Riders; Russ, Caroline, Phil
Guides; Lev, Nyaz, Leonard, Igor
Introduction
A random google of the internet with “Russia Offroad” brought back an interesting website. We had to go!
After a few emails to Lev, I’d wired the Euro deposit to his German bank
account - the remainder was to be taken in cash (!) to
I’d asked about previous trips, and if he had any feedback or references
from other clients - I was informed that we would be on the first commercial
trip. This could either go really wrong or be a great experience! Of the
numerous friends we told about the trip, we were always conscious to mention
that we had taken into account the risks - just so they could vouch for us when
we appeared as “stupid and naive tourists” if we ran into trouble entering
Russia with a large amount of hard currency to give to a bloke we met of the
internet!!
Lev was always honest and open, and gave us the required tips to get
smoothly through the Russian visa application process. In fact, rather than use
an agency to apply for the visa, I downloaded the visa application forms from
the internet, and sent them off, together with passports and the fee in a
registered Royal Mail envelope.
I also applied to the RAC for Russian translated versions of our driving
licences.
The next hurdle was the vaccinations - we had been advised to get a
vaccination against “ticke bourne
encephalitis”. My local doctor didn’t stock the vaccination, and a search of
several travel clinics in
Getting there
We arrived at Heathrow airport (with pockets stuffed with cash) ready
for check-in. As we had to carry all our riding gear (helmet, boots, body
armour, sleeping bags, etc), our bags were a little on the heavy side - but BA
checked them in without problem. The check-in desk was a little more
interesting - the check-in clerk had to get a second opinion (standard
procedure) to check our visa’s were valid - apparently they have been
threatened with the prospect of turning the aircraft around if a single
passenger had an invalid visa. Scaremongering? Perhaps?
Day 1
After a relatively short 4 hour flight we arrived at
Lev then took us in a taxi to meet up with the other guy on our trip -
Phil. Phil had flown in a day early from
After meeting up, we had our first experience of the Russian Metro -
fantastic. An interesting mix of riches - the stations themselves were dressed
with fantastic artwork, plenty of granite and marble,
and even chandeliers! The entrances were a little more drab
- more reminiscent of the grey, cold-war.
After a bite to eat, we headed off to the train station to board the
overnight train to
The cabin was rather a tight fit for 4 of us, with bags packed full of
riding gear;
The 12 hour train journey was an epic adventure; it was hot and humid,
there were no windows or doors that could be opened, so the only thing to do
was to sit quietly, and drink beer!
Day 2
We arrived at Kazan at 8am, met up with Nyaz and then headed off to the hotel, passing the White
Kremlin and contrasting communist-era apartments on the way;
Once at the hotel, it was now the time to handover the cash to Lev. He
then disappeared for the day, and left us with Nyaz for a tour of the White Kremlin and possibly the best
built indoor karting circuit I have ever seen. In the
Day 3
The next morning we were set for a long drive (750 Miles) in a squashed
Mercedes Vito van (7 people plus luggage) to Krasnousolsk.
I imagined the drive would take all day - and it did around 12 hours!
The drive did take in some interesting driving habits;
An excellent lunch of Shaslik at a café was a
welcome break to the hot and bouncy journey (it also introduced us to the
Russian character set - you can see the words Café and Bar in the picture);
The journey continued east, passed fields of Nodding Donkeys;
Finally, we arrived at our destination - a Soviet style healthcare
centre (like a Russian Butlins holiday camp)
Day 4 Krasnousolsk
to Usyan
Today was our first taste of Russian offroad.
It was also the first taste of our leisurely departures. The KTM’s looked great - all shiny and new, they hadn’t even
been run in. The Uaz support truck was a little
older…
We soon hit the road (offroad in the
Passing through our first Russian village, we headed for the high ground
to get a better view;
and caused a stir with locals
The trail became more interesting as we headed into a forest. We were
following old military maps which determined where the roads were (were as in, were
in 1945!)
Another village, and we stopped to quickly verify directions - this was
to become a frequent occurrence, as the maps were inaccurate, and it transpired
later that we were the first group to ride the route. Lev and the guys had been
through the area before to check the towns and the accommodation, but had not
ridden the actual route;
The trail become more challenging - it became apparent that rather than
be the poorest riders on the tour, we were actually rather better than the
guide Lev.
Lev had hardly ridden offroad before, so hats
off to the guy for not only leading the group, but also for setting up the
company.
We were having great fun;
Each of these trails seemed to link villages;
At this village we met up with some locals who were busy chopping planks
out of a tree trunk;
Whilst passing through the next village, we stopped by a well to fill
our water bottles, and Phil made friends with one of the villagers - he seemed
a little inebriated.
