A Different Light

Cassie:
Today has been very interesting in a great way. Again we've done over double our 200km target but we certainly didn't push ourselves. We're just fortunate that the dirt roads are actually quite good for this section we're on. Camp tonight is on a river at the same spot we camped on our way to Magadan. This morning we woke up at 6.30am, packed up camp and started driving and had breakfast about 50km or so away from where we camped. I think for us it's a relaxing way to start the morning because it's peaceful driving when there's hardly another soul out and about. We haven't done that before on this trip. It's normally how we roll when on a driving holiday in Australia, but because of the extra long daylight hours here it's been throwing us out. Previously during this trip we were getting up at maybe 8am and not driving until maybe 9 - 9.30am. Hopefully we're able to settle into this sort of pattern of getting to sleep earlier and waking up earlier.

On our drive to Magadan we were very nervous about the tyres (understandably given the 5 flats along the way!) and there was a lot of smoke from bushfires in the air, so we really couldn't see the scenery. What a treat the way back from Magadan has been! The smoke has pretty much cleared up, the car has new rubber shoes and with our nervousness dissipating each day as we get closer to being off these sharp-rocked roads we're able to take in the scenery, and what a scenery! I think we reached our beauty saturation point today. I personally couldn't take in anymore beautiful scenery. The mountain passes were spectacular! I'm glad we get to retrace our steps so that we didn't miss out on this.

We went by Kadykchan this morning (please excuse the incorrect translation if it's wrong). We missed it on the way to Magadan because we were focused on getting to Magadan for new tyres and because there were road works that sort of steered us away from the turn off a bit. It's a town that's been abandoned apparently because the heating plant thing failed and it was easier/cheaper for everyone to move on rather than fix the heating in the town. Weird. It's quite a spooky place to be. The mozzies were atrocious there so that stopped us from venturing around for very long but we did walk in to one of the buildings. They're pretty run down, broken windows, roofs breaking away, cracked walls, some buildings sagging. It's a real ghost town. Walking through one of the buildings was eerie and really dark (obviously), and yes Mums, we were careful. It's a sizeable town so would take the better part of a day to walk all the way through it.

Stopping in Ust Nera today was good but strange. We filled up with fuel at the same petrol station we filled up at after Gipetto fixed our tyres. We then called into his little shed to say hello but he was busy in the back and had someone else in the workshop. We were hoping to be able to thank him again but didn't get the chance. So after that, we drove to the cafe where we had lunch that day he helped us. Again, the lady who I spoke to last time didn't seem to recognise me, or perhaps was too shy to say anything, but her daughter recognised me. She was the little girl that we gave the toy echidna to. Perhaps so many travellers come through these parts that they don't seem to think anything of it. We passed two motorcyclists today seemingly on their way to Magadan. We think they had UK plates but aren't certain about that. There were big waves all round as we passed on the road. It's always great to cross paths with other travellers along the way. I feel an instant kinship a
nd what to swap stories and hangout for a bit.

As a funny side note, Graeme and I are totally over people wearing camo, trucks and cars painted camo and people in camo suddenly appearing out of bushes (seriously, that's happened more times than we can remember). No offense to all those who wear camo, we're just over seeing it here. Even little kids dress in camo. Yesterday, after passing a truck coming in the opposite direction there was a total whiteout of dust. Happens often on these dirt roads. Then all of a sudden, out of the dust appears this figure in camo walking ON the road! Don't think our steel bullbar in his back would've tickled. Not sure camo's helping ya there buddy. They wear camo like their lives depend on it at all other costs, when it could seriously do the opposite for them in situations like that. Anyway, gives me a giggle most of the time.

Ok, well I suppose it's back to relaxing, sipping a cup of tea and reading my book. Thanks for the book by the way, Denise - loving it! I've been trying to make it last longer but I'm nearly done reading it. Thankfully I still have that massive book you let me borrow, hopefully it'll last me for the rest of the trip. I should've brought more with me!

By the way, you'll be glad to know Graeme has taken up the duty of washing up again after a day off yesterday. Chris, you deserved the whack to the back of the head for that comment lol. Nice one Beck! ;-)

Graeme:
Truck washing guards on roadside

We've been kickin' back here in our camp that we stopped at probably a week ago. After all the jobs were done, I've been reading my book and just relaxing.The sun just came out in a defiant gesture, followed quickly by rain - how beautiful.
We got some good footage today of the road. The contrast in perspective is amazing. Last time it was all smokey and we so easily drove past one of the most stunning scenes so far. Not just the smoke, but the direction didn't reveal the beauty quite like driving the opposite direction did.

We drove around for ten minutes trying to locate Kadykchan. We did find it, having been tricked by the roadworks last time. It was cool, but sad. Why wasn't it viable to repair? I understand in the middle of winter maybe not possible, but surely everyone would be happy to move back home after a few months? Most of the facilities were modern by Russian standards. Glass bricks lined foyer in the school, huge laundry facilities with newish looking machines. It feels not so much like a wasteland, but just a waste to just discard a whole town. There no doubt will be a lot more to the story that we are unaware.

As Cassie mentioned, arriving at Ust Nera today was a bit of a non-event. I think in some way we expected excited faces, but when we were hardly recognised, it meant we've made less of an impression on them as they did on us. Oh well. I'm sure they see a lot of travellers. That and everyone was busy with other customers today. I am still in awe of Gerrit and Ria's 9 years on the road. Although this travel isn't thattt tiring, I think even one year on the road would melt me mentally. I would miss work and family but perhaps they had 'been there, and done that' and now it was their time.

In the same way the perspective differed with beautiful scenery, ascending a mountain pass today revealed itself as so much more dangerous then it did a week earlier. Smoke easily hid many 500M drops last time. In a thinly forested section, a UAZ utility obviously careered off one of the edges with it's contents strewn down the hill side like a tornado had hit it. Needless to say, when it came to descending the other side, we didn't rely on brakes at any stage. I like how in this country, your safety for the most part is dependent on you. If you trip over, it's your fault for not watching where you were walking. If you drive off a cliff because you were driving too fast - your fault. It certainly makes you slow down as opposed to our 'cotten wool' approach to road safety which results in us all going faster.

The last 50KM of road surface has been terrific - better than the best Australian dirt roads. 100kph easy.
Just as we were pulling off the highway towards our camp spot, we noticed a truck spraying a lot of water. It was like a sideways street sweeper, cleaning the armco railings. Wow - just when you think you've got this place figured out, something smacks you like that. Tomorrow will be a rollercoaster day. Thick with roadworks and pot holes, crossed with the best scenery I think I had ever seen - jeez that's going to be a shame to have to drive it again ;-) We've got roughly 223KM to Kandyga which although sounds quick, will probably be a decent day of driving. We may end up catching the last barge around 9PM if we feel up to it. It's could be a late night as the barge takes just under two hours. Don't expect a blog post if this is the case.

We've really enjoyed the driving and feel like we're getting in the zone. The straight up and driving as soon as we wake up does wonders for our progress and puts us in a relaxed mood for the rest of the day as we've already done half of our quota before breakfast. It hasn't yet, but may also provide opportunity to buy breakfast which might be nice for a change. Well, nice for us, not so much for them as part of the quick launch means we brush our teeth after breakfast, not before. Sorry if that's TMI.

Well, that's about enough from us. I forgot that I wanted to have a go at reassembling some video, meh, it can wait for another day.