124. Day 81 – All welded up and some smoother gravel as well
Friday 9 May 2004
We both slept very well in our cosy warm bed with the inside heater going, so we decided to give ourselves an extra hour in bed – we had put our clocks forward an hour last night!
It had stopped snowing during the night and some snow had melted, but our windscreen was still covered in ice when we got back onto the road at 9.35am.
Back onto dirt road with the centre marked out
We crept along another 50 kilometres to the town of Semioeyornby following Danil’s instructions from last night. We drove into the small village just off the main road and headed slowly towards the railway line.
Main Street of SemioeyornbyA man watching as we drove past his home
We noticed a school with children playing and two men walking beside the road. We stopped and showed them the piece of paper Danil had written, with the name of the man who could do the welding for us. They insisted on climbing into the back seat of our cabin and directed us with lots of hand pointing through a few side streets, down to the railway line and up to a block of Soviet style apartments.
Children playing in the school playgroundWe stopped and showed these men the piece of paper with the welder’s nameApartments where Nuzhna Svarka, the welder lived
We stopped and they tried to locate the man. Dick followed and found him working on a car in his small back yard. He had a look at the back of our Earthroamer, saw the problem and understood what we needed.
He then organised one of his friends to drive his car and had us follow the car back through the little streets towards the main road. We arrived at a small shed with a padlocked door. We backed the Earthroamer up to the door and instantly the shed door was opened. The men put down old rugs under the vehicle, got some big planks of wood and used their car jack (and our bigger one) to lift the rear bumper bar back into the correct position. They then used a big hammer to bash the bars right into the exact spot to weld them together.
The two men welding the bumper bar supports under the vehicle with Dick lending a handWhen the welding was finished another very friendly Russian offered us a drink of vodkaThe small welding and car repair business in Semioeyornby
Dick disconnected all the batteries and away they went. They charged us $100 USD, which we very happily paid. We now think the bumper is as strong as it has ever been – maybe even stronger. However we don’t want to risk another breakdown on these dreadful bumpy roads, so we decided to leave the spare tyre inside the Earthroamer until we get to the bitumen – hopefully in a few days time.
Close to where we had parked, we discovered a café with a typical outside loo. Having the need to go, we ventured down the path to a wooden shed with a hole cut out in the floor – that was the toilet. Fortunately with the temperatures still being below 10°C there was very little smell. Their toilets are really rather disgusting.
We then enjoyed some lunch in the café. We had pancakes with melted butter and a cup of coffee each, costing around $4.00 AUD.
Pip enjoying some pancakes and coffee
We also found the fuel station on the other side of the main road and as usual, did our calculations on how much fuel we would need to fill up and how much that would cost. Dick handed the money to the man behind the window of the little shed and he turned the fuel pump on. It cost 25.50 Rubles per litre of diesel which is about $1.15 AUD.
A typical old fashioned Russian fuel station
We had experienced some trouble with sending the photos for yesterday’s website last night but after an Iridium phone call to Phil in our office, he directed Pip to make a few changes to the settings on her computer and had it working. We finally left at 1.13pm. As we bumped along at between 20kph to 40kph, Pip (with the computer on her lap) managed to type the emails and send the photos back to our office in Sydney.
We noticed that there was still snow on the ground in places and most of the rivers and streams still had lots of ice on their edges.
The rivers still had ice on their edges – looking towards the town of Amazar
The road works that have taken place to create this new highway have been enormous. Russia is spending at least a third of its road budget on this road. Sadly for us it will take a few more years until they have it completed with a smooth bitumen surface!! However we have noticed that some of the cuttings they have made are extremely wide – around 6 lanes and the bridges across the rivers and streams are big concrete structures, with a smooth concrete surface that we love.
You will notice the cars driving towards us are all over the road and with little dust behind them – this means the road is bad – the drivers are trying to find the smoothest route and they are going slowly!!It was a relief from the corrugations on the gravel road to drive onto the new concrete bridges that either crossed creeks, rivers or the Trans Siberian railway line
We reached the northernmost point of the road at 4pm and ticked it off as a milestone. Every now and then we stopped the vehicle and checked around and under it to see that all was well.
Our Russian GPS that shows our track as we near the northern most point on the road to KhabarovskDick showing that we had made it to the northern most point on the road
Not long after this northern point, we noticed a big sign which we couldn’t read, but had two badges on it. We assume that we crossed from one province into another. The good thing about this was that we noticed a considerable improvement in the surface of the gravel road. Soon we discovered why – we saw the first grader actually working since we were being towed by the coal truck in Mongolia, over six months ago! Dick was able to drive up to a maximum speed of 73kph but mostly we cruised along at between 50 to 60kph. This was great because we were determined to drive at least 300 kilometres today.
A wonderful sight – a grader smoothing out the gravel
We noticed snow covered mountains out to the north, while beside the road was mostly spruce forests and grasses. We saw the occasional town in the distance, and every now and then we saw the railway line. We only saw a group of four engines this afternoon when we stopped at 5.14pm for a quick cup of tea. We jumped out of the Earthroamer and waved and back came a very friendly toot and a wave from the driver. We are a little disappointed at not seeing any other trains today considering we saw at least a dozen yesterday.
Snow capped mountains way to the northWe stopped for a cup of tea and train watchingWe even passed Japanese cement mixers being driven to MoscowMany buyers had purchased second hand trucks and loaded a small car on the backIce still on the edge of some streamsOvercast skiesWe stopped for the night outside this cafe near Skovorodino (which turned out to be Takhtamygda)
Finally we arrived at a café/truck stop/garage beside the road near the town of Skovorodino, and parked in front of the café for the night at 7.26pm. (We found out later the town was actually Takhtamygda, not Skovorodino).
We joined a group of Russian men who had been driving the Japanese cars and by pointing at what they were eating we managed to order our dinner from the young waitress. We enjoyed another delicious bowl of borscht soup, a fried egg and some coleslaw. A strange combination but very delicious and it saved Pip from cooking again
We ordered our dinner by pointing to what the other drivers were eating. This was coleslaw, borscht and a fried egg
Dick went for a walk to explore the railway line, watch the trains and see what the town had to offer. He came back and reported seeing four trains and not much happening in the little town. Pip sat in the warm Earthroamer, wrote these words and copied her photos into the computer for today.
We travelled 314kms today with a moving average of 42.1kph
Today 314 kms. 29,697 kms since Anchorage, Alaska.
STOP PRESS – Correction Friday 6 June 2008
After checking with the Spider Tracks unit we have found that we are actually near the town of Takhtamygda, not the town of Skovorodino as originally thought.