This particular village contained an abandoned Stalinst
Collective Farm;
We were now not too far from the arranged campsite for the evening. We
made several attempts to use the cell phones to call the Uaz
support truck - no luck. After some confusion as to where exactly we were meant
to meet the truck - the campsite or the village, we headed to the campsite.
The campsite was rather mosquito infested, so instead of getting bitten
to death we opted for a swim in the lake. The truck had still not arrived by
Caroline and I kept the mosquitoes at bay by wearing our waterproofs,
and getting as close to the fire as possible. Phil remained in full riding
gear.
It was now dark, and there was still no sign of the truck. Lev continued
to try the cell phone, and the radio, but to no avail.
At one stage, frustrated at continually shouting ‘Nyaz,
Nyaz, do you copy, Over’ (in Russian), he dropped the
radio, cupped his hands and yelled across the lake. Someone (not Nyaz) responded J
Eventually, at
Nyaz and Igor had had their own adventures in the
truck - the alternator had kept failing, and at one stage, the radiator fired
the cap off, spraying the interior of the cab with hot coolant.
The tents were then erected in double quick time (by torch light,
reading the instructions as we went (I think the vodka helped the tent
erection)!), and the guys started cooking dinner.
Day 5 Usyan
to Abaskovo
The campsite;
Lev and the guys had a lot to catch up on - working out the route for
the day, where to meet, relax, swim, smoke cigarettes, etc. Whilst we got itchy
feet so followed Phil to investigate the area;
Finally, after a late breakfast, we left camp around
The trail turned off into some local villages, where we stopped to
confirm directions;
It took us a little time to find the support truck for lunch - they had
found a little secluded spot by a river for lunch. The cell phone and radio
failed, but luckily non-locals attract attention in these small villages, and
sure enough, someone had spotted the Uaz head down to
the river.
After a lunch of Hot Spam sandwiches, we returned to the village;
Then it was several miles of meadows to the next villages, and fields
holding horses (food or labour?)
After a late start, we arrived rather late at our overnight
accommodation, but luckily they had kept the restaurant open for us.
The accommodation was a great cabin/hotel complex in one of the famous
Ski Resorts - Putin ski’s here;
Day 6 Abaskovo
to Orlovka
Today we were informed that it would be a late start (around
After lunch, we headed off on the bikes. Lev was a brilliant planner -
he timed it perfectly to meet up with a train J
More similar trails to the previous days took us to another interesting
village where we stopped and attempted to get some chickens for dinner.
We stopped on the village high street, and whilst Lev disappeared off to
try to persuade a villager to kill a couple of chickens for dinner. This was
pretty interesting; the villagers keep chickens for eggs and presumably also
for food - so there was no issue to kill and dress them for us. Lev told us
that a chicken from the supermarket was 200 roubles, and that the average
monthly wage in this area was 1000 roubles, he also mentioned that the tour
would be returning through the village in the future, and offered 2000 roubles
for 2 chickens. So, 1 months wages per chicken for an
hours work, and the possibility of a repeat order. The response - they couldn’t
really be bothered! After a bit of persuasion they agreed. They also gave us
some eggs, and fermented horse milk (yuk), and let us
wonder around the yard, and even attempt to milk a horse!!
With the chickens loaded into our rucksacks, we headed back onto the trail, and onto the campsite for the evening.
We arrived at the campsite, beside a beautiful lake, just in time to see
the huge black clouds approaching. The key now was to get the tents up as quick
as possible before the heavens opened.
The reward, for getting the tents up, and a tonic to warm us up - a
vodka, of course;
Once the rain had dispersed, it was time to clean the bikes, and get the
chickens cooking on the fire.
For those wondering how the chicken tasted?
Well, we huddled in the tent together, downing vodka and shivering when
the chicken was finally presented - we were starving. One by one we all delved
in; and silence. It tasted good, but there was something not quite right.
Eventually the silence was broken by Nyaz - “Rubber
Chicken” he stated. He was right - the chicken was tough as old boots.
Day 7 Orlovka
to Absaskovo
Leaving the campsite, it started raining almost immediately, which made
the mud sticky and very slippery at the same time (if that makes sense) - fun
to ride. Very early on we met up with some cows who were vying for trail
ownership;
Within a very short distance of this photograph, we ran into a little
issue. We were riding at a relatively slow speed (30mph or so), just off the
trail in the long grass when Phil discovered a boulder! This threw him over the
handlebars (in itself ok), but unfortunately the bike flipped over and landed
on his back. Now, if you remember, Phil’s luggage had been taken on a different
vacation by AeroFlot, and he had had to buy new
riding gear (but not a back protector).
With damage to his back and ribs, we decided we needed to find a local
hospital - problem was, we were in the middle of the Russian Ural mountains. And it was pissing down.
