28 September

Today I woke to the streaming sunlight through the window at around 0300 Moscow, 0900 local time. The scenery was similar to yesterday so I stayed in bed watching the scenery pass by me until at 1000 local time I thought I had better rise. Down to the toilet for a wash and dress, then a cup of tea and some biscuits while reading through the travel for today.
About an hour later Sharon woke, so it was time for another cup of tea and the last of the chocolate Teddy Bears. I have to save the other packet for the return journey.
I finished off my loaf of bread (as it was starting to get stale) and looking forward to a stop in Mogocha to walk around, get some exercise and stock up for the last two days. I was able to query if the stop was ten minutes (in Russian) to our provodnitsa and got the nod, so wandered up the platform. By the time I had looked around a little, there was a call to reboard (accompanied by an urgent wave from our provodnitsa) so, without any shopping, it was straight back on. I had tried to ring Fran, but there was no reply on the home phone. As I boarded, I got a call that stopped after one ring. On the train I called back to find it was Fran’s mobile which had accidentally called me. I told Ashley (who answered) where we were, to hear Fran say she thought I was going to Beijing (well, I am, but via Vladivostock).
According to the train timetable we are running just under an hour late, but according to a book we are on time, so it is a little confusing. The town we stopped in had village hoses to the north and the more substantial city buildings to the south. All the books comment that here it is between 40°C n summer and –60°C in winter. This is supported by snow we saw to the south of the train line and immediately adjacent to it, snow on mountains to the north and ice on the roads (but only in shade). In the train it is a constant 24°C – rather too warm during the middle of the day and definitely too warm overnight.
The trees in general have lost most of their leaves while the few with foliage remaining are a glorious golden colour. Some of the trees have trunks blackened from the cold and from the permafrost. Most of the land is rather like Scandinavia; rock base and a thin layer of soil, so that trees have a very shallow root system. The areas of arable pasture are limited and there are no visible areas of cultivation other than domestic yards. The few pasture areas with hay harvested have only small haystacks and the hay appears to be manually harvested. The only animals visible are cows, goats and horses.
Roads are dirt, very similar to those in rural Australia, even to the gradings piled up at the sides of the roads. One interesting feature is that we have travelled beside a substantial river for nearly an hour to get to Mogocha, yet it doesn’t appear on our maps. The rail line is also quite winding, choosing gentle grades and areas of stable base soil.
In general views today are of sweeping plains or valleys with backdrops of mountains.
We stopped in Amazar at 1015 Moscow (1515 local) time. Although the scheduled stop time is twenty minutes, we were told less than ten. I walked up and down the platform but couldn’t see any sliced bread. I took photos of some of the platform vendors (being a Sunday, families were out in force ad children were selling buckets of berries (presumably their pocket-money) and while the boys and adults didn’t mind being photographed, the girls turned their faces away. And then, before five minutes had elapsed, we were herded back onto the train. Our provodnitsa is determined not to lose us. In the train we waited for nearly five minutes before the announcement and then, a minute after the announcement, we glided out. Having an electric locomotive makes it very quiet, as there is no roar of the diesel generators to power the electric motors as on our diesel-electric locomotives.
After Amazar, the terrain was reputed to become more rugged and roads ceased, but to me the terrain didn’t seem too different and the first thing Sharon saw was a road. The difference was that the river we travelled along was now flowing in the opposite direction to our travel. The sun was very warm through the window when we travelled north-west, as it shone directly in.
We stopped at Yerofey Pavlovich at 1215 Moscow (1815 local) time. Here our provodnitsa gave u and just shrugged when I asked how long. However there were only two women on the platform and two kiosks, so the pickings were going to be lean anyway. I looked up and down, saw nothing particularly interesting so wandered along. I ran into the parents of the “G’day mate” boy who told me he was asleep and was spoken to by another fellow who works at a steel plant and had someone from Italy there (he forgot and thought they were from Australia until a friend reminded him). Then we were asked to get back on the train, so I took the opportunity to ring Fran (who answered). I finished the conversation before the train finally moved out at 1232 (half an hour late, but I expect we will make up time).
After this, it now being 1900 local time, the sun was going down and it was time to tidy up the day (finish up the blog and upload and process all the photos) and then get ready to retire. It’s very tiring, this doing nothing.