It’s been a few days of solid riding since Omsk and I’m sat outside a cafe waiting for some soup. I’m about 230 miles away from Irkutsk but I’ve set up camp because I was riding towards a huge electrical storm.
The skies for the past couple of days in Siberia have been stunning!
This part of Russia seems to be much poorer than the west. Houses are akin to shanty shacks and there is livestock here. The truck stop tactic is still working well, and stopping in small towns/villages for food is a hoot – I’m like a temporary celebrity. We exchange hand gestures and vaguely understand sentences, and I’m in multiple photo albums of Siberian folk :).
Electronics death: Nexus tablet – knackered touch screen
Replacement tablet – not charging
Bike death – the bloody side stand snapped off last night! Some blokes at the truck stop welded it back together incorrectly, but “777 Workshop” in Kansk re-welded it for ree. All good again now.
Irkutsk tomorrow. I think I’ll stop there for a day and change the oil on the bike, maybe buy some new socks. I’m living life on the edge!
Now that I’m out of range of the ‘net (no tablet) I think I’ll also call mum to let her know I’ll be electronically silent.
Crap. My air ticket for Canada is in an email, as is my chat history with Yuri. Please don’t let this mean I have to buy yet another Android device in Irkutsk.
Speaking of Canada, I fly on the 29th, which is 10 days tomorrow. To go from this quiet and rural Siberia to a ‘modern’ 21st Century Canada will be a big change.
Real toilets!
A (hole-in-the-ground) toilet today had a live rat in it. The rt emerged to see if my pee was adding anything of interest to the mound of old poos. Evidently it wasn’t, and it scurried away.
Right, fag, another pivo and the tail-end of the sunset being reflected off the distant storm.