Day 42, June 8 - Ilet River - Yoshkar-Ola

74km - 2658km, overcast 15C, 20km/h tailwind, 0 shots, 0 sauna, 2 Lenin, HC, 8th broken spoke

Woke up to a light drizzle of rain spattering on to my face through the flyless tent (because, the night before, there was no chance of rain). Opened my eyes and saw the millions of mosquito eyes staring back at me (a count which may be correct given my amateur knowledge of mosquito biology). Packed up my bags inside the tent and loitered around not looking forward to the inevitable first unzip of the tent flaps. Barreled out of the tent and packed the bike as quickly as possible and headed out to the highway. En route, I noticed two guys who had sent up a 'Russian fishing camp' the previous evening, consisting of one tent, one huge bonfire, two unused fishing poles, three empty vodka bottles, and two (mosquito-bitten?) sots passed out in the long grass. (I don't think I'd want to see the hunting camps...)

OUt on the highway, I was pleased to notice that I would have a 20km/h tailwind the entire way to Yoshkar-Ola. The quality of the road was excellent, so I was able to average about 32km/h with extended flat segments up to 40km/h (during which, yes, I daydreamed of entering the Tour de France). Reached Y-O just as the rain started, and I texted Katarina (my HC host for a couple days) to arrange a 1500h meeting. Met up and walked over to her flat and had an old-fashioned, pot-of-water-over-the-head shower (because the hot water is shut off 2-3 weeks each June so that the plumbers can update city's infrastructure). After that we walked around town and admired the newly renovated riverbanks and the small but comfortable city center. Not really a tourist center, Y-O is quite a nice place to while away a few days!

We headed back to the flat, stopping for groceries along the way. We cooked up an enormous pasta dinner (yay, no-guilt eating for me!) and then chatted for a little while before Katarina had to finish up her diploma thesis due to a couple of days). Set up my little bed on the back enclosed porch, read for a while, and then fell asleep again listening to tympanic rain drops on the corrugated metal roof.