runter in die bambuswaelder

tagesprogramm: 7 auf, anziehen, halb acht haferflocken und milch - wir
kaufen jeweils eine ganze box mit 18 packen zu 2dl - 8 aufladen und
abfahrt, ohne psuse voll konzentriert bis 15h15, gepaeck ins zimmer
hochwuchten, die chickenwings vom vortag aufgespart essen und sich das
zweitletzte engl militaressen im wasserkocher waermen, toeffservice
oder reparatur und schon ist abend.


heute von 4000, auf 800m runter, 250km nur runter, durch
einerdbebengebiet von200, strassen noch zerstoert, immer dem fluss
entlang, schlucht, stockdunke tunnels und im letzten abschitt absolut
wahnsinnige truckfahrer, heute war der schwierigste anschnitt
ueberhaupt sind sich alle einig. haben alle halbe stunden die
wahnsinnigsten vorbeigelassen.

roman hatte 11 socken und sieben tshirts an, er wollte nicht mehr
frieren. im hotel war keine saubere socke und kein leibchen mehr im
waeschesack. ab morgen können wir ohne pyjama fahren. nur regen, aber.
warm. zuerst panda, 170km, dann hotel und bootsfahrt zum
riesenbuddha, dessen ohr 8 m misst.

im hochland

wir fahren auf 3000m bis 4000m höhe. schlamm, steil.
rauf und runter, 5 h für 40km. schieben, tragen, knietiefer schlamm.
alle hats umgehauen, knie, fuss, motokoffer, alles ging futsch. wir
sind ok. roman versenkt seinen diesel auf einer abkürzung im bachbett,
6 leute zogen ihn wieder raus, alles kalt, trotzdem haben wir
fürchterlich geschwitzt.

nun in einem tibetanischen dorf mit grossem tempel. erfahren grad,
dass die, die sonst diesen weg nehmen, von pferdebanditen überfallen
werden. wir waren die ersten zwei, welche die falsche abkürzung über
die berge genommen haben, der kanadier, belgier und zwei englaender
haben wir spaeter getroffen. die anderen haben den talweg genommen.

die lokalen moenche und hirten fahren uebrigens auch auf diesen
hochebenen, mit 150er, uns allen um die ohren...

ortsangaben in emails werden nicht gesendet, bilder auch nicht,
deshalb mehr aus Laos.


so dreckig und müde grüssen wir dich, morgen gehts weiter

driving on and offroad

great wall, china

we can't load up pictures. but we are at the very beginning of the grat wall, all bikes running, one not very tight. loosing oil. today two accindents. roman crased with small truck that overtook to his lane in town. i stopped too harsh for chinese biker behind me. damage only to the. other party. long cold days riding through desert, mountains, rarely villages, thousands of windmills. its a national holyday week, many chinese from shahngai with their noble vehicles, polite, speak english and help us where they can.

almaty via kirgistan. russian bearing an local spare parts held. original parts built in an test drive successfull. we are happy. next china.
meest elder people that learnt german in kirgies or mongolian schools. one of them, a geophysics showed us around in his university museum of natural ressources in kasachstan- Lot of gold uranium and rare elements.
as soon as we can upload, you' see pictures of very fiedly open and sharing people we met. they demanded that our fotos be on the web.

Roadies

Local craftmen manufactured needed parts for clutch. Small garage invested one day to assist roman in assembling. He sayed "it is for allah" and only accepted a swiss postcard. He assisted that we tell in switzerland how poeple in shymkent are. We cladly do: They are friendly helpful, simply great! To arrive in shymkent, we needed a truck to drive us over 400km off haevy natural roads-the only one in the south of kasachstan. Local police in aralsk was very helpful. They stopped all truck and insisted to take us and the bikes -most of them were full loaded. After a half a day on the dusty roadside in the sun they were succsesful a driver from turkistan could not decline the 200 dollar. But we had to "buxir" - tow - 160km until he had deposit some of his 30T of potatoes at local merchents. So we spent the evening in a small town and continued 2a.m sleeping in a bumpy trailor between potatoes. 2 days later he invited us to his home in turkistan with wineyards deep fountain and colorful rooms. We left with a melon in the luggage towing another 160km to shymkent only stopped by curiouse engeneers of the south corean company that build the road we are driving on or beside.

break down

0,4mm the reason why we stuck at least 3 days in aktobe. friendly, green, busy town in the middle of a desert like landscape. next town 562 km.
a whole day we searched for a ball bearing, kugellager. the sixth shop had one 20-42-12. big smile. but the box was emoty. three hours an many drives with our very exited grorgiab taxidriver (speaks georgian and kach, little russian, in his morning job he runs a wodka plant) we found in a backyard a specialist. quick buy of for russion bearings. fast back to the service station where we are alowed to store and repair. ... o,4mm. doesn't fit.
saturda evening.  plan A is to tow 2200km to almaty plan B is to tranport bikes with truck. in almaty we will wait for the spare part. plan c we wait for the spare pars in the desert town and plan E is we first try to enlarge a bearing mechanicaly if this will allow transmission from motor to wheel we start if not we take the train. yes ,there is one 40h to almaty. the receptionist knew that there is a rain station but not, where the trains go to. we found out. so our last backup to arrive 21th in almaty is the train.
what happen? I turned around at a dead end of a long highway to enter a muddy road and laid town the bike. the transmission belt broke. the transmission case open we saw that the bearing also was torn in pieces. we had to tow in a acrobatic action over100km. one cycled towed the other. lot of luck- many bumbs loosed and streched the rope and tore the bikes in all directions.
but today is a day off. we will worry on tommorrow. lets discover the town fuerther. we allready knwo the 5d cinema and the scating ring- yes-ice. there is allso a weeding bridge where every 5 minute on.saturday an other couple is fotographed.

Poeple and friends

Fastest way to get in contact with local men is to park the bikes somewhere. Immediately the tecnical interested with cars over 60y.o or 1.2million km - real crackes - gather and discus all details. They dont leave without giving us drink, frutes or advice. Anna and her dad from moskow showed us all around volgograd. I finaly took her on a ride through town and parks.

Boarder crossing: On bothsides ukrainian and russian boarder officials were extreamly helpful and friendly(!) they even faked a forgotten entry paper. Many thanks.

Campsites

We found fantastic campsites. Cooking with fuel give us each evening hot mushed potatoes and soup. Exept at the russian boarder. You should not light the burner in high dry (very dry) grass. Bushfire...

Roads and Roads

Ukraina: Very carefull and friendly drivers on superbe new speedy highways. We rush easely 500km a day. But you can change rapidely the experience if you choose "shortest way" instead of "fastest" in you gps. It leads you through small bumpy dangerous country roads. Trough very small villages. Mostely we drive in idle with our disel engines and only use the gas to grimp out of bomb holes. Haevy stress on material tacho transmission, many screwes, Tool box on the side wrecked. Motorbikes with sidecars are the best transport.