Riding the BAM Road – Day 3: From some Railway shack to Chara

We woke up once again to an amazing view over a river. After having some coffee and porridge we saddled the horses and headed west along the railway. The first 80 kilometers where pretty easy going. Suddenly the road got really muddy leading through swamps. Because of the recent rain some of the puddles were so deep that the wheels of the bikes where completely underwater – wet feet again yay! In one of these puddles Kate dropped her bike for the first time, luckily without drowning the engine. A couple of water crossings later Kate managed to find the only deep spot in an otherwise shallow puddle and dropped the bike which then pinned her leg to a rock. This left a bleeding wound on Kates leg, but after a short break and some band aids we hit the road again.

A couple of kilometers outside of Khani we met a local on an old 2-stroke. He explained to us that the road to Khani is in very bad shape and we have to ride the embankment. He then waited for us while we finished lunch and showed us the best way. We had to cross a couple of long railway bridges on that stretch, at one of those the bridge itself was in a curve and at the other the railway made a curve just after the bridge, so we where not able to see the trains coming against us at all. Our new friend crossed the bridge first, looked for trains and then waved us over. At the second one he got lucky tough: just as he rode over the bridge a train came around the curve and he just about made it off the bridge. We don’t speak a lot of Russian but it was pretty clear what he had to say when we met him on the other side!

From there on the road improved and the last 100 kilometers into Chara was a well maintained gravel road leading through stunning landscape. The next day we planned on visiting the Chara sands, a small desert surrounded by forest and mountains. As we left town the trail soon changed into a muddy track and before we knew it we were in the middle of mosquito infested swampland. There was just no going further and after dragging our bikes through a couple of hundred meters of swamp while being eaten alive by mosquitoes we had to call it a day and head back into town.