Aborting: I never expected it to be this short!
"Kamchatka Peninsula" by Bike and Kayak
Fri 13 Jul 2012 23:33
It's sadly all over: The 'Road of Bone', has beaten me with a surprise 1st minute, first round knockout! I put up a determined fight, if one can call such a short fight determined, but the fact is there was no competition, really.
So what happened?
Well I had a wonderful ferry ride across the Lena, amazing friendly people, all willing to help with loading and off loading my bike, directions to the Kolyma highway, etc. They all thought I was mad, and probably even felt sorry for me...!
The ferry beached on the east bank, a narrow ramp hinged off the bow straight onto the beach sand, river bank. I wheeled the bike cautiously down and looked ahead at the soft sand road disappearing up the hill: That was where I had to head....hmm, ok!
Fired up with the start of my adventure I head off, struggling to get forward momentum in the soft sand, but eventually both feet clipped in, and off I go. Man this is hard work, it's 7pm, but I'm sweating profusely. Much to the annoyance of the 4X4 motorists using the road, I weave from one side to the other searching for the single narrow strip of 'less soft' sand. The road eventually becomes a steep hill and I'm forced 2m into my side of the road to get traction. Motorist loudly protest with their horns, no thought for the challenge I was dealing with. All the time I'm thinking this is just the road down to the ferry, the Kolyma highway won't be like this!
After at least four forced dismounts, I eventually reach the T junction at the top, and my hopes are surprised beyond my wildest expectation: It's the Kolyma and it's even tarred. My positive, "I'll be OK" attitude has paid off...but somehow, I never remember reading about it being tarred at all...oh, well, time and progress, and time to 'milk' it. Excitedly, I crank up through the gears, forget the heat, and we are soon 'cruising' at 28km/h, the 'beloved' trailer doing that speed too, a new speed high for 'it'! I'm passing through the little village of Nizhny Bestgazh, the plan is to try and put 60-80 km's in, as although there isn't 24hr sunlight, there is no darkness time, dawn and dusk overlapping, so I sensed it would be nice an cooler, and hopefully the traffic less.
All too soon the tarred road came to an end, yeah it was only through the village, and the surface reverted back to what I'd had earlier. The road was wider, more traffic, and faster moving, hmmm this is what I had dreaded. I did even move my hopes to thinking, maybe the tar was the norm, and I was just in a section of roadworks..haha!
Well the going was real tough, my heavy 'truck and trailer' digging in, and bringing me to an awkward stop, the moment I moved a cm off the narrow, more stony track that usually could be found on one side of the road. It varied on which side it was, never on both sides, and occasionally disappearing completely. If the bike tilted five degrees of vertical, I could feel me about to lose it from under me. I was forced to switch sides of the road depending where the trail was, and this invariably involved me changing down gears and getting momentum to cross the real soft sand in the middle. All this with traffic coming both ways, creating clouds of sand dust, with the drivers clearly having zero empathy for my struggle...They probably though, any one doing this crazy thing, deserves to die!
I was forced to stop and dismount often to push the bike when pedaling was impossible. I was drenched in sweat, and my mouth and through parched dry from the heat and dust.
There were sections when I managed to create good, stable momentum, but during these times I was astounded at the level of energy it was taking to propel the truck and trailer 'through' the surface. As I realised 'this is IT', 'The Road of Bones', I became increasingly disillusioned, as the reality of my less than 8km/h pace, and the huge energy it was taking, that were both way off my expedition plan. I carried on for an hour, deciding to then set up tent, sleep for 4 hours, and then set off 1am, when it's much cooler, and hopefully virtually no traffic?
As I set up tent, some way off the road, my friends the mozzies were just coming out, but that was the least of my worries! The noise of heavy vehicles rattling themselves to pieces as they approached and then passed by, almost seemed to provide the bonus of a before sleep, nightmare!
It was nice and cool without the tent flysheet, but I felt I was in a special cage within the mozzie section of a zoo, all trying whatever they could to break through my tent net.
1am I was fired up with new motivation, and a plan to cycle through 3 hours no matter what..As I left my camp spot I saw water and a lake through the trees...Ah, filled up my depleted water bottles, and yeah, must remember the spot, water maybe precious.
Well 45 minutes later my positive mind had been beaten by huge knockout blows. The road was even worse as far as soft sand goes, I ended up pushing for hundreds of metres, and at one point there was a deep, really soft sand cavity the width of the road for 75 metres. Vehicles were struggling through this Contrary to what I though, traffic was only marginally less, but now with headlights on, making for an additional 'blinding' element, in the clouds of dust!
It was time to stop, and take some time out to deal with the very sad and disappointing, realities.
I set up tent again, and lay wake, 'wired' off from the whining mozzies thinking of 'what next?'
I knew this was largely unknown bicycling territory, and had used motorcycle blogs as for my info. I should have taken more perspective on their often mentioned: "You need to keep momentum on this surface". I read that as rocky rather than sandy, and that has cost me.
I have cycled on some very challenging terrain and had fun, but the one thing here I have concluded beyond doubt: Cycling and walking the road like I had just been doing was NOT FUN, and no amount of lying to myself could say it ever would be. I remember some tough, soft sand roads in Sudan, but somehow there was an element of fun challenge, that was missing here. Maybe my 'truck and trailer' is just too much, maybe the traffic, maybe the thought of 2000 kms of this, whatever, it wasn't fun, and even the thought of conquering the challenge didn't bubble up FUN. Tough road surfaces where beyond doubt, but this soft sand, road surface is honestly not what I had envisaged, and has caught me ad my heavy, 'truck and trailer', short...
I have contemplated doing just the 400km to the Aldan river crossing, but have concluded that it's not about just doing something, it must be FUN, and even that won't be, this terrain is just not for me and my bike setup, and that is it.
As I said in my last 'Simply Adventure' e-letter, I believe adventures should be Challenging, Rewarding, and Fun. In this case, I have underestimated the challenge, which in its enormity will destroy any chance of FUN. With this adventure's design now fundamentally flawed for me, I have decided to bail out at this early stage, and look positively to my alternative options for the future.
Not being in a particularly good situation right now, assessing these options will take time, and as step one of that process, I have returned too my 1st camp spot close to the lake, and will take a day or two's break here.
I'm sorry that your entertainment has come to such an abrupt end, but that's the risk of extreme adventure. I'll be in communication via e-letter (not this web diary) once things are clearer.
H