Ahhh, L'Amour!

Amour! Toujours l'Amour!

Tynda, Amur Oblast, Russian Federation
55° 08′ 132″ N, 124° 43′ 856″ E



219 kms completed since I left Neryungri in Yakutia on Wednesday July 25th.
Pedaled through hard rain, hot sunny afternoons, a few mountain passes,the Evenki village of  Iyengra where I was offered fresh blueberries.
Enjoyed three lovely nights in my tent listening for any potential approaching bears/creatures, met quite a few new intriguing characters on the road, trainspotted countless coal trains, watched large boats zooming by on trailers, passed beautiful landscapes and was photographed in company of more wedding parties. I was also passed by my first cyclist, Sean Hardley, on his long course.


Finally, after having crossed Chukotka, Kamchatka, Magadanskaya, Sakha Republic/Yakutia, I am pleased to say that I have arrived in my 5th Russian province/state: "L'oblast d'Amour" - Amur Oblast.

On my 4th day, I arrived  in Tynda,  the BAM (Baikal-Amur Mainline) Headquarters.
Flanked by low-lying, pine covered hills, Tynda definitely shows off its Soviet roots! It was indeed a shack village before BAM centralised its efforts in this location in 1974.

In Tynda, I took a day off to:
- enjoy a great riverside shashlik diner with my darojnik friends where I learned about the "art of making proper painted road white lines."

- walk and walk around the town, trekking along the river side, the hills and the market where I noticed a large amount of Chinese immigrants coming to sell their entire country in doses of minuscule and larger manufactured goods.

- enjoy the local banya!

I am now planning to depart Tynda as soon as I would have found a way to properly weld back my bike centerstand which fell through in this last section...

Finally, I want to thank my darojnik/road worker friends Igor and Tamara Kovalev who took the time to welcome me so kindly and let me stay in their road-workers base/HQ for the entire weekend!

Poka and yes, let me go through more Amur!

The Big Dummy with a working centerstand!

Camping
 Out of Sight - Out of Mind...

Posing...

Rolling hills and more rolling hills

Boats zooming by!

Sean Hardley on "thelongcourse.com"

Evenki picking blueberries

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Unfortunate truck drivers camping for the night. 

Nature Morte

Coal Trains coming down from Neryungri

Southern Yakut landscape

Approaching Amur Oblast!

Tynda locals washing carpets by the river

Broken center stand which hopefully can be welded back

Mainland Chinese selling mainland bicycles

Soviet proud Tynda

Farewell to my father...

Neryungri, Sakha Republic / Yakutia, Russia
56° 40′ 24″ N, 124° 42′ 51″ E 

I am now back in Russia to continue my human powered expedition, after having taken one month hiatus in France to wish my 77 years old father Henri Kieffer a last farewell after his tragic death on June 19th 2012.

So, after been through a difficult month, to say the least, I am now trying to gather my thoughts so that I can start riding my bicycle southbound later today out of  the southern Sakha/Yakut coal mining town of Neryungri.


Before leaving Neryungri, I want to deeply thank Sasha, Lyuba, Genna and Anna Kudyarov who have been so kind to me, welcoming me in their home and helping me during these difficult times.

I apologize for the delay to anyone I have recently promised to post new Nexus Expeditions pictures and/or related stories. I will post these as soon as I can clearly do so.

For the time being, let me go and ride...

Extrait du journal Andelysien "L'Impartial" - 20 Juin 2012

"Henri,
Mon père, le docteur, le mari, le frère, le beau-père, le beau-frère, le papi, le parrain, l’oncle, le grand oncle, le témoin de mariage, l’ami, le grand ami, le scout, le moujik, le Papa Sum,  le nageur, le skieur, le plongeur, le kayakiste, le pilote d’avion, le pilote de planeur, le capitaine de voilier, l’étudiant en médecine de 3^e cycle,  le voyageur, le croyant, le grand cinéphile, le grand amateur de scrabble et de puzzle, l’avide lecteur,  l’amateur de politiques, le fana du tour de France, le collectionneur de santons, de mignonettes, de livres  et de tant de souvenirs… 

Bref, le bon vivant.

Un homme avec lequel nous avons eu, je pense, tous le plaisir de partager des bon morceaux de vie.
Des moments forts, parfois plein de tendresse et parfois même de foudre slave, mais malgré tout des vrais moments de vie.

Je voudrais que vous en gardiez en vous l’image d’un homme qui avait en lui une énergie et une soif de vie extraordinaire et non celle des dernières années et surtout des derniers mois où il devenait rapidement  l’ombre de lui-même.
Car ça, je sais, il ne le supporterait pas, tout comme il n’a pas pu supporter  de voir son propre feu fuguant s’amoindrir si rapidement. 

J'espère simplement qu'à présent, il puisse trouver la paix et le repos auprès de ses parents, ses frères et soeur, ses amis, et sa première femme Magdeleine."

DK - Les Andelys, Juin 2012