July 31

Abe was able to call Esther again. Here's her commentary:

He sounded a bit more upbeat this time, although he’s had a wet few days. I think he found a good place to stay so that made him feel better. He has biked 680 kilometers [410 mile] so far. He could have done more today (Saturday) and gone over 700, but since he had found a decent place to stay and the locals advised not going further as there isn’t much for the next 150 k [90 mile], he decided to put up there for the next two nights. He is taking Sundays off, as is his habit, and it is much more refreshing when you have a roof over your head. Last Sunday he was just in his tent.

He got caught in a rainstorm two nights ago and woke up in the morning with about a liter of water in his tent and everything floating or drenched. There was nothing to do but pack up and go on, so he did and by early afternoon it was hot and sunny again so he stopped and laid everything over the guardrails which were burning hot, of course. He had just laid everything out when suddenly a cloud came over and it just opened up and poured rain! Naturally, all his stuff was drenched again, only worse. All his documents, his Bible, all his clothes, his shoes, everything was totally soaked. There was nothing to do but pack up so and go on, so he did. After a bit the rain lessened and so he stopped and wrung out his socks, went on for another 500 meters, stopped and wrung them out again and so on for a little while—his shoes were just that soaked! He was able to stop at a little café for dinner; but it was sunny and nice out and since he hadn’t made a lot of progress in the morning because of everything being so wet, so he decided to keep going for a few hours. It stays light till about 11pm.

He went about 20 kilometers (roughly two hours) and then it just got dark so quickly that he didn’t have time to stop and find a place for the night. He kept biking in the pitch black, but then had to get off and walk because he just couldn’t see anything. Suddenly the clouds opened and a bit of light came through and there was a bit of a turn off in the road and a bus shelter right there. He felt like the Lord guided him right to it. It was brand new and clean, no one had messed it up and it was enclosed on three sides as well as with a roof. He was able to set up his tent inside by anchoring it to the bench legs and there was just enough room for his tent. No sooner had he gotten it all set up than it began to pour down rain again and poured the whole night through. He said that there was gravel washed across the road in some places. All of his things were still wet, including his mattress and all his clothes. Thankfully his sleeping bag was dry and he has a reflective sheet/mat and blanket that he was able to use on top of the mattress and on top of the sleeping bag, which kept him dry and almost warm enough.

It took him extra long on Saturday morning to pack up, so he didn’t get started till about 11am and around 3pm he reached the little town where he is right now. After talking with some of the local truck drivers he decided to stay in the little hotel place that they have there. There is a banya (sauna type thing) in the room next to his, so there is a hot water pipe going through his room and it is really warm in there, so he is drying out everything he can.

Despite the adventures of the last few days he sounded more upbeat than earlier this week. He has biked one third of the way to Khabarovsk and one quarter of the way to Vladivostok, which he feels good about. He said the road is generally good. It is a three lane highway, always up and down so always a slow lane for trucks, which is good for him of course. It is built like a dam into the mountains. It is generally about one storey up and in some places two, three or once he even went across a place that was about four storeys above the mountainside. There is, thankfully, a guardrail along the side, but one night when he was walking with his bike in the dark he stepped over the guardrail—either to try to find a place to camp or just for safety in case a vehicle came and didn’t see him—unfortunately it was one of the places the road was built up quite steeply and he went sliding right down! His bike caught on the ledge at the top and he was able to hang on to that and climb back up, but he said that without that he didn’t know how he would have gotten back up.

The first few days it was difficult for him to eat very much, I’m sure partly because of the heat, but he said that his appetite has picked up now and he is hoping to be able to eat a little extra today and tomorrow as he is concerned that he hasn’t been eating enough. On top of that, the local drivers tell him that there are no cafés or anything for the next 150 k’s, which is over a day of riding, so he needs to be prepared on Monday and Tuesday for that. Also there is another stretch of gravel coming up. He has hit three or four gravel stretches so far, ranging from seven [4 1/2 mile] to over 20 kilometers [12 mile]. Thankfully he hasn’t fallen so far or injured himself in any other way although he does have blisters on his feet. His knees and feet are holding up pretty good. He is sore, but thinks it is probably from sunburn, although he has tried to use sunscreen as much as possible. His feet were swollen, but after he rested on Wednesday the swelling was completely gone, which he was thankful for.

He will come to the Yakutia Road in a few days and after that it things should slowly start to get easier. Well as far as terrain. He isn’t sure where the highest point of his ride is exactly, but thinks that once he is on the Yakutia road the terrain will gradually go down to the Amur River. It’ll still be uphill a lot, but hopefully less and less, which should make things a little easier for him.

He appreciates everyone’s prayers and said he is reading his Bible a lot and doing a lot of thinking.