Granny on the Road of Bones, Old Summer Road, Siberia

Mide

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Kev went to Siberia the first time in 2012. He did the Road of Bones then and ever since I had it in my mind that I’d like to do it.
So when he came home from his second trip to Siberia in 2014, we decided that next time I’d go too and we’d do the Road of Bones.

In the early 1930’s Stalin decided to build the Kolyma Highway, M56. Forced labour was used to construct this 2,000km stretch of road in the Siberian wilderness. The inmates of labour camps and later the Prisoners in the Gulags were chained except when they were working the 12 hour shifts. Many died while working and many others were shot dead for not working quickly enough. Any worker who died was ‘buried’ where he fell. Hence, the name “Road of Bones” as the skeletons of thousands of workers are buried in the road.

The Road of Bones is the stretch of road that runs from Magadan to Yakutsk. In 2008 the route was changed to go farther north between Kadykchan to Kyubeme, through Ust Nera. This road, the M56, is now a maintained gravel road, with small stretches of tarmac.
The old road through Tomtor is now completely unmaintained and is known as the Old Summer Road.

This stretch of road, 420kms, has become a challenge for 4 x 4 drivers and bikers to complete.

When Gary heard we were going back to Siberia he decided that he’d like to do it his jeep. Then 2 germans that the BAM riders met in Vladivostok in 2014 said they’d come too.
We met in March this year and it was agreed that Gary’s jeep and trailer would leave Ireland in June, drive to Germany to pick up Fritz and Thomas’ bikes and then go to Warsaw. We would fly to Warsaw and meet the jeep and bring it over the border into Russia. In Moscow we would leave it with a driver, who would then drive it to Magadan.
We would fly home for 4 weeks while the jeep made it’s way east and then fly to Magadan to begin our trip.

Because the jeep and trailer were going Gary said he would carry extra luggage/camping equipment for us to leave our bikes lighter. He also had an extra tent on the jeep so said we didn’t need to bring one, We were planning on leaving the bikes in Mongolia at the end of the trip so we could head back next year so we kept our luggage relatively light and brought full camping gear with us. We figured we’d be better to be self sufficient just in case.
The Germans however brought loads of stuff and Thomas didn’t have any luggage racks or means to carry luggage on his bike at all.
Thomas was doing a 3 week trip in his mini in the US immediately before our trip and flew to Magadan from there. So when it came to our weekend bringing our bikes over the border into Russia he didn’t really have time to come with us. This was going to be a problem as the bike owner had to be there with the bike to bring it into Russia. He decided to put his bike into Fritz’ name as Fritz was going to be there.

We then needed to find a driver to drive the jeep and trailer 10,000km from Moscow to Magadan. The boys had met a guy called Sergei in Tynda in 2012 and 2014. He had been very friendly and helpful both times. So he was going to drive the jeep but then his mrs got pregnant so he said his brother Andrei would do it. So we agreed to give Andrei a jeep, trailer, 4 motorbikes, all the relevant documents and €2000 worth of rubles to bring them to Magadan, having never met the chap! I can’t tell you how hard this was for the germans to get their heads around!!
 