With Phil mounted on his bike, we rode to the nearest village, which luckily
had a hospital;
Phil was seen by numerous nurses all of which could do very little other
than strap him up - we knew this - what we wanted was an x-ray to check out the
damage. The hospital staff were great, ignoring the
fact that they now had 4 dripping wet muddy bikers in the corridor next to the
treatment room, they organised an ambulance to take Phil to the larger town
hospital.
The ambulance (below) set off, bumping down the potholed road, but first
it had to stop off in the village to get a couple of things (!) Not sure what,
but at one stage we were parked on the drivers driveway to his house, whilst he
went into the house to retrieve something !
Anyway, once everything was sorted, we bumped off down the road towards
the hospital, parking up at the accident & emergency entrance;
The hospital staff were fantastic, they saw us
very promptly, and x-rayed Phil - deciding there was no real damage - just bad
bruising.
With the prospect of another night in the tents, we decided it would be
much nicer to spend the night in a proper bed - so headed back by road to the Abaskovo ski resort.
Day 8 Absaskovo
to Zyratkul
So, now we were down to 4 riders. Phil was to travel in the Uaz with Nyaz, and Igor (who had
been the Uaz driver, but as he had a bike licence)
rode Phil’s bike behind the Uaz.
To catch back up with the trail, and put us back on track, we hit some
fast roads;
It was interesting to be riding through some larger towns (cities?);
I found it particularly interesting that the towns had mains gas - piped
above ground (!) you can see the silver gas pipe below;
Just outside the town, transport was as mixed as ever;
As we were riding down the main road out of the city, we came across a
local fete, so we parked up.
The local police were in the car park, and were more than happy to stand
by the bikes and keep an eye on them.
We had a wander around the fete - had a look at groups of schoolgirls
performing a traditional dance, and the boys were getting involved in some sort
of wrestling.
There were also a number of food tents (the circular ones in the above
photo). At the first tent, the ladies came out and offered us some
wild-strawberry cakes (yum) and some horse sausage (yuk).
The horse sausage was sliced into 10cm thick slices, and was half meat and half
horse fat. It didn’t look very appetising - but we had already attracted a lot
of attention, and now had quite a large crowd gathered around. Eyes and cameras
were starting to invade our personal space, and I still had a horse sausage in
my hand. Only one thing for it - I popped it in my mouth. After one chew, I
knew that it either had to be swallowed before the 3rd chew, or it
would be involuntarily projected out! Luckily it didn’t come out
!
At the next tent we were invited in to share lunch. This tent contained
the local mayor from the City we had just left (below in spectacles). He spoke
some English and was very welcoming and friendly.
Lunch consisted of Horse Noodle soup - which was actually very nice,
some more horse sausage (which I expertly avoided), chicken legs from the
world’s most athletic chicken. All washed down with fermented horse milk and vodka !
Suitably filled, we left the tent, and headed for the bikes. By now the
local television crew had appeared, and a crowd had gathered;
I was persuaded to perform some wheelies and jumps for the TV cameras -
I attempted to oblige!
Back on the trail once more, we passed through a timber yard;
The trails then became more fun - trees down, bridges out, and mud
holes. Here Caroline is being helped out of one by Leonard
Below Leonard lifts a tree to allow Lev through - this was a diversion
because a bridge was out;
The forest then became more and more dense, prompting the occasional
u-turn;
This section of the ride was proving to be quite troublesome - more
u-turns and collapsed bridges meant we were running low on fuel;
After several miles on very overgrown trails, we eventually came out
into a clearing;
The clearing offered some hope - the GPS showed that the next village
was straight ahead - but there was no trail, just taiga.
The clearing had been made for electricity pylons, which we assumed
powered the next village - the only problem was that none of the pylons carried
any electricity cables! The bikes were all low on fuel,
in fact they were all on reserve. On the KTM’s
reserve must only hold a couple of litres - so 20 miles if we were lucky.
We tried the cell phone, the satellite phone and the radio. Nothing!
So, the only option was to continue along the clearing, looking out for
a trail that headed in the right direction. There were no vehicle tracks on any
of the trails - so no hints as to which direction may be best to go. After 10
or so miles we eventually came to a village - a few wooden houses, and not a lot
else - certainly we couldn’t see any people.
Lev knocked on the door of the first house, and luckily someone
answered, he indicated that a road was several miles ahead, and that there was
some fuel available there. So we continued, until we finally found the fuel
station. Hoorah - but they only sold low octane fuel.
A few more miles along the road, and it was now
dark! We continued as the road turned to gravel trail, and the KTM headlights
could just about pick out the road ahead. It was very late, when the 4 of us
turned up at the accommodation - wet and cold, but very glad of being somewhere
dry and warm. By this time we had renamed their company from Russia Offroad to Russia Nocturnal!
After a quick shower, we headed off to the banya
for beer, vodka, food and sauna - fantastic.
