Sunday, June 21, 2009

Day 51, June 17 - Tatarskiy Sarsaz - Karabash

150km - 3221km, hot and sunny 36C, moderate headwind, 0 shots, 0 sauna, 0 Lenin, Camping

Awoke to sunny morning without much wind. Ate a few apples for breakfast along with bread and spready cheese, packed up and headed out on the road. The morning had a few hills, but easy enough to ride. Stopped after about 15km at a cafe and had my ritual cutlet with mashed and gravy. Turned more SE and started to head into the Ural foothills, with about +75m elevation gain. Followed a river valley up toward Almetevsk. Sadly the civil engineers here in Russia aren't afraid of going up-gradient, so I had to climb up and down out of each little river and gulley that the road crossed.

Stopped for lunch at ~1400h at a little roadside cafe that was filled up with all the local maintenance works folks. Chatted with them for a bit answering the usual questions, and then watched them bait the youngish waitress (somethings are universal). Rode on for about 30km more until I reached the Almetevsk by-pass road, after which I turned into a nice headwind. Rode on and eventually reached the other side of town, which had a cafe which cheap meat and mashed.

I chatted with a few police officers, who confirmed that there was 'official' camping to be had 30km down the road in Karabash. Intrigued by what an official Russian might be like, I decided to push on. The road turned out to be flat to Karabash, passing by a number of regional oil and gas company headquarters (e.g. TatNeft) along with a number of smallish refineries. I eventually made it to the bend in the road where I saw 'Kemping', so I turned into the gravel complex only to be told that a single room was $15 (shower extra) and that 'Kemping' costs $45, but I would get three beds (WTF?). I explained that I had my tent with me ... but they just laughed. I decided to push on and a few kms later found a road heading off into a farmer's field alongside a smallish river. Found a nice secluded bend in the river, set up camp, squirted myself down to try to have some semblance of clean, and then passed out.

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