The jeep left Abbeyleix, a town in the middle of Ireland, on 24th June, being driven by Seán, Gary's brother in law. His son Adam went with him for company.
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He picked up Fritz and the 2 german's bikes in Germany en route to Warsaw.
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We flew to Warsaw on the 28th to meet them. We had a night out in Warsaw and then Seán and Adam flew home. Kev went to the ATM and inadvertently took out €500 worth of zlotys!!
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We headed of to the Belarusian border. We arrived at 3pm. Our first mistake, of many, was not eating before we went to the border. It was a very hot day! We arrived at the Polish part of the border and showed passports/documents etc. Then they come out and walk around the vehicles and ask where we're going and what we're doing. Open all the doors of the jeep, into the boot. Take the wheel off the metal box on the trailer, remove the locks, open it up, take some stuff out, let them see the camping gear. Climb up on the roof of the jeep, check out the bags up there, the tent etc.
The move forward 10 feet and go through the same procedure again with the customs guy. Then go to the Belarusian side and go through the whole procedure again.
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The queue, for ages, and ages, and ages. In the heat, with only 3 packets of strawberry chewits to eat between the 4 of us!!
Eventually, we got to the hatch and that's when the trouble started. It was about 7pm. We gave them all the paperwork and passports and answered all the questions. They weren't happy with Fritz having 2 bikes in his name and weren't going to let us in. Then they agreed that Gary could get a temporary license for Thomas' bike in his name. So they went off to do the paperwork and the boys got bored!
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Then the shift changed, a whole load of new staff came out and started asking the same questions again, wanted everything opened up again etc. Then they decided Fritz couldn't bring both bikes in so Gary explained that the paperwork was being done. In the meantime Kev changed up the zlotys into Belarusian roubles. That was another palaver, nothing was straightforward! They needed passports so I was running in and out bringing passports back and forth!
The border officials had now decided that the extra bike was ok but they wouldn't let us in as there was no VIN number on the trailer:( we kept showing the registration document(which was in fact, completely fake!)
They turned us away at 11pm. The biggest kick in the arse at that stage was that we then had to queue to leave Belarus and go through customs, then queue to re enter Poland and go through their customs!
Tired and weary, we headed back to Poland and stopped in the first hotel we came to. We booked in, asked for and were refused food and went to bed. Not a great first day.




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Thanks guys
So here we were back in Poland with out a zloty between us and a load of Belarusian roubles!
We got up early the next day and got on the road, looking for somewhere we could get a false Irish VIN number put on the trailer
Less than 10 minutes later we had found a bloke at the back of a garage who led us down some back roads to the arse end of nowhere to a massive garage. Talk about ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies! There was a car bumper in the corner with a uk plate on it
We got some number stamps and a lump hammer and a brand new VIN number even he wouldn't take the Belarusian roubles, and we weren't 15 miles from the border!

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We decided that it might be dodgy to go back to the Belarusian border so we decided to go north through Lithuania and Latvia and straight across the border into Russia.
It was a long day driving in the jeep, in the heat, with air con that worked 'most of the time'.
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We stopped before we reached the Russian border for something to eat, having learned our lesson the day before. The resteraunt was closed but we managed to get a selection of pastries and a cup of tea.
We arrived at the border at 11pm. There was only one other car there so we figured we'd get through in no time. Same palaver with documents and passports and forms and questions and open doors etc. They never even looked at our beautiful new VIN number!
Eventually, they stamped our passports and we moved to the next window, which was customs. He came out and walked around, had a good look, totally ignored our lovely VIN, took all our documents, gave us more forms which we filled out, and disappeared into his hut. He came out and said that fritz could not import 2 bikes. We pleaded, he refused, Gary offered to import one and he refused. The only was he would let us in was without Thomas' bike:( we had no choice but to leave it. So we agreed to leave it there and he said not there, we had to go back to Latvia and leave it there.

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So we had to turn around, go back through customs to leave Russia, go through customs to re enter Latvia, find a safe place to leave the bike (which was remarkably easy) we left it with this guy!

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There were loads of car parks at the border where people obviously met up and left some cars there and carpooled into Russia.
Then we had to go through the whole border control out of Latvia and into Russia again:(
They cancelled the first stamp into Russia, then put a new stamp to enter Russia. This was going to cause problems in a few weeks when we tried to re enter Russia again!

It was now 5am and we were exhausted. Physically and emotionally drained and minus Thomas' bike.
Fritz drove for a few hours, then we found a motel and had breakfast and 3/4 hours sleep. We were tight for time now as we had to get to Moscow to meet Andrei who was driving the jeep to Magadan. We arrived in time and stayed in a hotel near the airport that he and his wife and daughters were flying into.
We went for dinner and one or two drinks that night. You know how it goes... Some guitar playing, tin whistle playing, a new friend from South America who had his own guitar and a bit of vodka and sure it was about 5am before we got to bed!!
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We spent Monday trying to find a commissioner of oaths to give Andrei permission to have all our vehicles and organise insurance etc. Then we handed it all over to Andrei and Lena.

