Novosibirsk to Tomsk

“…Today we rode through some new geography in Siberia, from the industrial/military town of Novosibirsk, to the more vibrant Tomsk. Tomsk is one of the oldest towns in Siberia, and is the third largest. It feels young due to growing youth population, yet has history, as a center for gulags during the Soviet era, and is on the trans-Siberian railway, so a lot happens here.

Breakfast was very good and fairly prompt considering the size of our group. I think Svetlana had a lot to do with that, after last night’s disaster, when a lot of us gave up and went to bed before the food was served. She pitched in to help get the plates on the table quickly, allowing the waitress to concentrate on making coffee and bringing the eggs and plates of puff pastry out of the kitchen. In any case, we all made it to the bikes and the orientation meeting by the 8:45 scheduled departure time.

..Today we had to navigate around a herd of cows, now pretty much an every-day occurrence for our group.”

Read the full story by Lee-Ann and David here.

Randy McClanahan wrote: “…Sunset over the Tom River. We are in Tomsk, a city of about 500,000. When the Trans-Siberia Railway passed up this place, it became a college town. Five universities, including a medical school.

Fall has started in Siberia! Lots of rain last night, trees changing, and a nip in the air. We stopped at a small family run cafe for lunch. The man apparently collects old Russian vehicles. Hard not to pull over to take a look, so I guess it is how he attracts customers!”