Some roads are just completely destroyed and look like after an air strike: just craters with occasional pavement. But other roads are pretty new and on highway quality. From one condition to the other it’s only a matter of a few meters…
but besides the roads it’s just empty steppes and lonelyness. And WIND! so much space but nearly impossible to put up a tent due to the strong wind!
Kazakh steppe
sunset in Kazakhstan
Einige Strassen sind komplett zerstört und schauen aus wie nach einem Luftangriff. Nur Löcher mit ein wenig Asphalt dazwischen. Andere Strassen wurden vor kurzem neu geteert (wohl wegen der Expo 2017 in Astana). Von einem Zustand zum anderen sind es manchmal nur ein paar Meter…
Abseits der Strassen ist es nur weite Steppen und Einsamkeit. Und Wind! so viel Platz aber man findet kaum einen windstillen Ort, um das Zelt hinstellen zu können!
Vladimir and his family invited me to join their friends at a biker festival in Marks near Saratov!
it was so much fun! I had one of the best times in my life! I’ve got a ‘special guest’ tag and didn’t have to pay the entry fee 🙂
I had to go on stage and received a present: a very nice leather belt with bag! It looks good on my bike 🙂 but I still don’t know why I got it, as the presenter spoke just Russian and I was drunk!
I’ve been driving four hours through Saratov to find a mechanic which mounts my tires! I’m not good in doing it myself, did it only a few times and I’m afraid to destroy the tubes…
So every motorcycle shop in Saratov only sells bikes, but does not do services or tire changes! And the tons of car tire shops don’t do motorcycle tires!
Finally, some nice guys called around and found Vladimir! He’s also car mechanic, bur drives a bike himself, so he wanted to help me out!
He had some troubles with the car tire machine to change the front wheel, the back one went fine. He’s doing metal detecting and even gifted me some old coins he found!
The day after he and his family took me to the park Pobedy, where a lot of old Russian military vehicle are displayed. And there’s a nice view over the city from the world war 2 memorial.
In Georgia I’ve been in Gori, the birth town of Stalin.
Almost all Japanese cars are right-hand driven! Cheap imports?
I’ve met a lot of Russian bikers. They have holidays now and coming to Georgia for the mountains.
Stalin
Georgia
Georgia (see background)
Georgia
Russian bikers
gas pipes in front of the buildings
In Georgien war ich in Gori, der Geburtsstadt von Stalin.
Fast alle japanischen Autos sind rechts-lenker! vermutlich billig Importe direkt aus Japan.
Habe viele russische Motorradfahrer getroffen. Die haben anfangs Mai Ferien und kommen daher jetzt nach Georgien in die Berge.
