I am reporting back. Sorry for not posting for such a long time, I was absorbed by adventures and had only very limited access to internet. But let me share a short resume.
Wow. I am still alive. And happy about that fact. I honestly do have to admit that I might have underestimated the challenges in this stretch.
But let us start in the beginning. I arrived at Lake Baikal in Kultuk, where I managed to get a couchsurfng host. The hosts were super friendly, and took me in even though they already had five couchsurfers. They invidet me to explore the area around the southern tip of Lake Baikal with them and I decided to stay a little longer and accept the offer. We hiked a little into the mountains surrounding Lake Baikal into the Siberian mountain taiga to a road established by Ghengiz Khan, through some of the densest shrubs I have ever been in. And hiked along the old tracks of the circumbaikal railway, where I saw the famous Nerpa, the only freshwater seal in the world. Altough only from distance. In the evenings I got treated to banya, the Russian equivalent of sauna, and equally awesome. Out of sheer luck, one of the hosts was a wielder, and after wielding some finishing touches on the trolley (yes, there is a trolley now), I took my leave after two awesome days, and started freshly on the M55 road around Lake Baikal.
And then hell on wheels started.
First of all it rained. The roadsurface was, as far as existing, ok. The problem was the amount of traffic and the absolutely reckless driving of the Russians. There was just zero space on the road for me. The road was not to broad anyway, but Russians like to overtake, indifferent of the facts if there is any oncoming traffic or if they are driving a huge lory. Which makes them use the very narrow gravel shoulder for driving as well. More than once I had to jump into the ditch to avoid being hit by a car. If you add the fact that arround the smaller citys there is always the chance of having a wild dog charging out of the bushes and trying to snatch a bite of your leg, and some Russian warning signs with bears on them (although I could not tell what the writing said). And uphills between 8% and 12% incline. Damn. All in all it made for a very interesting skateboarding experience.
The trolley did exactly what I expected, namely taking the weigth of the backpack of my shoulders and giving me more freedom to move, but it also added the weigth to the longboard. Pushing a 20kg longboard uphill is simply put exhausting. But it somehow worked. It also made me less agile, which was an unlucky combo with the frequent dodging of cars, dogs and potholes, and lifting the trolley/longboard combo out of the ditch was of limited fun. And a lot slower, I would now usually only be able to cover about 3 to 4km an hour. Which is not enough.
Lake Baikal I only saw in the evenings, as the road is always a little in the backcountry, and trees block the view of the lake. But it was easy enough to skate to the lake and find a spot for camping. You were never alone then, Lake Baikal is a very populat destination for Russian holidays, and they like to camp aswell. Unfortunately, some of the just dont see the point of leaving a clean camping space, and heavy litering was visible quite frequently. But they are very very cordially and hospitable. I would always get invited by Russians to eat and usually to drink with them. And Russian food is quite good, especially the famous smoked omul (fish) and the borscht (soup). Unfortunaley, at one point, one Russian had the glorious idea of trying to rob me at night, while I was in my tent sleeping. Which led to the situation that I woke up when the guy was sneaking up to my tent, could clearly see how he walked around it to the back opening where my stuff was, crouch into the tent, ligth a small lamp and snap open something that made a metalic "click". That moment my heart was beating crazy and I almost couldn't breath. I tried to silently grab my lamp and peppergas to give the guy a piece of my mind, but was not silent enough. He froze. I froze. Then, maybe because of recognizing that I was awake and holding something in my hand, he slowly retreated out of my tent, stood outside for a couple of minutes, then left. You can imagine that I did not sleep very well for the remainder of the night. But I was unharmed and nothing got stolen, so I was lucky.
Two nights later, I was woken up at nigth by a wild dog trying to get in my tent to get the food that I unwisely stored in my tent. That one was easy to scare away, but it destroyed my relaxing attitude towards Lake Baikal. It was just not worth it anymore. I couldn't properly skate the roads, I couldn't sleep relaxing, the nature was not realy pristine anymore and I just didn't fell like sitting the thing out just to have it done. So I decided to abort the Russian leg and hitchhike to Ulan Ude, from where I will continue with the Trans-Siberian railway in direction China.
But it was a very unique experience, very unexpectantly but in the end still very good.
Cheers
Robert
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