Heceventure

25008 - 25594 586 km This was definitely so far the best riding of my journey. First of all, the weather was great. No clouds, wind or cold or hot. Just perfect. Secondly I met a great Swizz couple heading the same way and we decided to ride together at least until Altai, Mongolia. Thirdly the roads were great. Good asphalt, nice corners, not too much traffic. And the best of all... The scenery! I have no words to describe the beauty of the views. Spectacular, beautiful, majestic, great, unbelievable... you name it. The photos only tell you a little part of the truth. Actually I would have loved to stop every other minute to take photos... Here's some for you to see. By the way... Apparently just to celebrate my being in Barnaul they organized fireworks. They had fireworks here in Aktash tonight too. That photo is taken last night from my hotel room window. I don't wonder why people say that the Altai region is the most beautiful area in the whole Russia. ...

 A day off in Barnaul I certainly had deserved a day off. In 9 days I had ridden 4670 km. Taking into account at least one full day of services I have driven approximately 583 km per day. No wonder my butt aches a bit... I took the morning very easy. I ate a long, slow breakfast and then laid on the bed until 10:30. Then packed only the necessary things to my backpack and started walking to the heart of the city. As soon as I got out I heard weird noise. Music, shouting etc. Like a football game or something was going on. But there was no stadium nearby. A park close by was my first destination. It seems the park had been neglected for years and now it's under construction. Lots of trees cut down, new lawn etc. In the middle there was a planetarium or something but as I'm not a museum type of guy I went on. I walked on and reached the main square (I suppose) of the city. There was some sort of carnival going on. Lots of people in nice costumes of different ethnic ...

24744 - 25008  264 km This short driving day stated early. I woke up at 6 AM for the sound of an alarm clock. I have to admit it was the first time I woke up to that sound during this trip. I had planned to get going as early as possible but I changed my plans as soon as I looked out of the window. It was way too dark to hit the road. So I took my time in packing my gear. I read the news of Kouvolan Sanomat and started a bit after seven. I somewhat managed to get out of the city before the morning rush. Of course there was quite a lot of traffic but I got out of the city pretty easily. After exiting the city the morning showed it's beauty. South of Novosibirsk I started to head towards Altai mountains which are told to be the most beautiful place in whole Russia. So far the scenery has been mostly unspectacular. Some mountainous parts I saw before Yekaterinburg but in that rain I wasn't very interested in the scenery. I just wanted to get going. Compared to the swamp and ...

24093 - 24744 651 km This was maybe one the best mornings during this trip. Not because I slept well - because I didn't but because I got a continental breakfast. At least almost. I really missed bacon (not Kevin Bacon). But there were excellent hot sandwiches and pancakes and sausages. I ate so much I thought Annie (I just named my bike Annie today) couldn't handle my weight anymore. Only thing different compared to Finnish hotel breakfast is that there's only a plateful of everything whether in Finland there's plenty on everything. Nice place. Probably built for sport educational purposes during the time of Soviet Union. There were a lot of photos of athletes. Probably famous ones. Only one I think I recognized was Aleksadr "Siberian Bear" Karelin. I thought my trip from Omsk to Novosibirsk would have been at least as boring as from Tyumen to Omsk. Far from that! About 100 km east of Omsk two Russian bikers passed me and we started to ride togethe...