Siberia 2013 - From Irkutsk to Altai and back

Interesting factoid about the dam near Krasnoyarsk--prior to building it, low winter temperatures in Krasnoyarsk could fall to around -40 C. After building the dam, temperatures now in the winter fall to around -20 C, although the humidity in the area is now much higher.

just great!!

Great trip Christian.
Just wondering ,has anybody ever seen Ninas big dog. ? If it really exists...,it doesn,t make a lot of noise.....

In!

Great stuff, keep it coming.

in!

I am in!

We thought of this question too, if the dog really exists... In the night after Nina's husband released him we could hear some noises (from the window), like a hungry animal. And in the daytime we saw a big dog in the back of the house (from the toilet window). Maybe it's him.

Cristian

Tuva Republic


This is the map of all Tuva track. You can see the tents on the maps - the corresponding camping spots in Tuva.





Day 9, Monday, 22 July 2013

Veeery happy with our Tuva border permits we go towards Chadan. The landscape is becoming more beautiful as we go deeper into Tuva. One can see the mountains.




A part of the road towards Chadan is along the Yenisei River. The river is more than 5500 km and is the largest river system flowing to the Artic Ocean.




A lot of photo-breaks…








Around 70 km before Chadan we decide to find a place to sleep so that we could stay to relax and admire the landscape before getting dark. We turn left from the main road and ride up on a hill. There is an old track; it seems un-travelled.

Bogdan goes first to take a look up




Then we decide to stop here. At 8 o’clock we are installed. Bogdan and Andrei go to a short ride a few miles down the road to buy a beer. There is a little shop but they don’t sell beer . Our friends come back with some meat pies.











After we relax a little we go up on the hill to see if there is any gsm data network. Andrei remains at the tents.


Somewhere down there are our tents (some little dots)



One can see it all around.



The night surprise: from down the valley it appears a 4x4 with two local people. We see from up there a little worried. Andrei is alone at the tents. We begin going down. The car is not staying too much at the tents and it goes further on the track. They see us coming down and they come to us. They ask us something in Russian, we say we don’t understand and they go away. One of them was drunk. I didn’t want to have any trouble… it was our first night camping in Tuva, and after what I’ve read here I knew the people are not very friendly there.



Day 10, Tuesday, 23 July 2013

It takes us 3 hours from the time we wake up until we leave. It’s clear that we are still early with the camping stuff.





3xKTM + 1xBMW



The sun makes us a pleasant surprise



We stop in a pass to take a photo of an “ovoo”. There suddenly appears a car full of local people. As they see us they come straight to our bikes to take photos.











The weather is very nice.

We arrive in Chadan village. It’s not hard to find a place where to eat… Maybe the only one? Anyway the food is good enough. It’s close to the store where Walter took this photo a few years ago http://www.advrider.com/forums/showpost.php?p=11254785&postcount=31. These girls were there and they were giggling and smiling.


When finishing lunch and ready to go, there appears some local people. Of course they begin to take photos with the bikes. Somebody with his kid in the trolley takes him up for the picture



Another photo break

After riding 2200 km of asphalt from Irkutsk, eventually the off-road begins. Veeeeryyy happppyyyy ! The asphalt goes further to Mongolia; we turn right to “Tuva track”.
This track follows the border with Mongolia. We enter a wild and sparsely populated area.











We reach a pass near Mongolia - Russia border (N50 33.260 E91 26.345). The landscape is beautiful. We are not in a hurry so that we stay here pretty long. We eat something, we take pictures. The clouds are passing by.








Behind that fence is the border zone.





Suddenly it appears a big truck full of stones. A local driver and a Russian passenger with his bicycle. We change a few words. He asks us where are we going and if we have a map. We tell about our plan to go to Khindiktig-Khol lake via Mugur Aksy. When he hears this he tell us that there is a swamp and it would be impossible for us to pass by. We knew from Walter RR about the 10 km of swamp… This guy advises us to go via Kyzyl Khaya. We take a look on the map. In fact we have to detour around Mongun Taiga south side. From the map, the route looks as nice as the other so we don’t stay too much to think about it and decide to listen to his advice.








After a 20 minutes ride, it appears a village on the left, Sagli. Behind the mountains there is Mongolia.





We ride another 10 minutes and we decide to camp. It’s too beautiful not to relax a little. From the main road we turn right towards a hill and we ride a few miles.








We install our camp (N50 30.671 E91 14.263). The main road is somewhere down there. We have gsm network from Mongolia. Because the place is very stony we have to do a little cleaning. We are around 1800 m high (5900 feet) and is full of mosquitos. They attack us with no mercy.








Today it rained a few times. We’ve just finished to install the tents when it began to rain a little. Not too much, just a few drops, enough to see the rainbow.










The night surprise is the full moon





Day 11, Wednesday, 24 July 2013


The moon is still there when we wake up. What a beautiful day today !








It’s total silence. Nobody’s there. The freedom feeling is total.


We begin to ride. There is a truck coming



Andrei



Gigi



Cristian



Rarely one can see a yurt.










Tuva people. I don’t remember what we asked them.



















All I can understand from this sign is the name of the mountain and the natural park: Mongun Taiga (the silver mountain, 3970 m / 13000 feet).










There are many rivers to pass, fortunately they have bridges.










After Koge Dava pass (almost 2400 m / 7800 feet; N50 19.234 E90 41.556) there is a spectacular descent to 1600 m / 5200 feet where there is a military check point.








Mongun Taiga view









The military check point is right near that edge far away. There is a river which is born 40 km upstream from Mugur Aksy and it flows to Uureg Lake in Mongolia.





We pass by the check point and nobody stops us. But when we go to a store in Mugur Aksy a young Russian military comes to us to check the papers.


View towards Uureg Lake in Mongolia.



There are some ugly clouds, so that we stop to put our rain equipment.











5 km before the town we stop once again to take a photo of Mongun Taiga.




At the town entrance is a gas station. We had it as POI on our gps. But there is no gas. We panic a little because in our gps there was only one station, but there is another gas station in the center.

Here Andrei asks for 92 benzin. I don’t know how we understood … but we understood that there is only 80. Andrei, Bogdan and Gigi fill up with 80. As the 3rd bike is filled with 80 I see some locals coming there and they buy 92. So that I fill with 92 benzin, and the other three with 80.


Gigi sits resigned with a cigar









Here the usual questions are about the size of the tank and the size of the engine. Nobody asks about maximum speed.




Near the gas station there is a big café. We go there very happy but when we enter we find out that they prepare for a wedding … so we remain hungry.


We go to the local store to buy some beers and water. While we were standing in front of the store, it appears this Russian officer and asks about our papers. He take some pictures of our papers with his mobile phone.








We leave the village hungry like hell, with the plan that we stop in a few miles to eat some cans.


To be continued

Cristian

This is fantastic!
Please carry on, loving the picture quality, the maps and the story.

Christian, what are those DRL's under the fairing of your KTM?

Also, there's a GoPro lurking about - are we going to see some video?

Great RR, stunning pictures! Thanks for sharing!

This is really cool! thanks!

Great report & pics! Please continue...

fantastic to see some pics from this area again :)

Impressive and sets are dazzling. Bravo
I look forward to visiting these regions

Wow. This is making me miss Russia. I guess I caught the bug.

Great RR. Great pics. Subscribed.

Great RR, Nice pic, i love it.

i subscrided.

In!

Keep it coming Bob!
It's a shame that only a couple of days prevented us from crossing paths in Mongolia.