Long day on the saddle but at last we are in Samara after having rode 990 km in 12.00 hours, again a good weather and a fresh air accompany us during this transfer leg. We rode through the “big mother Russia” and we felt the vastness of this country, going through a changing landscape of pine and/or birch forests and fields after fields of wheat and corn. The real challenge driving in Russia comes for the road traffic. We could ride only for a short distance on the highway after that we rode mainly on normal roads from one town to the other, two lanes roads only, one lane for each direction. Clearly there is the commitment to improve the roads system and road works are everywhere creating massive traffic jams. Naturally riding a bike we could get on the front of the queues quite easily all times. We rode on different road top conditions today and on the new roads the top is very good while it is terrible where the road works are ongoing or in the old roads all patched up, all in all it has been a good road test for our bikes confirming that an Enduro kind of bike is what it takes to tackle journeys in these countries with these kind of roads . A lot of police around with radar guns checking for speeding but that doesn’t seem to bother the local drivers that are using the roads as a “racing track” often exceeding the speed limit. We did not have troubles to fill up our bikes, petrol stations are found everywhere and the petrol quality is good, the only unusual thing for us is that you have to pay for your petrol in advance guessing how much the tank can take. We went through several Russian cities like: Lipetdk, Tambov, Penza, Tolyatti, they are all looking the same to a foreigner eyes even though Tolyatti and Samara being on the Volga river are nicer. In Tolyatti the Italian firm FIAT had a factory line making the renowned Ziguli car model.
Tomorrow we will arrive to Aksai, the end of our journey hopefully without having to trouble too much at the Kazakh border.
Great team performance, we were not letting anything to get in the way to be able to get to Samara today.
Today we rode 990 km in 12.00 hour, for a total of 3914 km in 50 hours since we started our journey.
Lamps
Leg # 5 - Elets - Samara : 990 km
Tolyatti
Market on the road
But sometime like this
Lunch on the road
Toast for the arrival in Samara
4 comments:
Brave guys! I'm proud of you, and I'm proud to have shared dirty roads with some of you in the past. All the best! I owe you a beer, possibly in November next and in ... Dakar!
Marco\
Can I do with my BMW NineT????
Nine T good to take an ice cream in Ferrara
Wonderful view on the road! I can imagine what are the felling to drive ur bikes there. But I'm sure I'll see much more beautiful view in the Caucasus. But be careful. Take care
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