It rained all night and is raining now. It is totally overcast and foggy. It’s going to be a miserable day and my hope is to find a hotel before I get to Khabarovsk. Packing up will be tough today because everything is all wet. Also I have nowhere to put my gear while I’m packing so it’s sitting out in the rain. There is trash strewn all around my campsite, and last night I listened to the raindrops making music by dropping on tin cans, plastic bottles, my tent fly and the leaves of the trees. The tree frogs were singing away. It was a musical night of strange noises. I hope I can ride out this rain. To me it’s a slow rain that will last all day. I’d love it if I were a farmer. It’s a good soaker rain. Time to put this day in motion. Oh boy. I’ll have to run in between the raindrops, as my mother use to say. First, everything in the tent that can be packed or bagged must done inside the tent before going outside, such as sleeping bag, air mattress, laptop and charging system. Next I must get my riding pants, shoes, rainsuit, and rubber boots on. Now I can work outside in the rain. As quickly as possible I load the saddle bags/panniers so as not to get water in them. I also took pictures of my bush campsite and the road into the site. I loaded the top box equally as fast. I didn’t do a SPOT location because I don’t think SPOT could find a satellite if the world depended on it. It’s very cloudy and foggy. I loaded my bike with everything except my tires and 12 liters of gasoline. I will load the tires and gas when I get my motorcycle out on the highway. I walked out of my campsite and planned how I was going to ride out. My egress route out is muddy, with a large water hole filled with tadpoles and a small hill full of ruts. I must get up that hill without dumping my motorcycle.
I made it up the hill ok and back on the highway. Whew, thank God for that. I then carried and loaded my tires and gasoline. Today I dumped the first four liters of my spare gas into my gas tank. It’s time to get rid of that dead weight. The last thing I went back for was my red Aerostitch jacket. Several cars passed my motorcycle sitting on the side of the road and beeped their horns at me. They must have thought I had to go to the bathroom in the woods when they saw me carrying my jacket out to the road. I was driving along and came upon this roadside restaurant. I drove in to eat breakfast as usual. I walked in the door, set my helmet on the table, and got hollered at. I went to order my breakfast and waitress totally couldn’t understand what I wanted. She kept telling me to order from the menu. I told her I didn’t understand Russian. She kept telling me to order from the menu. Finally I just picked up my helmet and walked out the door and left. I was starving and this person totally couldn’t read or understand what I wanted. I drove another hour down the road and another café came up and I drove in. I pulled out my paper and asked if they could prepare the items I asked for and in 10 minutes I had my food. Great service and great people.
I hit another pothole in the blacktop again today. It wasn’t as deep as the one that bent the rims. I stopped and checked the rims again to see they had any new bends in them. I took a couple pictures of potholes in the road as I drove today. So today I drove blacktop in the rain, gravel with potholes in the rain, muddy potholes in the rain, and two inch/5 cm deep mud in the rain. I personally thought I was out of the road construction yesterday but I guess not. I got within 180 miles/300 kms of Khabarovsk and found a campsite relatively easily. I’m camped alongside the road, again out of sight. It was kind of another old gravel pit of sorts. This possibly is the last night I will camp in Russia because tomorrow I will be Khabarovsk. The sun came out later this afternoon and now I’m able to dry out most of my camping gear. I thought I had a good site and here comes a Russian guy driving by on his motorcycle. I have to keep in mind that tomorrow may be the same as today, and the 180 miles I have to drive may take a lot longer than I think. Hopefully my tent will dry faster tomorrow because it’s out in the open where the sun can burn off the dew. I checked the map of Khabarovsk for the location of the hotel I want to stay at. I programmed this into Matilda so when I get to the city I can drive into it without a hassle. Tomorrow should be an easy day if finding the hotel goes ok.
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