Road of Bones and the Kolyma Highway - Pure Photos

[Colebatch]

Being picked up by Prokhor ... a massive guy in a heavily worked 4WD:


Tony drinking with Vitaly, another 4WD club guy in Magadan who helped us sort the bike shipping.


Myself, already sloshed, with Magadan's own version of Kylie Minogue:

[kootenay kid]

I can't focus on the ride report because the Women are too gorgeous! I obviously have a very screwed up sense of how things are there. Great ride man, I want to do it badly. Keep them pictures coming!

[Colebatch]

Even on a journey of manliness and discovery, there has too be time for a bit of playful idiocy ... Magadan had a park full of abandoned military hardware, from MiGs, to tanks, artillery pieces, missiles, APCs etc.

I dont know if Tony was trying to be James Bond or Dr Strangelove here:


My turn to save the world:

[Colebatch]

Originally Posted by kootenay kid

I can't focus on the ride report because the Women are too gorgeous! I obviously have a very screwed up sense of how things are there.

What did you expect? Its Russia !

Here is another pic of the Magadan Kylie for your viewing pleasure:



... before you get the wrong idea, "Kylie" (who reminded me a bit of David Bowie with one green and one blue eye) was the girlfriend of one of the Magadan 4WD guys we were drinking with.

[MarkC]

Thanks for posting the beautiful pictures of the Kolyma highway

[Colebatch]

The Final Act: the bikes were ridden down to the docks in Magadan and loaded onto the good ship "Kapitan Krems" bound for Vladivostok. The name reminded of my favourite childhood superhero, Captain Kremmen - the worlds most fabulous man.

Sometimes the cargo ships will also take passengers, but we had a new Captain on the ship and he was adamant that wasnt happening this time around.



Fly bike Fly !!!!


Vitaly from the Magadan 4WD club ensures the bikes are safe n sound in the hold, while I run around shooting video, and Tony gets the stills.


- - -

Tony and I headed out to the airport, where we had flights headed in different directions, at about the same time. Tony was headed to Vladivostok, where he was to rendezvous with Terry. Terry was a fellow Englishman, who had flown himself and his bike to Korea and then ferried to Vladivostok to join us on the next leg of the trip ... the mighty BAM Road. Tony's task for the next 5 days was to make sure Terry safely and happy fitted into Siberian life.

I meanwhile had to fly to Moscow to do some business. It was 8 hours direct flight to Moscow from Magadan! Further than London to New York!! I would meet up with Tony and Terry in Vladivostok in 5 days time, when our bikes were due to arrive in Vladivostok port on the Kapitan Kremmen.

And so thats it from Magadan from me; for this year anyway

- - -

Stay tuned for the next exciting thread ... in which we find out:
(1) how Terry managed to adapt to life in Russia
(2) how the three of us managed on the awe-inspiring BAM road.

Most people will never have heard of the BAM road, but for my money, its probably the most difficult adventure road in the world. We did the 2100km Road of Bones in a mere three and half days, but the 4000km BAM Road took us a month! Some days we did as little as 9km, riding dawn to dusk! The BAM Road, for me, is the benchmark for both man and machine.

The road is split in half roughly at Tynda. I knew of a few separate people who had ridden the western half, between Bratsk and Tynda. Only one pair of guys (Poles of course) had ridden the eastern part.

Nobody before had attempted to do the lot.


p

[Jeff@TheQuadShop]

Will that be in a new thread?

[Colebatch]

Originally Posted by Jeff@TheQuadShop

Well Jeff, if you ask Tiger Woods, he would probably say a man shouldn't tie himself down too much.

[Colebatch]

Originally Posted by Jeff@TheQuadShop

Will that be in a new thread?

Yes I will do a new thread. I think the BAM Road deserves its own thread.

If you liked the pics in this thread, have a look at my earlier thread on Tuva:
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=519357
Which was the first in this 'series'. This Road of Bones thread is the second I put together in the random order 'series'.

I am still trying to work out what thread to put together next ... the one that links Tuva to this one (which includes the first ever ride of a 1000 mile dirt track called The Vilyuisky Trakt), or the BAM road.

[YetiGS]

Originally Posted by Colebatch

Yes I will do a new thread. I think the BAM Road deserves its own thread.

If you liked the pics in this thread, have a look at my earlier thread on Tuva:
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=519357
Which was the first in this 'series'. This Road of Bones thread is the second I put together in the random order 'series'.

I am still trying to work out what thread to put together next ... the one that links Tuva to this one (which includes the first ever ride of a 1000 mile dirt track - The Vilyuisky Trakt), or the BAM road.

BAM

[Tony P]

I think the next thread should be the party at the Iron Angels Motor Cycle Club, Vladivostock.


Now, that was hard core!

[Jedi5150]

Originally Posted by Colebatch

Thanks for the incredible ride report Colebatch! What an adventure of a lifetime.

I absolutely loved the pictures of the abandoned city, I enjoy that sort of stuff. What gets me is that while so many pictures in your report look so foreing and remote, others do not. This picture I linked above could have been taken in many placed I've been, ranging from Central California to Southern Alberta or British Columbia. It sort of makes the world feel like a smaller place to realise that a lot of it isn't so different.

[Jorjao]

Fantastic report and great journey guys! Many thanks for sharing it with us! Look forward for your next thread, should be excellent!!

[wamba]

Thank you for the excellent report and pictures. Reading it is not quite as good as being there, but it's the closest I'll probably ever get.

Looks like you got REALLY lucky with the weather.

wamba

[redscare]

I'm sure that for the right price, the captain could have been, ah, persuaded to take on a couple of English stowaways.

Great pictures, I hope to see the area myself someday.