I love the internet. I know I’m an IT engineer and (in theory) understand how it all works, but when you add the human element it becomes most powerful. For example, I met a guy at the traffic lights very briefly. Just enjoy time to say hello and toss a card through his window. It was about a week ago, near the border.

He wrote about me on livejournal. (http://moto-ru.livejournal.com/9722850.html). A few people saw that and one of them was Nikolai from Cheboksary. He looked at my live tracking and saw that I was just a day’s ride away, so he got in touch and said “come stay at my place!”.

It was another act of Russian hospitality, very generous and unexpected. I met Nikolai just outside the city in a small village and we rode in together. He turned up on a TRX 850 with no fairing and high bars. I was impressed. The TRX is super light and very narrow with plenty of power. It was supposed to be Yamaha’s answer to Ducati, a cracking bike which for some reason was never they popular. You can pick them up for a good price.

Loose the fairing and add high bars and you’ve got a hooligan tool for city riding. I wish I’d thought of that! In the right hands it would be devastating through the traffic. Nikolai has the right hands and it was a struggle to keep up! As we blasted through the traffic and down some back dirt roads, suddenly I was 19 again in commuting in Birmingham city centre. I was really enjoying the few minutes of madness!

With the bikes securely locked away, we went in to meet Igor and Valya.

I got very lost coming out if Kazan. It started off being the good kind of lost, the sun was out and I was getting a free you of the city by the hand of fate. I knew I’d eventually find the main road to Moscow, so I just watched the world go by.

I saw a sign for Nizhniy Novgorod, my intended stop in a couple of nights so I followed that. As I ran into an industrial estate with no escape, it turned into the annoying kind of lost. I came to the same estate 3 times by following the signs out of the city. I wasn’t impressed!

I’d past a guy on s BMW 650 a few times, going in various directions. I saw him again and I’d obviously been noticed as he flagged me down. He asked where I was going and after a quick chat he said follow me. Cool! I had an escort to the M7.

We went down back streets, closed roads, tram tracks and a footpath. I’d never have found it on my own. Just another example of a bike helping out another biker. We had another quick chat before I left. Thanks Kiril, good luck with your business.

Every city has a Lenin square, the one on Kazan is surrounded by great buildings. Unfortunately someone had parked a dirty motorcycle in front of the main statue.

The museum of Soviet life is conveniently located next to the…..

museum of Irish life!

I decided to head into Kazan in the morning. My phone was out of credit and I needed to top up, I could do with a haircut and I’d heard Kazan is a beautiful place. My phone was sorted from England for me, which was awesome! That was a huge relief.

The haircut I didn’t get round to, but I’m glad I took the detour. Kazan was full of great architecture, statues and churches. Well worth a visit. I’d heard about the museum of soviet life, so I made a point of finding it. It’s a bizarre collection of junk from the past 60 years or so.

What I particularly like about it is the fact you can play with all the stuff. Try on the clothes, play the soviet records on the soviet gramophone etc.. It makes everything that little bit more real. If I had grown up here, it would have been a real trip down memory lane – as was evident by the reaction to the toys by the Russian visitors.

The curator spoke very good English and helped me to understand what a few of the things were. We got talking about where I was from, going to etc.. Before I left I had my picture taken with the staff and some of the visitors.

A very friendly place, well worth a visit!

I stopped not long after at a Guestinitza. I really wanted to camp as the weather was mild, but all the fields were waterlogged. I would have bust out the hammock, but getting the bike to the trees would have been a mammoth effort through the mud. The guestinitza was full, so I tried the one next door. It clearly wasn’t finished, but as I was about to turn around a guy came out.

The usual questions ensured, where are you from? Where are you going? Etc. It turns out the guy was from Armenia and very interested in my trip. I was invited in for tea and biscuits with his room mate, also from Armenia. Gor and Tigran have been working off the roads for two months, they’re lorry drivers. They made sure I had plenty of tea and biscuits!

After a while I decided to push on, but not before they introduced their friend Ulubeg, from Uzbekistan. We had a good chat about cars and roadworks before I could get away. They also gave me two huge packets of biscuits to take with me. Thanks guys!

They may not look it in the photo, but they were very friendly!

I rode quite a long way today. Nearly 600km. It was raining when I got up, so I spent an hour getting my stuff on just right. Heated vest, jacket, trousers and rainproof oversuit. It was worth it as I stayed mostly dry. The heated vest is particularly good. I didn’t really need it, but I wanted to try it out. On the lowest setting it was like sitting in a warm pub. Ace!

Somehow I managed to wander off the main E22 and onto some back roads. I probably followed a sign to Казань (Kazan) that took me onto the old highway. It’ll be interesting to see my track log when I get an internet connection next. It was an interesting diversion, taking me through some twisty roads that were a welcome break from all the long straight roads recently. Back to small villages and wooden huts for a while.

I knew it wasn’t the main route but I wasn’t worried, the signs were pointing me towards Kazan – which is where I was heading. I came across some roadside stalls selling what looked like knitted garments. I stopped for a look and it was all men doing the work, which I thought was a bit strange. I asked one of them what the scarf like items with two handles were. He took one down to show me.

They’re loofas made from recycled plastic. The men were getting strips of colourful plastic and knitting looped mits for the shower. They were really good and if I had the room I’d have bought a couple. The yalso has bunches of the dreaded oak leaves for the Banyas!

I rode and rode, despite the miserable weather. I was just in the mood to watch the world go by, and there wasn’t much to stop for. The autumn colours are just starting to come out, In a few weeks it’ll look spectacular. I found my way down to the main M7, where the 2 lane road opens up and you can get a decent cruising speed.

5 minutes later it was all stop. 2 lanes of queuing traffic. Being on a bike it was no trouble to filter down the centre to the front, where it was apparent a major accident had just taken place. Two unidentifiable vehicles had obviously collided at very high speed.

It was a carnage of wreckage, twisted metal, broken glass, oil, fuel and coolant. 4 bodies strewn in unnatural positions with clothing covering their heads. The police were on scene but no paramedics yet, they had just opened the barrier to make a contraflow so we could get moving. I’m guessing that the occupants of both vehicles were all killed.

As I got moving I pondered life for a while, how easily destroyed, how fragile we are. Within minutes the mad Russian driving brought me back to reality. Even having seen the harrowing aftermath of a crash, it seemed all people wanted to do was make up for lost time! Amazing.

I found the old monument after a bit of searching, in fact I found two! They largest was closed for renovation, repair or just because it’s falling down. There was no sign to say which. The smallest was hidden in some woods.

I wanted to find the one I’ve seen pictures of on the internet, but that may not be in Pervuralsk – the information I have is limited. I figured three monuments was enough, you get the point!

Despite riding life, limb and Anglo-Russian relations for the previous photo, I still wanted to find the original monument. It’s somewhere in a forest near Pervuralsk. So, first stop has to be the town of Pervuralsk. Time to find some locals and ask around.