After a slow start to the day, we met up with Mikhail for a tour of the city. The weather was miserable and I was glad we weren’t riding anywhere. We started off with this small monument, located at the centre of the Russian empire as was in 1913. It has been destroyed and rebuilt since then.

After that we took a trip to Lenin square to say hello to Lenin. Most cities have a Lenin square and Novosibirsk is no exception. We did a bit of window shopping before coffee, which I really needed!

Having spent most of the day moping around with a hangover, by 8pm I was almost feeling normal again. We were just thinking about what we should do for dinner when the phone rang. It was Yujin, would we like to come round for dinner? Of course!

We stopped at the bottle shop for a couple of nice bottles as gifts, then waited for our host to arrive. He’d bought a huge smoked goose and a Turkey from the countryside. We had Georgian soup and cold meats before we hacked into the birds, delicious!

It was good to meet the family, Irine, Roman, Max and Alice. Misha bought his family round too. A great evening, thanks guys.

Ken’s shock hasn’t arrived yet, so we’re going to have a look around the city. I might see if I can pick up some oil and get an oil change in too. It’ll be good to drop the oil that’s been round Mongolia, if it’s like everything else it’ll be full of dust!

One of the Russian traditions I’d been wanting to try for a while is a visit to the баня (Banya). It’s a Russian version of a sauna, where you wear silly hats and get beaten with oak vines. (It’s actually a lot better than it sounds!)

The problem with this kind of thing is that you can’t just wander up to the nearest баня and go in. I had no idea what to do, how it works or what the баня etiquette is. Making a faux pas whilst naked generally makes things worse!

Parked up in Novosibirsk, we left Ken with the bikes while Chip and I set off to find the most hidden hostel in the city. The stop house hostel is in a tower block on the second floor, round the back with no signs. You have to get past the female security guard who looks like the woman from the old Bond movies, but once you’re in it’s great.

Anyway, I digress. Back at the bikes Ken had attracted a couple of passing goldwing riders who stopped to say hello. Mikhail and Yujin were interested in our travels and invited us out……. To the баня! We weren’t sure what to expect and I think Ken wasn’t too keen, but we went along and it was awesome.

More like a private health club and country club combined, we rented the Moscow room. We started with a few beers while Yujin cooked up a storm on the BBQ. More people arrived, Alex, Kirill, Alex 2 along with Marguerite. The food was great and I’d almost forgotten about the sauna part until the men all got naked save for a loin cloth.

The баня was very hot, until Misha pure poured water on the coals. Then it got really hot! The hats are necessary to stop your ears from scalding. The cold plunge pool was a welcome relief before another round of beers and then back in the баня. Round 2.

I found out that the first round was a gentle break in. The second time I got to lie down and get flayed with the oak bush. It doesn’t hurt, the leaves are soft and they’re also wet. The wet leaves are held over the hot coals before the flaying commences, the effect of which increases your body temperature dramatically.

So lying there I went from “shit it’s hot” to “holy fuck I can’t breathe, I’m going to die here” in a nano second. It’s one of those experiences that’s great once it’s over. We had the traditional 5 rounds of баня, beer and plunge pool before calling it a night. At 5am!

Just another example of Russian hospitality and an amazing experience I’ll never forget. A huge thank you to the Goldwing club of Novosibirsk. This morning my skin feels so fresh, that wretched Mongolian dust has finally been exorcised!

This is one of the coolest don’t drink and drive posters I’ve seen. I thought you might like it too.

As we left the Алтаиский Край the landscape changed, flattening out from mountains to farmland. There was an impressive sign announcing this, but nowhere to take a good photo of it. I saw a sign for a memorial museum, so I pulled in for a look. I think Chip and Ken were keen to keep going, but it was closed anyway. It was a memorial to cosmonaut German Titov, the second person in space.

As I couldn’t go in, I’ll have to give you the Wikipedia version of who he was.

“Titov’s flight finally proved that humans could live and work in space. He was the first person to orbit the Earth multiple times (a total of 17), to spend more than a day in space, to sleep in orbit and to suffer from space sickness. In fact, he also holds the record for being the first person to vomit in space. He was the first to pilot a spaceship personally and he made the first manual photographs from orbit, thus setting a record for modern space photography. He also was the first person to film the Earth using, for ten minutes, a professional quality Konvas-Avtomat movie camera. A month short of 26 years old at launch, he remains the youngest person to fly in space.”

There were no Soyuz rockets for sale.

Almost through the Altai mountains, we camped about 20km south of Бийск (Biysk). Any closer and it would have been too built up, as Ьийск is quite a big place. I found a track running into farmland, with a small patch of grass in the corner of a harvested field. There was a combine harvester in the far corner, which got Ken all excited!

Within minutes of my tent going up a truck came by with the local farmer in. He asked us to move our bikes near to the bushes so he could get his machines past. Ken showed him a picture book of his farm in the US, he was very interested. It’s a great idea for showing people about life at home, I wish I’d thought of one. The farmer told us to have a good rest and was on his way.

I thought that was nice of him. I was just wondering how many farmers in the UK would do the same if you turned up and camped on their field, when he came back again. He’d brought us a jar of home made мёд (honey). It was good stuff too, I haven’t had honey in my porridge for a long time. Any Russian adventure motorcyclists planning to do this in England are going to be disappointed!

Lenny Henry would love it out here, people keep giving me condensed milk. (DCM etc.). I’ve no idea why, but I’m on my third tin now. It’s timed to perfection too, literally the day after I use one I’m given another.

At the wild camp there were a few people upstream from us. They kept themselves to themselves, but after dinner I thought I’d wander up and say hello. They were locals from the local Oblast having a weekend walking around the hills, camping and socialising.

As it turned out they were very friendly, before long we were sitting with them eating our second dinner and pooling our vodka. In the morning they left us since beer and our breakfast. Thanks guys, much appreciated!

(Breakfast actually)

We’d met little Dom going into Mongolia, so it makes perfect sense that we should meet big Dom coming out. He’s an Ozzie pilot flying twin otters when he’s not riding his bike, doing a month about and leaving the bike wherever he gets to.

He saw our camp as he was riding past and called in to say hello. Nice chap. He’s heading to Novosibirsk too, so we may catch up again there. In still amazed at how many people traveling on bikes there are. Awesome!

Are you kidding me? I’ve been to Mongolia mate!