Day 9 Zyratkul
to
Next morning we started the whole thing over - back on the bikes, in the
rain. The trail out of Zyratkul (EkoPark)
was wet and muddy;
Lev managed to find a KTM sized puddle, which required a bit of
manhandling to extract the bike;
We continued along the muddy, puddle filled track for a couple more
hours, coming across these guys towing out of the forest;
We were soon to exit the national park, and approached a small
settlement close to the park entrance;
A lady (the park warden) ran out into the road to stop us to ensure that
we had park passes for the bikes - we did, but they were for the previous day.
She obviously took pity on the 4 drenched muddy bikes she saw, as she allowed
us to shelter under her porch, whilst she showed us photographs from the park,
and gave us fresh (cows) milk - which was fab.
With renewed energy, we sloshed onwards - another bridge confronted us -
this one wasn’t out, but it didn’t look like it would be long before it was. So
we took the “walk with the bike running” option;
Unfortunately, we had to cross this bridge twice, as a little later
there was a massive, impassable bridge out.
Good news for us, though as the new trail then crossed a glacial rock
fall;
The trail then turned back into the woods, and some well marked and wide
trails - but very heavily rutted with huge ruts - presumably made by the large
all wheel drive logging trucks. These ruts turned into large bombholes filled with water. Leonard took a novel full
throttle kamikaze approach to traversing the flooded bombholes
- bouncing across and through with an almost out of control style J
Out of the woods and we got to the proposed meeting point with the
truck;
We again tried the cell phones and radio to contact the Uaz - but nothing. Soaking wet and muddy we then trekked
through the closest village a couple of times, until we by chance came across
some locals who had seen the Uaz and the distinctive
orange KTM ridden by Igor. They indicated that it had gone down one of the
logging roads. We headed off in the direction and spotted a faint plume of
smoke off the trail. There, thankfully was the Uaz,
Phil, Nyaz and Igor!
After a very welcome vodka, we quickly started
a fire, changed out of our wet clothes and attempted to start drying them;
After a most welcome dinner with (you guessed it) vodka, we attempted to
get some sleep.
The next morning, the clothes were still drying;
Although, one or two items got a little too dry;
Day 10
The next day we set off, for the final day of riding, and quickly the
deep rutted trails reappeared;
We continued for several more miles, the rain getting heavier all the
time. We crossed several rivers where the bridge was out, until we reached this
one;
It was too wide and deep to cross, so we reluctantly turned around and
retraced our steps all the way back to the camp, and headed off by road to the
over night stop at Asha. This section of road was
probably the most dangerous of the lot - it was apparently one of the main
roads east. It was raining very heavily, the road flooded, and the quickest
thing on the roads was huge articulated lorries !
Eventually we pulled into Asha (another ski
resort);
After changing and getting the clothes out to dry we luxuriated in the banya (sauna) with vodka, beer, food, a birching and a
freezing cold dip in the river outside!
Day 11 Asha
Today was a rest day, a day to relax, get the
bikes loaded.
We headed off for a walk into town with Nyaz
to get some groceries for dinner. The locals showed the way to town;
The town was fairly large and fairly industrial;
But on the outskirts there was still no running water - so it has to be
winched out of the well;
We quickly located the grocery store (after firstly finding one that was
very closed);
Loaded with food, we returned for the 2 hour walk back to the ski
resort.
It was also the chance to explore the ski resort.
First the ice rink;
The view of the resort (you can just see the silver ski lift to the right,
by the electricity pole)
We had a quick check of the piste map;
Then headed off up the piste;
The view from the top was great;
After the fun on the slopes, Caroline and I decided to head back to
town, on the bikes this time! The only way we knew to the shop was the route we
walked, so we took the bikes over the footbridge;
Back at the ski resort, we had been told that the power would be turned
off at
Day 12 Asha
to
By morning, the power had still not returned, to be fair they never said
they were going to turn it back on, I guess we had just assumed they would! So we
had breakfast and headed off in the Uaz for
The flight out of
The trolley-dolly came through the aisle offering food and drinks, but
unlike most airlines the wine bottles were 1 litre glass bottles, and were
stored on the top of the trolley. The trolley had a small rail about an inch
high around the top to stabilise cartons and such like. Whilst next to Phil,
she moved the trolley forward and caught a seat, with which an open bottle of
white wine fell backwards off the trolley, and squarely on Phils
lap - drenching him in wine. With a
fit of giggles she removed the bottle, put it back on the trolley, and headed
off to the stewardess telephone and giggled to her colleagues. On her return to
the trolley, she attempted a second manoeuvre and again the wine bottle fell,
and again the open bottle fell on Phil giving him a second drenching J
After a relatively event free second half of the flight - we landed
successfully at
At
Day 13
A day and a half sight seeing in
Day 14 Back to
The final memory of
As we are taxiing to the runway at