Geoff put all his gear onto the floor and created a mound of redundant kit. Then he packed what he was keeping into his new duffel bag and threw away everything else including the Givi top box and one of the side panniers. Dave carried Geoff's tank bag with all his electronic gear and documents.
We set off and within a short time came upon a tough uphill boulder section and Geoff lost control of the bikes and was off. The good news is the new baggage arrangement survived the fall ok!!
We had been told that the last 200km run into Tynda was on good tracks, but we were all waiting for these to appear. At last the road started to improve and we started to make good progress. The front bikes pulled up at one point to check mileage etc. and as Geoff came towards them he misjudged the width of his one remaining pannier and hit Franks bike sending Frank and himself sprawling onto the ground!! Geoff was not having a good day!
At one point we stopped in a layby area to make a brew and warm up when road repair workers arrived with their large road planing machines.
Severobaikalsk norther RussiaThey waved at us and in the next minute had stopped their work and came over with the customary bottle of home made vodka and were offering us shots of vodka.
We went through a really fast section of gravel roads which was good riding and when the weather improved we stopped at the side of the railway and took out all our wet camping gear and clothes and dried them off in the sunshine and fresh breeze. It reminded Geoff of India where people lay out their laundry to dry on the gavel at the side of the railway tracks.
We arrived eventually at Tynda, and pulled into a fuel station to top up with petrol. A motorist at the station stopped to say hello and told us he had met a very tall Canadian biker a few days earlier. This must have been our friend Edward.
Paul set his sat-nav to an hotel location and we set off in search of some dry comfort. Unfortunately the hotel we had chosen was both expensive and awful, but we didn't know that until we actually got to the rooms.
When we arrived at the hotel and were making enquiries about accommodation a biker called Vittaly came up and indicated that he had known we were coming and had been looking out for us. He was from a group of bikers in Tynda and they knew Edward who was still in Tynda.
It was explained to Vitally that some welding repairs were required on Geoff's bike, and he made some phone calls and said they could do the repairs but it would have to be straight away as the welder was not available tomorrow. So when Geoff came out of the hotel after arranging accommodation his bike was already unloaded and he was told to follow this biker and go and get his bike repaired.
The other three went into the hotel and washed, showered and drank beer whilst poor Geoff spent three hours dismantling his bike for the welder to make repairs. The welder was called Ivan and he proceeded to put back together the totally broken pannier support frame, then looked over the bike and saw it needed the frame welding and repairing in three places.
After three hours the job was still not completed so Geoff's bike was left in Ivan's garage overnight and Ivan took him back to the hotel to clean up before going out for a drink with all the Tynda biker group.
We then all went with Ivan to the Sportsmans bar in Tynda and proceeded to drink beer on empty stomachs well into the early hours of the morning. Vitally arrived with Edward who had stayed in Tynda for a few days before moving on to Magadan.
The result you will by now have realised is that we all got well blathered. The Tynda bikers however restricted their drinking to modest amounts and Ivan then made two taxi journeys to ferry people back to the hotel. The arrangement was that when we surfaced in the morning (?) we should call Ivan who would come and we would all have breakfast together before completing the repairs to Geoff's bike.
More later
RRs
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