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

The beginning of the Old Summer Road was very close to Kadykchan and soon the sombre mood lifted as we began riding the road we came to ride!

It was so nice to be away from the Kolyma Highway. The road was easygoing and we were up on the pegs almost from the beginning.
We came to the first river crossing and it was one of the widest ones of the whole road. The water was quite fast flowing and my heart was in my mouth. We had to cross diagonally into the current, onto a shallower bit, but still in the river, then cross the main body of water.

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This is the river behind me

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That's the broken bridge behind us.

Then there was another bit to cross, then up a bank, over some logs and dips and back up onto the road.

Many people had told Gary that there was no way the jeep would make the trip. He decided that he'd come with us as long as he could make it through the dodgy bits with only little help from us, just in case we came to a bad bit and he'd have to turn around and go back alone. He'd need to be able to manage on his own.
It didn't take long before we came to the first bit where the road had been washed away. It's hard to describe and the photos don't do it justice.

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Hard as it was for us on the bikes, it was really tough for the jeep and trailer.

I learned a lesson this first day. Don't take the lead! Having someone in front means they take the hit if there's a hidden dip!!

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There was a deep dip right across the road and I didn't see it until almost too late. I pulled up on the handlebars and almost cleared it but I hit the other side and managed to stay on but hit my chest off the faring and broke it off. The lads behind thought I was a goner

There were many dips and puddles. We were lucky that we'd had really good weather all week so the puddles were relatively shallow.

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There were also many many river crossings, some with bridges, some without!

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We came across the hunters lodge where a drunken hunter had shot at Kev and Mark when they did this trip in 2012. While we were standing there looking at it, out came the same hunter he wasn't drunk though and clearly had no recollection of ever meeting Kev before

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We didn't do too much of the OSR on the first day as we had spent a while in Kadykchan. We came to a river where the road was completely washed away and we had to go down a steep bank to get to the river. There was plenty of space to camp and so we decided to stop there. As Gary came down the steep bank the drawbar on the trailer snapped in two

He decided to leave it on the bank and that we'd deal with it in the morning.

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We got up the next day and had another hearty breakfast

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The boys started fixing the drawbar. First Kev cut down a tree and cut a 4 X 4 splint to go inside both ends of the drawbar. Because it bent before it snapped the 2 ends were pinched closed so they had to try and open them up to fit the splint in. There were plenty of tools on the jeep but they weren't charged. When Gary tried charging them it wouldn't work! Turns out the inverter was broken so they had a chainsaw and a lump hammer and some strong tent poles with which to fix the drawbar

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Every night we dried our boots by the fire. Not sure why because we always set off starting with a river crossing

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5 hours later we set off. The river was pushing hard and quite deep.

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About 15km later the drawbar broke again.

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There was nothing for it except to leave the trailer there. We were still 178km from Tomtor. We left all the rear spare tyres on the trailer, as it happens all of the spares for Thomas and Fritz bikes were left on it too, all the camp chairs. The fuel bladder for my bike which as it turned out was a lucky thing
Gary decided that when we got to Tomtor that he'd get the drawbar fixed and he'd return for the trailer.
So, off we went again. There were many big, huge, mucky, deep puddles. Initially we decided to go around them. But while we managed ok, Gary got stuck twice and it took over an hour both times to get him out. It was very hot, but as soon as we stopped the mosquitos started attacking!

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After the second winching we decided that we should just ride through the puddles. Again, never go first

Then just as we were about to set off, Gary realised the jeep wouldn't start!

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It was some kind of problem that affected the fuses. Gary had no spares, everytime he turned off the engine he had to replace a fuse before he could start it again!

Some pics of the puddles:)

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More washed away roads, and steep banks down to and up from the river beds

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This was where Gary found David Zimmermans pouch with all of his documents in

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Some dodgy bridges too

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Wonderfull ... marvellous ... :thumb

.... he says sat up in bed reading this :D

Good one Mide :thumby:

:beerjug:
 
Looking at the terrain, recon the Jeep isn't doing too bad either. :thumb

Keep up the great report with the photo's, beats a boring night shift in here!!!!!
 
What an amazing adventure? I look forward to the next instalment.
 
