Today was a good day. Again I took off ahead of the guys and after around 250kms were covered, I could see a bigger bike with two people on it disappear over the hill. A couple of moments later I was up with it and they caught me in their mirrors and pulled in. I could see that the plate was German and it was an old GS fully loaded. After the helmets came off, we had a chat and identified what each other were up to and where we’d been. They were Kristian and Geza and they too had done the Stan’s and the Pamir and were heading towards Barnaul before going to Mongolia. They asked if I’d met Pavel and Aga and I told them that in a few minutes some Finnish guys and said couple would probably pull up. Sure enough, they did, and they had a reunion and we all chatted a while. This really was a convoy now, but I knew they were good people and the affinity was clear. Kristian’s sarcasm and wit didn’t take long to kick in. After some time, we reached Semey and stopped to get some provisions. We got speaking with some policemen, or rather Pauli got speaking to some Police and as is his way, made best friends with them. They insisted on giving us a police escort out of the city and I’m guessing it made them feel quite important with a convoy of Western bikes behind them. We rode for another couple of hundred kms and found a wonderful place in the woods just to the north of Semey. We had thought about trying to make it to the border, but suspected it would be closed by now, so camping down for the night seemed like the best idea. In a clearing surrounded by trees, we made a brilliant camp and enjoyed some good food and banter together. This really was a brilliant group of folk.
Comments