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De Longest
Often you hear that a waterfall, a bridge or a mountain pass is the highest, a river or boulevard the widest, a road or anything else the longest etc.
There are many examples, like Niagara Falls and Foz de Iquazu, different mountains, the Donau and the Amazone rivers, the Panamerican Highway and the Nullabor.
Although the Pan American Highway longer than 15.000km is and we do not know how long exactly 'the Longest Way' in Russia is, we do know that the Panamerican highway disappears in the Darien Gap in Colombia (where there are no roads), so is not one continuing road. That's why we think to be able to easily state that the road from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok is "THE LONGEST ROAD IN THE BIGGEST COUNTRY OF THE WORLD".
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A bit of history
Espacially during the last century, when Russia was still part of the Soviet Union, the infrastructure (roads) was not seen as something very important. Transport was the domain of the railroad system. Kilometres and kilometres of railway tracks were build towards faraway villages and cities are still supplied by means of the railway.
After more and more Russians could afford to buy (and had time to wait for) a car, more roads were being built in Russia, but not in Siberia and certainly not so very close to the Chinese and Mongolian borders. Although Russia and China were "brothers in ideology" (communism) they did not agree with each others social ideas.
Some border conflicts and wars made that especially the area east of Ulan Ude until Blagoveshensk was occupied by the. military and a 'closed down area'
But times change and so do the relationships between countries. The Soviet Union ceased to exist while Russia (including Siberia still the biggest country in the world) consolidates her power and grows out to be one of the main players in world power and economics.
Also, prestige and
economic interrest make that "Moscow" has more and more attention for the far east of the country. It was about time taht this crisscross of muddy tracks and unfinished bridges were made into one single road; the Trans Siberian route needed to become passable for cars and trucks as well.
Putin ordered for the road to be ready in 2008. We are going to ride it!
The route
We will start in St. Petersburg and head on past Moscow towards, roughly seen, Yekatarinaburg (where the last Tsar was killed) and on to Novosibirsk (a mix of ald and new Soviet styles), Irkutsk and the beautiful lake Baikal. Next stop will be Ulan Ude (her the biggest 'head' (statue) of Lenin still stands tall).
Although in the whole of Russia the Russian language is spoken, we will travel through many different areas, oblasten or provinces or even states (own flag, own language). One is called Baskortostan, one is called Buriatia. Then there is Tartarestan. The further we head east, the less Kaukasian and more Asian the people look.
Past Chita we will start heading into the former closed area. There will be still roadworks going on, because in Russia the roads always need maintenance. The roads will be dirt tracks here but good ones. We do not expect sand pistes.
The wide open grassy landscapes will make the huge scale of Siberia sensible and great. The rolling hills will make the rhytm of our travels, from Chita to Chernochevsk and on towards Skoverodino, Shimanovsk and Blagoveschensk which is only devided from China by a river.
Next stop will be Khabarovsk, from where we'll head south towards Vladivostok.
Vladivostok was once a closed city and a place people feared. The Russian Pacific fleet still has it's port of call here.
We'll ship our bikes by train towards Moscow and return to western Europe going through Belarus and Poland towards Germany and Holland.
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the steepest?
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These plans may change
Just like it is common sense among all world travellers, we choose our destinations, put a red line on the map and organise what needs be organised. But, circumstances may change and we do not want to become slaves of these plans. This means that plans and/or the route may change.
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