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Kev and I flew home through Moldova, we had a 10 hour stopover in Chisinau the next day.

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Strewh,what a palava on border controls,
cant wait for the next installment/cock up/Hoo no not that again...episode..
Mike..
 
So we had a 4 week wait at home before flying to Magadan. We were meeting Fritz in Moscow and arriving to Magadan on 27th July. Thomas was arriving the next day from USA and Gary was flying in on Friday morning. The plan was to hit the road on Saturday.
In the weeks before we were due to fly out we were watching the weather forecast closely and the weather was horrific!! Torrential rain followed by more torrential rain. Heavy rainfall is disastrous because of the permafrost in Siberia. There's nowhere for the rain to be soaked up so the rivers just get higher and higher, really quickly. Luckily, they get lower quite quickly too once the rain stops.
Then, 10 days before we went we heard that a bridge had been washed away in Ust Nera, a town north of Tomtor. No traffic could get in or out of Magadan, 110m of bridge was gone! This didn't bode well as we had no idea what damage would be done to the Old Summer Road, 100km to the south.
Andrei and the jeep hadn't arrived to Ust Nera yet so it meant that the jeep couldn't get to Magadan until the bridge was rebuilt. We were assured the equivalent of our council workers were on the job
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We stopped in Moscow for a day on our way to Magadan and went to see some of the sights.
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Next day, we flew to Magadan! I was so excited, couldn't believe it was really happening:)
We booked into a hotel and when we got up the next day to have a shower, there was no hot water. We asked at reception and it turns out that the whole town runs off one big boiler. This is the norm in Siberia. Once a year the boiler is turned off for 10 days to carry out essential maintenance and for this time, there is no hot water. So we spent s week boiling the kettle 8/9 times every morning and filling the bath!

While we were waiting for the jeep, we did some sightseeing around Magadan.

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Thomas had his bike shipped back to Germany and from there to Magadan, a local
guy called Oleg was dealing with the import. It had never been done before so no one in customs knew what they were supposed to be doing. Thomas had also shipped a surprise package from Moscow and Aleksey, another local guy, was looking after that.
Aleksey is a biker and member of Polar Owls MCC. They were having a rally that Saturday and he had organised lifts for us to go.
Unfortunately, many bikers couldn't make the rally because the bridge was still not open:(
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While we were at the rally we heard that the bridge was now open!!! This was great news as we could be in the road by Monday or Tuesday, so only 3/4 days late leaving

We had to leave the rally early as Oleg had organised for us all to go to a Bania(sauna) that night and then dinner and then as it happens we ended up in a nightclub and karaoke bar!
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The next day our new friends brought us for a picnic on the beach

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The hospitality from these guys was amazing! They really looked after us so well:) we will never have the chance to repay them but we have to let everyone know how wonderful the Siberian people are.

The jeep arrived on the Monday
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It was a little the worse for wearing needed a fair bit of work done. Pasha, one of our new friends phones his mechanic and asked him to come back in and open the garage and look at the jeep. It was 7pm. He came in and started stripping down the jeep, working all night on it so it'd be ready when the new parts arrived in the morning.
Kev's radiator was leaking!
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We had some help from the local kids:)

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So while the jeep was being fixed and the radiator welded, Thomas' BMW eventually cleared customs and his mystery package arrived:)

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The boys were all so excited!!! As it turned out, this 2 wheel drive bike would be a lifesaver

We went out for a last supper with all our friends as we were heading off the next day!

