Kosh-Agach to Kamlak to Barnaul 700km 15 hours.

Our arrival at Kosh-Agach

Was accompanied with GPS confusion.

I asked someone,”What is the name of this town?”  Kosh-Agach they said.

We pulled up outside the Octpobok hotel

Mine host was already opening the garage door for us

How could we resist?

On the road in the morning 

Fueled with a breakfast of fried egg and porridge we were

Ready for the amazing scenery of the Altai valley on a clear day.

Mountains reminiscent of the Remarkables 

In Queenstown. 

Wonderful roads to ride.

Birch forests, some conifers

Rivers with rapids, 

Campsites, cabins, in this popular holiday region.

To Kamlak and the Fields of Altai Hotel.

Warm welcome, delicious organic food

And peonies to bless my soul.

On to Barnaul 

Lots of traffic in both directions

It is the beginning of the summer holidays.

We leave the valley

To the wide open steppe with rapeseed canola in flower

And huge fields of wheat and barley. 

And ride into into Barnaul

Capital of Altai Krai

And our home for the next few days.

While we recalibrate after riding alone

In wide open spaces and

While Dick recovers from a volcano in his gut.

It is super to see Zom and Ozzie 

And Joe at our hotel

We are not alone.

We hope to be on the road again 

in a few days when Dick

Is ready for riding duties.

Mine host at Octpobok hotel in Kosh-Agach. Such a friendly welcome and farewell.

Notice about the plague.

This notice is a aiable in Russian and English. We had read about the risk of plague in Mongolia but had not seen any official warnings.

This is an official notice for travellers  in the Altai region. 

The Altai mountains near Kosh-Agach.

Rugged rocks bound the roads in lots of places. This is a modern version of one of the old silk roads.

Kazakhstan with camel products on sale at road side stalls.

There were lots of stalls with honey, mushrooms and forest berries.

Birch trees are abundant. There are some outside our hotel in Barnaul which are six stories tall.

Oksana and Inna at a cafe on the road side. Borscht, coffee and a Nutella filled sweetmeat for lunch. It has just started to rain so we were happy to sit inside until the rain shower passed. 

Young Paulina, aged 16, welcomed us in fluent English to the Fields of Altai hotel. She has already completed one year at university and is planning to study biology from this year.  I enjoyed dinner of chicken, egg pasta,  vegetables and fresh lettuce and home made red currant wine. Next morning breakfast was fried eggs, millet porridge, curd, butter muffins, coffee.

Lovely Paulina with luscious peonies. The garden looked very healthy and lush.

Out of the Altai into the wide open spaces. Rapeseed/canola in flower. Fields as far as the eye can see.


Aaaargh the traffic. Lane splitting by cars. The right hand drive cars driving on the right side of the road are terrifying. They have to pull far out over the centre line to see if there is any oncoming traffic. This looks like there is plenty of space... but not at 100+km/h

Into Barnaul 




To Hotel Barnaul where our suite costs the equivalent of $140NZ - cheaper than the price of a motel anywhere in NZ. It is a very nice place to rest. Especially since Dick is not 100% at the moment.  

Just at the right time!!! Friends turn up. Joe from Kiel, who we met at the border helped me park the bike in the evening. Then Ozzie and Zom touch base. They are in Barnaul. We met them both at the Oasis in Ulan Bataar.  Super friends on the road. They took the southern route in Mongolia but we have enjoyed meeting up with them in various places. 

You can thank Zom - he taught me how to use iMovie.

Ozzie and Zom are on the road from Myanmar to the UK Take a look at Motourlogue.