I don’t know the exact half way point by road, for the route I’m taking. However, time wise I have reached my half way point. Not because I’ve got half way through my available time, it’s more a case of crossing time zones.

I started my voyage in a distant land at GMT+10. As I head west I cross timezones going towards GMT. (Usually an hour at a time, sometimes 30 minutes). As we entered Kazakhstan yesterday the clocks went back, making local time GMT+5. Half way home!

It’s a good feeling, though it’s also a reminder of how big the world is. At this rate I should be home in 5 hours. (Sort of!)

Just before Omsk we stopped at a motel, around the same time as an Africa Twin pulled in. The rider was French and also looking for a room.

Within minutes we were sharing a room for 4 for a very reasonable price. Taking over dinner, Claude has been on the road for 3 months. He’s a police motorcyclist in France, on his long service leave for 4 months. Lucky chap!

He’s been through southern Europe, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Mongolia and is now working his way home through Russia. He didn’t think going to Kazakhstan was a good idea, nothing to recommend it!

What I found surprising was that I really struggled to speak French with him. I used to be OK with French, but having spoken Russian for so long my recall of French was no good!

It wasn’t a real problem, we got on OK and saw him on his way in the morning. Bon Voyage Claude!

This is a bootleg photo, apologies if it’s not clear. I took it at the border crossing from Kazakhstan back to Russia. I liked the fact that even at the border there’s a sign that says “Good luck”.

If you’re wondering why we were back at the border so quickly, we got stopped by the police just before Petraplovosk. I’d heard stories about travelers being stopped all the time by the police, having to pay bribes before continuing.

In fact I’d heard a lot of stories about KZ from people we’ve met, none of them good! But I didn’t want to form any pre-conceptions. Let’s give the place a fair crack, right?

So the cops are checking documents and asked for insurance. Our Russian insurance didn’t cover us so we had a problem. I said we’d just pay the fine and buy some, but it’s Sunday and nowhere is open. It’s also a bank holiday tomorrow, so we’d have an enforced 3 day layover.

I wasn’t too bothered about that, a bigger problem was that we couldn’t move the bikes until then. We weren’t in a good spot and I was dubious about whether we’d see them again, if we left them there for 3 days!

After a lot of negotiation and haggling, we came to an arrangement. The police would escort us directly out of the country, provided we didn’t stop anywhere. The bonus was we’d cross where we intended, so no back tracking was involved. Sorted!

The police escort was good fun, if a little expensive. I would have liked to at least spent the night there, but from the very little I saw and the great deal I’ve heard – I don’t feel like I’ve missed much!

We arrived at Kazakhstan for the usual border shenanigans. The Russian side was efficient as usual, we got out in no time. No-man’s land was short so up to the Kazakhstan side we went.

Chip had done something to upset the
guard, who wouldn’t stamp his vehicle pass. He wanted 3000 rubles but I haggled him down to 1000. I wasn’t happy and was going to tell the immigration guy inside the building. There was a long queue and we were in there a long time.

I think the guard outside was getting worried about being busted for accepting a bribe. He knew that I knew enough Russian to make the point, so he came inside and asked me to step outside. Returning the money he made out it was a big joke.

It was more like a pain in the bum, but it got Chip his money back. Welcome to Kazakhstan!

There wasn’t a queue to get in, but I took this photo of the queue to get out. Hmm, interesting!

Reaching the Omskaya Oblast was a challenge today. The flat landscape laid the way for a strong cross/head wind, which was against us all day. The headwind component robbing power from the engine and making it physically tough on the neck and shoulders. The crosswind component was the worst though.

Winds crossing from left to right meant riding on a lean to the left. Trucks coming the other way (of which there were many) had their advancing pressure wall blown across my path. The resulting turbulence was extreme and meant 2 hands on the bars at all times.

The road being long, straight and flat meant lots of overtaking, where oncoming cars can be seen a long way off. It’s a recipe for accidents, I’d had to move towards the gutter a few times. My sidestand switch started playing up causing a miss-fire, usually when passing a truck and I needed power the most.

I swiftly dealt with that problem before it killed me! In all it’s petty much just been a day of riding.

This morning we were up early (ish), got packed and away down the road. Novosibirsk is an excellent place, mostly because of the special people we met there. It was good to get a last meal with everyone, I hope I managed to adequately thank them at the end of the night!

Our original plan was to get half way to Omsk and wild camp. I figured 650 km in a day is doable, but not fun. Besides which, we might miss something cool along the way. The locals thought that was a dumb plan.

“Why stop? There is nothing to see, there is nothing. Omsk? 1 day, 1 day. ”

That certainly proved to be correct. The landscape is completely flat and didn’t change for over 500km. Low scrub or sometimes farm fields. But mostly nothing. No rivers, lakes, streams, hills, mountains, valleys. Nothing. I can safely say that at the motel 100km out of Omsk we’ve missed nothing.

I found my sign. Here’s the bike saying goodbye to the Novosibirskaya Oblast. Goodbye my good friends there!

With fresh oil and brake pads, ready for action!

If it’s your last night in Novosibirsk and it’s also a Friday night, then you might as well make it a big one. Right? Wrong! After a succession of big nights, what I needed most was a booze free early night. As it turned out we had a small night out, which by Russian standards is a big night anywhere else!

Yesterday I found a pub that was nice and quiet, with good food. It had a Bavarian feel to it, not Russian at all. At Kiril’s garage I asked Maga if they wanted to join us there for dinner. The idea being I could walk back to the hostel at any time. When I arrived there was a band on and the place was humming.

We ended up at Misha’s flat, which is very nice. He and Yujin had a couple of different flavoured hookas on the go which were great. I’ll have to get one when I get home. No tobacco, it’s more like dried fruit that smokes over ice cooled water. Very nice.

After that we went out to go bowling but everywhere was closed, so we were taken to a night club. Aside from a Turkish prison, it’s probably the last place I wanted to be right then. Night clubs have never really been my thing. Misha obviously had confections as we sent straight in, jumping the queue.

I was handed a beer and stood motionless watching the world go by, until Yujin took pity on me and asked if I wanted to share a taxi home. It was very generous of Misha to get us in, I almost felt guilty about leaving. Almost!

A relatively early night, I was in bed by 3am. This morning I was up early to cook myself a full English breakfast. It’s not something you see here and I just fancied one. The sausages were a bit too German, but otherwise I reckon I made a reasonable job of it.

On the way out of the city we missed the big sign of Novosibirsk as we took the back streets. I’m hoping to catch something to photograph as a momento, but so far today the road has been very plain.