August 13, 2015 Ufa to Magnitogorsk

We received more good news about baby granddaughter Emma - she continues to improve at Seattle Childrens Hospital's NICU.  Grammy and Pop-pop Degenhard arrived in Seattle and will oversee the care of the whole clan - especially making sure Anna gets enough rest.

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We brought the bikes around to the front of the hotel for the morning briefing in Ufa.

As usual, we attracted attention.  The gentleman in the back took several pictures.  As we left, there must have been about a dozen people watching and taking pictures from the front steps of the hotel.

We had a fantastic riding day, partly because after we left the city, there was very little traffic…

…and only slight delays at constructions sites…

…but mostly because today we are headed through the Ural Mountains towards Asia and Eastern Siberia.  The Ural Mountain range runs about 2500 km in length, from the Arctic Ocean in the north, to the Ural River in the south.  It forms a natural boundary between Europe and Asia.  The important thing for any motorcycle rider is that mountains means twisty roads and fun riding.

John and Svetlana

The mountains beckon and John sets a good pace.

We drove alternately through farmlands with haystacks,

villages,

and forests.

We did need to be aware of the livestock that is allowed to roam free even on the highway.

As we climbed higher, (not very high, because the tallest Ural mountain is only about 1200m)  it got colder and we ran into some fog.

A perfect time for a coffee break at this café on the right.

When we came out less than half an hour later, the fog  had disappated, and the rest of our group had caught up.

We took a few moments to explore the roadside stalls.

Svetlana explained the bundle of tree branches are used in their banya, a type of sauna.  They use birch, evergreen or eucalyptus branches to slap against their skin.   The bottles contain aromatic banya oils - mint eucalyptus, or evergreen. The white bottle contains bear fat.  Mixed with milk it is supposedly good for influenza, coughs and colds.   Svetlana was particularly happy to get these products here because of their purity.

After the coffee stop, it was more countryside…

…AND TWISTIES!

We had one more construction delay (really just a slight slow-down for motorcycles, as you can see we just go around),

so we "filtered" to the beginning of the line…

…and were off again.

We noticed that the countryside suddenly looked more dry and browner, so we’re guessing that most of the rain falls west of here.

Soon we rode into Beloretsk for a gas stop.

These are monuments to the steel workers that lived and worked in this town.  The mill was moved to Magnitogorsk, a hundred miles away, in the 1980's.  We will be going through that city tomorrow.  Even the railroad doesn’t come to Beloretsk anymore.

I think all Russian city apartment buildings were designed by the same architect.  They need to start thinking out of the box (literally).

The gas stop was at noon.  We made good time in the morning, covering almost 280 of the 345km (216 miles) we planned for today.  Since we only had another 60 km to go, we decided to ride the rest of the way and have lunch at the hotel.  That gave everyone time to rest and get ready for dinner.

With just 60 km to go, Dave and I struck out on our own.  Really – Dave just wanted to see how fast he could go.  After we got to the hotel, he told me he hit 140mph. 

He did slow down long enough for me to get a good shot of some sunflowers.

We arrived at the hotel shortly after Boz.  He was already helping this couple make their wedding memorable.  Not sure what’s up with the groom’s getup.

Tomorrow we will cross the border into Kazakhstan and end the day in Kostanay City.  It should be a flat, dry day with fast riding pretty much all the way, starting a bit earlier to account for losing another hour (three hours lost in just three days due to time zone shifts), and a longer distance objective than most days, and the potentially long Russia/Kazakhstan border crossing.