Magadan or bust!!

The next day I woke up and looked out the window, raining again. These days I don’t have a lot of liking for riding in the rain and even worse when there is 620km to do. As far as I knew there was a “hotel” about 100km from where I was and then nothing after that until Magadan, and I really wanted to get there and finish the ride. So I was up front tyre checked and ready to go by 07.30.

A wet start

The weather improved but the road didn't

It rained on and off for the first three hours but not bad enough to make the road too slippery so I managed to average about 50kmph. Then once it stopped raining it also reached the point where it hadn’t been raining and the road go better and the speed went up. I stopped for petrol once after about 250km which left 400 to do and the 23 litres would cover that and leave very little in the tank for shipping. The only other time I stopped was to eat a mars bar, but as soon as you stand still for longer than a minute the mosquitoes are on you in force so no time to enjoy your surroundings (or the mars bar)

A stop for petrol and to add my sticker

The rivers kept getting bigger

The last 150km into Magadan is tarmac. This sounds like it should be heaven, but the initial 50km is probably worse than the graded dirt. Lots of dips and potholes from where the ground thaws from the frozen winter and then the trucks do their damage, but the closer you get to town the better it gets. By 16.00 I had reached the sign where I stopped and took a photo with the bike, and then moved on to the Mask of Sorrows monument which I had wanted to see ever since I watch “The Long way Round” video.

At last the town at the end of the road

The mask of sorrows

It quite an emotional monument

The back side with the weeping girl and headless man on the cross

I started to look for a hotel and soon discovered that none of them (or the town) had any hot water!! The flooding that had happened in the previous weeks had done enough damage that they had shut off the water for repair. Like most of the towns in Russia the hot water is supplied by the state. This ensures that during the harsh winter everyone has heating, but the down side is that once off nobody (unless you have an electric water heater) gets a shower. Cups of water boiled each day were enough to enable me to wash well enough that people didn’t recoil when I walked into the room.

The Hotel without hot water (but they had cold beer!!)

A friend of a friend Chris Cowper had already sent an email to a mate of his in Magadan informing him of my imminent arrival and asking if he would look after me. As I was checking into the hotel a man asked me if I was that rider and said (via google translate) that his son Pavel would be along in about 15 minutes. He duly arrived and asked if there was anything he could do? I needed to clean the bike badly as both it and I was covered in muck and if I took the luggage to the room it (and I) would make a hell of a mess. So I followed him to a car wash were everything including me from the thighs down was power washed. In fact the water jet was so powerful that it knocked the bike over at one point!! 

All soaped up

Then some serious cleaning power

Once that was done it was back to the hotel a quick change out of the wet riding gear and off to one of Pavels friends for a BBQ. It was supposed to be for his sons birthday, but there was no sign of his son and he and his mates were already in full swing and upon my arrival found another reason to break out the Vodka. Having said that they were a very friendly and amenable bunch, who fed and watered me until I could take no more. Needless to say I slept very well that night.

They gangs all here and they're ready to party

The next day was Sunday so there would be no contacting anyone. I took a walk around and found a bank to start getting the shipping money. I also found where the MIG fighters used to be and what remained of the two after the floods. It’s a shame that they fell into the river, but I’m sure that someone will manage to find some replacements in the near future.

Google earth still has them standing

What it looks like now

This one got pretty smashed up

The second even worse. No tail.

Monday was slow to start. Getting in contact with the agent in Magadan took some doing, but he eventually arrived at the hotel at 12.00 along with Pavel. They had a good chat for half an hour in Russian and then he got up and left. I asked what was happening and Pavel said “don’t worry, I’ll look after the bike shipping”. In the end the other three lads were going to be there in about four days time so all four bikes would go down to Vladivostok together. All that was left was to get my flights sorted and get me home. I flew out to Moscow the next day with a connecting flight to Vienna and then Paris by 20.30 that night.

Apparently Magadan is the mammoth capital of the world 

The Cathedral of the Holly Trinity in Magadan

A huge thank you to Pavel Popenko, for all his help and time. Hopefully see you in Australia sometime.