Back in Russia baby!
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Just a quick update......
I left Ulaanbaatar this morning and headed north for the border with Russia. The weather was magic all day, and not a bit of gravel to be seen....just a lovely long straight line of tarmac... seeing as the last time I rode the bike I was being shaken to bits.....I had to get off the bike a few times to make sure everything was ok....it just didn't feel a 100%....
This part of Mongolia is green, and its one of the only locations in the country where they can actually grow crops....the whole countryside is a mixture of rolling hills and green planes as far as the eye can see.
I was thinking about camping or going out and about in Mongolia but I had the chat with myself and decided that my Mongolian adventure was over, lets face it I'd seen enough and had more than enough memories, so I said i'd cross the border with Russia and shoot up for Ulan Ude. All told a journey of about 550km.
A couple of things went against me almost right away. The first was you lose an hour as you cross the border so instead of getting to Ulan Ude by 8, it would be 9, not a big deal but its always better to arrive early into a city you don't know when your looking for accomodation.
Then I hit something on the ground, and the front tire deflated, I'd a poxy puncture. I felt that because I hit something and it went down almost right away....ok I've shredded the tire....
I pulled in, hit the hazards and started pulling apart my gear to get the puncture repair stuff and the compressor.... I didn't want to look at the tire and see a shread........
No matter what I did though I could'nt find the hole, it was getting dark, I was bollixed so I said ok, can I push this bastard to a hotel? While this was happening this woman kept trying to sell me a mammoth tooth...I told her...look darling I'm trying to fix my bike....so instead of pissing off she just kept dropping the price, while the first sprinkles of rain started to fall.
I asked her do you know where there is a hotel? She said 20 minutes walk dead ahead.... well 20 minutes isn't as bad as 40 so I started pushing the fully laden Sam Gamgee up the road with a flat front tire. There were plenty of young fellas all giving it giggles so I was using the phrase "Go lick the back of my left one" fairly often.
About an hour of pushing the bike later, I came across a puncture repair place.... oh you beauty!...... went in and the guy pumped it up to a big psi, soaked it with water to see if we could find anything..... nada!....the bollix has stayed up since then.
The guy reckoned I hit something hard, it dislodged the tire, the air went out, but as it was being pumped back up the tire reseated and is now fine......
Anyway....whoever has the voodoo doll of me on a bike...please stop sticking pins in it!
over and out from Russia
Oisin
and how much did the broken shock set you back in total
