the nice road that we were told about. It is the first leg of a 5 day leg to Almaty via the ultra modern city of Astana ( now renamed Nur Sultan) It is a longer way than the direct route but the roads are very good ( as opposed to very bad on the direct route) plus we get to see Astana plus as we approach Almaty there is a very large and very nice lake that we run along the edge of
The road to Pavloodar is flat but nice
Traffic is light but well behaved.
Pavlodar looks a prosperous and well laid out city
I puzzle as to why the the apartments are so brightly coloured. Certainly not “ Soviet grey”!
I have two theories about the ultra bright colours. Firstly is it to help you find your way home after a night on the Vodka? The second Hubbard theory is that if you looked at these the morning after with a good vodka hangover then you would probably swear off vodka for the rest of your life!
The city does statuary well and there is public art everywhere
But the GPS has a sting in her tail. She takes us to what I identified as the best hotel in town.
Whoops. It is hot, we are lost. Eventually we find our right hotel. It is very very nice. The staff are super friendly and helpful. There seems to ba a nice “Kazakh “ friendliness and more of a laid back feel than in more formal Russia.
But the day is not yet done. Diana goes down with a stomach bug. So now I am chief nurse and medical advisor. We will rest up here until she is better. She has 30 days to get better - actually now only 29 and dropping - that is our maximum visa time!
We are approaching the end of our first leg of our trip. When we get to Almaty I will take the bike to Bavarian Motors who are a BMW service centre for BMW cars and motorbikes. There the Redhead will get a full ( and well overdue) service, new tyres (I might have to bring them back from NZ) , bits rebolted on, side stand switch replaced , tyre pressue recorder fixed ( that usually means replaced ) , new tre pressure sensors and last but certainly not least the big one - probably a new front and rear wheels. Sounds expensive. It probably will be. Now about that givealittle page!
Then if all this goes to plan we fly out of Almaty on the 18 th July arriving New Zealand the next day. If all goes according to plan..........................!
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