Tulun - Krasnoyarsk-Wed 20-7-11

Big Day Driving Tulun - Krasnoyarsk 700Km 12 hours Wed 20-7-2011
We were supposed to have breakfast with the locals but 7am became 8 became 9am and greg was panicking so left at 8:10,hungry.

Max, the variety of roads was unbelievable, Superhighways to bogs with often little separating them. Some roads were smooth and perhaps we changed
 county boundaries,the road was bumpy, potholed and undulating (very hard on the big euro 3 axle rigs). Even the bridges had potholes, Plus it had
 rained heavily in the night with lots on Taniwhas fighting and flashing their swords.
Georgie kept asking her mum is she was OK !, G douesn't like thunder very much.

A lot of the roads are brand new just a few hundred meters from last year, but suffer from lack of a good base and good roading materials.
We saw some major earthworks and slips, but also a concertina batterface membrane for grassing the slopes.

We fueled up and had a little fight with the cashier lady as he we topped up our other vehicles with fuel left over. You have to guess the litres
then buy the roubles, eg 50 L @ RR25 = RR1225 of AT (low grade Diesel). If you don't have the capacity she keeps the money. Not Impressed with us!.

Getting out of these towns and around the perphery of some towns is an art as signs can be very misleading or missing. Plus M53 went to dirt road
in about 500m, new roads would just stop and a muddy service road woud appear heading off into the trees. Very swampy country. The rain kept most
of the mozzies at bay as quite cold, I had my jersey and the heater half on. Still got a few bites, some on my skin Graft so can't itch them.

Some pretty heavy machines about and infrastructure, batching plants for concrete and hotmix. Miles of armco barriers and big culverts.

The Railway was generally not a great distance away, hauling some huge trains, some having 3 & 4 engines coupled together.

The grades on the new motorway were often quite steep as they went in staight lines, so cuttings to reduce grades but 1 : 8 quite normal.

The land is giant rolling hills, forested and/or cultivated, very green.

We saw some Mig fighters at an Airforce base hidden amongst the earth mounds, then got stuck in a huge traffic jam 'cause the lady at the rail
crossing decided she needed to sweep the crossing, cars for aleast a Km in each direction.

Finally arrived , greg drove into town, lots of one way systems so lots of 'left turns' across the traffic.

Went out for T, BBQ and bier, and sat quietly in the marquee while the locals promenaded. Women's shoe shops must make a fortune.

however, thongs on older women often doesn't look so good ! (not Jandles).

Emails till midnight and then up for breakfast at 8am and a walk for 4.5 hrs , bier lunch so have just had a nice nanna nap and
turned the aircon on to finish this report.

Been out to T, Italiano, Pizza & pasta, & no Beer, the waitress was hopeless, hence no tip.
Murray & I had a constitutional and found a supermarket, so have bread for lunches on the road.
On the road at 7am, early brealfast and drive, drive, drive !!,
cheers,
m

overnight in Tulun-19-7-11 Tuesday



tues heading west 410 km-19-7-11

Left Irkutsk, after chatting to Sunshine Coast ladies escaping Kiwis jumping ditch for the winter.



leaving in fog



Huge pastoral lands here fields of potato,corn, wheat, rape seed?, may be red clover?.

Lovely villages in wooded areas, and cultivated fields between the copses.

The wheat stretched for miles, beautiful rolling country.

Massive communication towers above the endless silver birch and pine forests in the flat lands.

People on roadside selling berries from their buckets, seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

lots of kids on bikes at the towns, flocks of geese.

However no stock obvious, though we did see old animal shelter-like buildings, probably still used, we saw tractors out ploughing and hay raking.

a few days ago we saw a lada towing a rake with a guy in the back releasing the load periodically.

We saw people sything and raking hay by hand in the middle of huge fields and at edges, maybe locals scavaging.

Saw a beautiful russian ortodox church but too close to get full picture.

Lots of big rivers and some new bridges,and some under construction. Saw survey -engineers with total stations  doing hiway work.

The exit from Irkutsk was straight forward with Greg taking us to old hotel where the touring notes started and exited without incident.

This time we followed the M53 not M55, the distant milage was 1050 km  which we knocked off 400 odd today.

We`arrived at 3:30pm and went for a wander and muggins got ripped off in the lollie shop, nice pigeon eggs however.

Changed some US$ in local bank, got 27.88 RR/$ which is OK.

The others wandered and I found them in the Supermarket as we're having T in greg's room at 6, then early start in am as 700+Km to go

followed by a bigger day 900+ following, then a few rest days.

This hotel has no aircon or internet, so a bit stiffling, had a shower and writing to you guys while I wait to go to T.

Irkutsk Monday 18 July 2011

Seems hot today, 22C, need a jersey when I went out this am but this pm much hotter. My Phone told me I was in Moscow, so that was quick, but alas similar big drive tomorrow. The Hotel Europe is best yet, food great, hot showers and bathroons turn to drying rooms at night, good for the russian washer woman with riffle board, so up to date now for a few days.

Went looking for russian arms shop but either it was early or had moved on. The girls found a market, some lovely dogs for sale, but the boys went for walk-about by the river. We again saw the trans-siberian in motion. Looks like an easy option if you're not into doing battle with local Kame Kaze drivers and their roads.

Amazingly the town people give way to pedestrians at crossings, we tried an eight lane this morning, and although I have lost the use of two legs and one arm can still type this blogg. Many old buildings falling down around the inner city, but new developments happening, some of it in solid timber caulked with felt. Have yet to try the trams, which are very old.

Yesterday we drove from Ulan Ude 470Km to Irkutsk, but took all day as local highway chocker with sunday drivers and level crossings create huge traffic jams, some many Km long.

At Lake Baikal the kids went for a swim while I dipped for an octave or two change, too cold for the full baptism, great spot but very hazy all day so views dissapointing. Bought smoked cold fish for lunch which went well with the bread, cheese etc Murray got from the Tardis earlier that morning. The shop was actuall two shops in one and had two sets of staff, but they knew who sold what. Down the road at morning t we got a taste for bier sticks. Great being able to stop and boil the billy whenever, sometime the locals will supply the hot water.