Time to start the Road of Bones

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Good one Mide .... keep it coming, keep safe, enjoy :thumb

:beerjug:
 
Jeeze, nearly got a headache thinking of all that border palaver, looking forward to seeing ye heading out along that road.:popcorn:popcorn
 
In the months leading up to our trip, a couple of guys who were going to be in Siberia at the same time as us contacted us. A guy called David Zimmerman and another called Felix Wright. Both had asked what our plans were and we had told both to keep in touch and that we might meet them on the road. David had left Magadan the day we arrived and Felix contacted us the day we were going to the bania with Oleg. He had just arrived in Magadan. Kev and I went to meet him for a coffee. He had been riding for the past 4 weeks and it had rained solidly for the past week. He was tired, wet and fed up. We suggested he book into our hotel and come out with us that evening. He had come to do the Old Summer Road in 2013 and his bike broke down before he got there so he hadn't done it. He still wanted to do it but didn't want to do it alone so we asked him to join us

Before we left Magadan we got word from David Zimmerman that he had arrived in Tomtor but that he had lost his bumbag that had all of his documents in!! His passport, import licence for the bike, bike docs, credit cards and cash!! he asked us to keep an eye out for it and gave us the co ordinates of his camps.

So on Wednesday 3rd of August, 1 week after arriving in Magadan, we finally left on our bikes. Kev, on his KTM 690, me on my Honda CRF 230, Fritz, Thomas and Felix on BMW XChallenges.

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We got some pics at the famous Mask of Sorrow, built to commemorate those who died in the Gulag camps in the 20's, 30's and 40's. Approximately 3 million prisoners died.

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We left Magadan and hit the federal highway. Ones assumption would be that a highway would be made of asphalt. Not the m56. It is a gravel road, with ruts and dips and potholes. The dust, is incredible. Everytime a truck went past we were completely engulfed in a cloud of dust! Visibility was about 10 feet

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Trying to overtake a lorry was even worse, as you had to ride in the cloud of dust until you could pull out to overtake, in the hopes that there was nothing oncoming

We turned into the Tenkinsky Trassa. It is a much more scenic route and a little bit of a short cut. It too, is a gravel track, although with much less traffic on it.

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We had separated from Gary at the start of the track as he had to get a puncture repair kit. We had bought Russian SIM cards to keep in touch, but once we left Magadan we had little 3G. We stopped for coffee and sent him a message but had to keep on riding before we got a response. We kept going thinking we'd find another cafe to get lunch/dinner and wait for him but there were no cafes. We eventually found a petrol station but there was no food or drink. I can honestly say I've never been so dirty!!

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We stopped shortly after the petrol stop and set up camp. Well, I say set up camp but in reality we lit a fire! Gary had all the tents in the jeep he also had all the food! Another lesson learned
He turned up a while later, he'd had a really tough day, he got another puncture and then something under the bonnet started leaking turns out it was just overfilled fluid.

We made camp and sat around eating and beating off mosquitos until bedtime.

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The next day we had a long ride to the end of the Tenkinsky Trassa and then we rode to Susuman for the night. We had to go to Susuman even though it was 40km in the wrong direction as the next petrol available was in Tomtor, which is 340km away. The boys all had enough range in their tanks and we filled some fuel bladders for my bike.
There was no food on offer in the hotel or indeed anywhere in Susuman. We bought some gam, cheese, pickles and bread and had a picnic in Thomas' room

We got up the next day and headed for Kadykchan, an abandoned town. On our way there we took a detour to try and find a Gulag. We were on a stony, rocky track for about 15km before we realised we'd never make it in the bikes. There was a 5km walk at the end of the track, up a mountain! We turned around and came back. This track was as hard or harder than the OSR.

We carried on to the abandoned town of Kadykchan. There are many stories on the internet of how/why it was depopulated. The local stories are quite different and can’t be found anywhere on the internet. We heard that there was a Uranium mine nearby and that it became unsafe. The Govt. decided to depopulate the town and asked all the residents to leave. There were 20,000 people living there. The people refused to go. The powers that be turned off the boiler in the middle of winter and the people had to leave. They only had time to take whatever possessions they could carry and leave. It’s shocking walking around this ghost town. There are shoes, teddies, books, empty houses and schools. It’s very eerie and very sad.

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Excellent Mide.
Interesting beginning for sure.

More when you get time please.
 


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