-- The road in Siberia towards Novosibirsk
The 16/04, I arrived at Yekaterinburg in the afternoon and I had the surprise to see Michel, Roland and Henriette arrived the day before. We spoke together about the continuation of the trip and our next point of regrouping of the teams. The 17/04, I visited the city under the driving rain. I found without difficulty the cybercafé indicated by Michel. In the afternoon towards 16:00 an abrupt change of temperature transformed the rain into snow. The 18/04, the departure was not without risks, icy road, reduced visibility and other consequences for the truck. Wanting to clean the rear view mirror conducting side, a horrible noise occurred in the door and the window went down only a few centimetres, co-pilot side no movement of the window was possible. The cause should be the blow of cold in accordance with the rain and snow. I drove the day of 19/04 with a partially open window which went down gradually and unrelentingly with the jolts due to state of the road. The evening at the bivouac, I removed the fittings of the door to try to go up the window, which I made with some difficulties and later consequences.
The truck at
7:00
Yekaterinburg
18/04/2006
The road tracklog from
Yekaterinburg to Omsk corresponds to the roadmap except between Isim and
Tjukalinsk. The road is in good condition in spite of the very bad weather and the packages of molten snow and mud received with the
crossings of trucks. The way was made in three days.
Landscape under
snow
road to Tyumen
18/04/2006
The 20/04 at the starting of the truck I noted that the light of alternator charge check remained lit and that the Rev counter was in position zero. Moreover I had the unpleasant surprised to note that the engine brake did not function any more. Of course I consulted the Operator's Manual of the manufacturer which does not give any remedy. I decided despite everything to leave and look for a garage on the road to solve these problems. After several attempts I decided to continue to drive away while waiting for a decent hour to contact UNICAT. Arrived in Omsk, I tried with the assistance of Achim Noack of UNICAT to solve the problem of the alternator charge. After two hours of communications by GSM, we took the decision I continued the road until Novosibirsk by using the batteries of the cell. I reloaded those during the lunch while turning on the Panda Generator for two hours. I drove to Novosibirsk without difficulty. With UNICAT we had already taken an appointment at MAN in Novosibirsk to solve the IKON lock of the door side of co-pilot blocked since the 30/03 .
Overnight carpark
where the incidents were
noted
20/04/2006
The road tracklog from Omsk to Novosibirsk differs from the road of the roadmap until Kargat to follow the same way then. But the state of the roadway is rather different. The first part is in good condition. The second part has degraded sections. The way was made in two days.
Novosibirsk, according to the Lonely Planet guidebook, was founded at the end of the XIXth century and owes its existence with the Trans-Siberian. It is undoubtedly a modern city. We visited it by a heat end of day. My campsite was in front of MAN garage in periphery of the city. I spent Sunday 24/04 there to prepare the updating of this webpage.
MAN garage
Novosibirsk
23/04/2006
The work of the MAN' workmen under the effective direction of the foreman was remarkable. The breakdown came from the fuse #23 deteriorated at the time of the dysfunction of the window lifter of the cabin following the bad climatic conditions. The IKON lock was repaired without more difficulty. The immobilization of the vehicle will have lasted one day. The communication with Alexandre, the foreman, was made by the means of Olga, young and very sympathetic English speaking secretary.
Novosibirsk MAN team
23/04/2006
The following days always were in Siberia and more particularly in Republic of Altay to go to the Russo-Mongolian border. We had two days in advance within the road book.