Because of the delay leaving that morning we knew we wouldn't make it to Tomtor that day. We stopped at one stage during the day and Gary realised one of our bags was missing of the roof of the jeep! Kev decided to ride back a while and see if he could find it. As it turned out 2 bags had fallen off. One of ours with our thermarest in it and one of Gary's with all his clothes in. Luckily Kev found the one he wasn't looking for first so found both we found another fabulous place to camp near another river. It's such a beautiful country with spectacular views. Photos just don't do it justice

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We ate some ready meals that night. They're surprisingly good maybe we were just very hungry

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The next morning we woke to another glorious day.

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We packed up and set off. We didn't have far to go today and the road and bridges got better the closer to Tomtor we got.
Except this bit

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We arrived into Tomtor tired and very dirty. We stayed with Susana

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This is the little house we stayed in, the boys were in the main house with Susana.

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All the bikes outside

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The village

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We had a few beers that night and the locals came to help fix the puncture and weld the drawbar

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Even though it snows 8 months of the year, they take great pride in their gardens

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On arrival in Tomtor we contacted David Zimmerman to tell him we'd found his documents. Felix contacted Walter Colebatch, who contacted Terry Brown, who facebooked David, who then rang Kev

The next day we went to Oymyakon. The coldest inhabited place in the world. A temperature of -71.2 was recorded here❄️❄️

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We visited the Pole of Cold❄️

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A few of the peculiarities
A jug of powdered milk

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There's no running water

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The food and hospitality was absolutely amazing. We got bed and 3 meals a day for €20 each a day

The next day Gary and Fritz left in the jeep to go back to get the trailer. Felix, Thomas, Kev and I left to finish the OSR and head towards Yakutsk. Kev had made friends there in 2012 and they wanted us to stay with them again. We hoped to reach Khandyga that night and Yakutsk a day later. They were going to be long days riding

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Thanks for posting this Mide, a really great read with lots of photography.I am in awe of you, riding this tough remote journey, day after day. Your children and grandkids must be very proud of you.
 
Mide thanks for taking us on your journey,( from the comfort of me favourite chair) one fantastic journey you are all on. The photos help tell the story of True Grit and determination, looks like a top team of friends to be travelling with. Well done one and all. :beerjug:
Looking forward to your next instalment.
 
Most excellent report & piccies Mide xxx
 
Sorry for the delay guys work and life got in the way!!

Kev, Felix, Thomas and I headed off towards Khadyga. We had the rest of the OSR to complete and then some 320kms on the Kolyma Highway:(

The rest of the OSR was maintained as there is regular traffic in and out of Tomtor. We had a few river crossings but all easy peasy. We met another biker on his way towards Tomtor and stopped for a chat. He didn't have much English but we managed to communicate

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As you can see the bridges are very well maintained

We came towards the end of the OSR and just before the end there is a big river crossing.

So I tried
This video was taken from the bridge

https://vimeo.com/188053201

Needless to say I was soaking wet! Even Klim gear is not that waterproof
The boys emptied water out of the exhaust and cleared the cylinder and all that stuff and the bike started super little bike

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We had to turn right at the end of the OSR to the petrol station 400 m away as the next fuel stop was too far away. We filled one of the fuel bladders again too. We headed west again, Mile munching, we needed to reach Khandyga that night. Thomas and Felix rode together and Kev and I did. They were ahead of us all the time, we did catch up with them occasionally when they had smoke breaks. Thomas was having problems with his front wheel rim. He had stopped on the OSR near a building site to borrow tools to straighten out the rim where it had been dented by deep ruts.
After about 30km on the kolyma highway, Kev pulled off to the side. I was freezing as I was soaked from my earlier 'swim'.
Kev lit a fire and I started stripping my bike gear would dry really quickly but my base layers were soaked too. Kev took out my spare clothes from the giant loop but they were all wet in patches:( there was nothing for it only to take everything off and dry it I wrapped Kev's jumper around my waist and took off my leggings, took my tshirt and base layer off and put Kev's tshirt on and had his bike jacket to sit on. As I took off my knickers, the only car to pass in the hour we sat there, passed by

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It didn't take long for everything to dry and we packed up and hit the road again. It was a long and tiring day, with no cafes or shops along the way. We stopped regularly to walk about a bit or pee and it was a colder day than any we'd had up to now.

We got to Khandyga that evening, cold, tired and hungry. Felix and Thomas had found a hostel and done some shopping so we had a cuppa and some cheesy pasta we had about 40kms in the morning to the Aldan river. We didn't know what time the first ferry left so we decided we'd leave early and hope it was at about 8ish.

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Really good tale Mide.
Glad you are able to continue the report.
 


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